Max Payne
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Moore
Produced by	John Moore Scott Faye Julie Yorn
Written by	Screenplay: Beau Thorne Characters: Sam Lake
Starring	Mark Wahlberg Mila Kunis Beau Bridges Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Music by	Marco Beltrami Buck J. Sanders Metsuo[1]
Cinematography	Jonathan Sela
Editing by	Dan Zimmerman
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	Australia: October 16, 2008 North America: October 17, 2008 United Kingdom: November 14, 2008
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000
Gross revenue	$84,151,894[2]
Official website • IMDb • Allmovie

Max Payne is a 2008 American noir action film based on the 2001 Finnish video game of the same name. The film was directed by John Moore and stars Mark Wahlberg in the title role. The film centers on a cop's journey through New York City's criminal underworld as he investigates the deaths of his wife and child. Max Payne was released on October 16, 2008 in Australia,^[3] one day prior to the United States release date.^[4]

[edit] Plot

In New York City, detective Max Payne is a 3 year veteran in the Cold Case unit. He is consumed with investigating and finding the murderer of his wife, Michelle (Marianthi Evans), and daughter. Trevor (Andrew Friedman), Max's snitch, supplies him with information that leads him to three drug addicts in an empty train station. They attempt to hold up Max in a bathroom; instead Max interrogates one of them about his family’s murder, with no results. Next he visits Trevor's apartment where Natasha Sax (Olga Kurylenko) takes an interest in him. Natasha and her sister Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) get into an argument and Natasha disappears. Max goes looking for her near a back room where people are using Valkyr and is silently confronted by Jack Lupino (Amaury Nolasco) but Natasha takes him away. Max noticed Natasha’s tattoos and wants information so he invites her back to his apartment. However, after Natasha tries to seduce him and makes insensitive comments about his wife, Max kicks her out.

The next morning Natasha turns up dead with Max's wallet at the crime scene. Max becomes the prime suspect with his old partner Alex Balder (Donal Logue) on the case. Alone in his office, Alex notices the tattoo on Natasha's arm is similar to one found in the case file of Max's wife. Alex tries to contact Max, but with no luck he quickly leaves for Max's apartment. Max arrives to find the door is ajar and his place a mess with Alex dead inside. Someone attacks Max and knocks him unconscious.

Max wakes up in a hospital beside his father's partner and close friend of the family, B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges). Max decides to pay his respects to Alex but is kicked out by his angry wife, Christa (Nelly Furtado). While being questioned by Internal Affairs officer Jim Bravura (Ludacris) Max storms out and searches Alex's desk, finding Owen Green's name in Natasha's case file. Later, Max is confronted by Mona who assumes Max killed her sister but is persuaded to team up with Max and find the true killer. Max and Mona find Owen Green but can't save him as a winged shadow pulls him out of the building to his death.

Max and Mona visit Natasha's tattoo parlor. The tattoo artist tells them Natasha’s tattoo represents the wings of a Valkyrie which in Norse mythology is for protection in battle. Max takes some of Michelle's belongings out of storage and comes across documents from the Aesir Corporation, the company she worked for. Taking some of the Aesir documents Max meets B.B. at a diner and demands the name of Michelle's old supervisor, Jason Colvin (Chris O'Donnell).

After interrogating Jason, Max learns that Michelle's death had something to do with a government contract to create super soldiers. Few subjects showed results from the addictive drug while the remaining went insane, thus shutting down the project. Jason agrees to testify for protection, but as they try to escape a SWAT team kills Jason. Max escapes the gunfight and shows the video to Mona at her place. It explains the Valkyr project with a testimonial by Jack Lupino where he explains that on the drug he feels invincible with no side effects. Max goes to Jack's hideout, Ragna Rok, and is losing to Jack when B.B. arrives and kills Jack. While escaping Max is knocked unconscious.

B.B. tells Max that he is selling Valkyr and had Michelle killed because she inadvertently came across documents that incriminated him. He plans to drown Max in the river with Valkyr in his pocket, hoping to make it look like a drug-induced suicide. Max escapes before he can be tied to the weight, and jumps into the icy river to avoid being shot. He swims to shore and to prevent hypothermia consumes both vials of Valkyr, transforming into a super soldier with visions of Valkyries. Max follows B.B. back to the Aesir building and confronts him on the building's heliport where he shoots B.B. dead and then is surrounded by the police.

After the film credits Max is shown arriving at a bar where he meets with Mona. She shows him a newspaper article about Aesir's stock prices rising, next to a photo of Aesir CEO Nicole Horne (Kate Burton).

