Latex Movie Review: Max Payne

Max Payne began as a shoot-em-up video game. One of those games with just enough cut scenes to explain the motivation of the game player followed by long levels where the played does nothing but shoot at AI gunmen while collecting ammo and first aid packs. The game had just enough of a plot to make an interesting action movie. But for some reason after buying the rights to a video game that only a few million people ever played, the studio then gutted the plot until it had little to do with the video game. Screenplay writer Beau Thorne keeps the shootouts to a minimum, while adding the addition of winged demon like creatures called Valkyries that only appear to anyone who has taken a drug which is also called Valkyr. While the ending of the movie suggests that the Valkyries are nothing more than hallucinations, two deaths in the first half of the movie could only be explained by the presence of killer demons, in particular the death of Owen Green who is dragged backwards out of a window by a Velkyr, something that could not be explained as a slip or jump because Owen is propelled upwards before being dropped. It as if the movie wants it both ways, with scenes shot in a way where deaths could only be explained by supernatural beings while introducing the explanation of a killer maniac who just happens to be there at the same time the victims are hallucinating.

The movie opens with Max ( Mark Wahlberg ), a former police detective now working at a desk job filing cold case reports in the basement of a police precinct. In a sequence taken from the Death Wish series, Max walks alone in a subway station attracting the attention of three drug addicts with his expensive watch. They follow him into a bathroom intending to rob him when Max is able to give a knock out punch to the one holding a gun, then chases down another one, showing him a picture of a girl and demanding if he knows who she is. After a few minutes of questioning Max realizes that the junkie is not the person he is looking for. Meanwhile one of the other junkies has run out of the bathroom and onto the tracks where he is attacked by shadowy creatures, ending with him being smashed by what looks like an oncoming train. Max goes to a party being held by his snitch to tell him the information he gave him about the junkie was a false lead. There he meets a girl named Natasha who's tattoos interest him. He invites her back to his apartment to question her, but throws her out after she removes her clothes and tries to lure him into bed, making the mistake of deducing that he has recently lost a wife or girlfriend and telling him that she can make him forget that person. While in the alley behind Max's apartment Natasha is chased by the same shadow creatures, this time giving us a better glimpse of them. The next day the police find her body and Max's drivers license in her purse. Max becomes a person of interest in their investigation. As the film progresses we learn that Max's family were all killed during a break in robbery by junkies, Max returned home that day and was able to kill all but one of the intruders, one who slipped out the window before he could see his face