[edit] Production

The 2001 video game Max Payne was optioned by the production company Collision Entertainment to produce a live-action film adaptation. By April 2002, distributors Dimension Films and Abandon Entertainment were attached to the project. Shawn Ryan, the creator of the television series The Shield, was hired to write a script for the planned film.^[5] By June 2005, without production starting, Collision Entertainment had taken the project to 20th Century Fox.^[6] In November 2007, with a script written by Beau Thorne, Fox announced John Moore as the director and Mark Wahlberg as the star in the titular role.^[7]

Filming began in Toronto on March 2, 2008 and wrapped by May 9, 2008.^[8] The film is rated PG-13 in the United States, a departure from the M-rated video game series. Mila Kunis said of the tone-down, "It's incredibly dark. You still get the gist of it. The only difference between R-rated and PG-13 is you might not see as much blood. You might not see blood squirting everywhere, but as far as the sadness and the darkness of it and the distraught [nature] of these human beings is very much captured in the film."^[9]

Though filmed with the intention of receiving a PG-13 rating, Max Payne received an unofficial R rating by the MPAA on September 5th 2008, which resulted in a backlash from Moore.^[10].

On September 22, 2008, a recent trailer confirmed a PG-13 rating, "for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language." ^[11] Director John Moore confirmed in an interview with GameDaily's John Gaudiosi that the film was awarded the PG-13 rating without any major changes being made to the film. Describing the re-editing process Moore stated, "We trimmed some frames more for the sake of trimming frames than anything, but we got the rating without any major changes at all."^[12]

Many months prior to the release of the movie, a draft of the script had been leaked. Though many doubts existed as to the validity of the document, with the release of the Max Payne trailer, which had words exactly matching those of the script, it was accepted that the script was indeed real.

The film was given the 15 rating in the United Kingdom, for "strong violence"^[13] and MA 15+ in Australia for "Frequent violence and drug use"^[14].

[edit] Cast

• Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne, the main protagonist and a cop haunted by the grisly murders of his wife and baby. Armed with a ‘nothing left to lose’ mentality, Max sets out on a course that carries him above the law in his relentless quest to bring justice to the last remaining killer responsible for his shattered life.^[7] While describing his role, Wahlberg has said, "It's probably one of the edgier roles I've played but also the most layered. Here's a very happy guy who worked a dismal job, had a beautiful family. But the beauty in his life was taken away. He just goes on a rampage. It's all driven by emotion."^[15]
• Beau Bridges as B.B. Hensley, a former cop and Max Payne's mentor.^[16] Revealed to be the real antagonist at the climax.
• Mila Kunis as Mona Sax, an assassin and Russian Mob underboss who seeks revenge for the murder of her sister.^[16]
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Jim Bravura, an internal affairs agent.^[17]
• Chris O'Donnell as Jason Colvin, an executive^[18] and Nicole Horne's "right-hand man".^[19]
• Nelly Furtado as Christa Balder, wife of Alex Balder.^[20]
• Kate Burton as Nicole Horne, CEO of Aesir Corporation.^[19]
• Donal Logue as Alex Balder, Max Payne's former partner and best friend.^[3]
• Amaury Nolasco as Jack Lupino, the primary antagonist, mob boss, Former Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps where he became a Valkyr test subject.^[3]
• Olga Kurylenko as Natasha Sax , Mona's sister. ^[21]
• Marianthi Evans as Michelle Payne, Max Payne's late wife.^[22]

[edit] Release

[edit] Critical reception

The film has received negative reviews. The film has a 18% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 117 reviews, and a consensus opinion that "While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and overdirection." ^[23] Another review aggretator, Metacritic, gave the film a 35/100 approval rating based on 25 reviews following under the "generally negative reviews" category. ^[24]

Tom Long noted that the film may be the worst of the year. ^[25] Louise Keller said "the most striking element is the production design..."^[26] Bruce Paterson wrote for the Australian Film Critics Association and Cinephilia that "Mark Wahlberg is terrific in hard-bitten roles", but in a reference to the Valkyries concluded "it could have done with more of the Norse and less of the force."^[27][28] Critic Armond White has defended the film stating that Moore "explores genuine, contemporary anxiety [and that] his images are richer than his plots"^[29].

On IGN Jim Vejvoda said, "It also doesn't help that Wahlberg gives a drab performance..." and "The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better." He stated that gamers will be disappointed when comparing it to the game and even as a revenge film there is not much here^[30]. Despite this mediocre review IGN went on to give Max Payne the "Best Videogame Adaptation" award of 2008.^[31]

Despite negative reviews from critics, Max Payne opened #1 in the box office with $17,639,849 on its first weekend.^[32] As of December 28, the film has grossed $40,656,894 domestically and $43,495,000 internationally making $84,151,894 worldwide. While it is not considered an overwhelming success, it is still around the same range as other video game adaptions such as Hitman, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil. The film also ranks ninth in box-office earnings for video game adaptions.^[33]

[edit] Home Media

The movie shall be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on January 20, 2009. An unrated version of the film has been announced to be released the same day as well.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site and trailer
• Max Payne at Allmovie
• Max Payne at the Internet Movie Database
• Max Payne at Metacritic

• Max Payne at Rotten Tomatoes
• Max Payne at Box Office Mojo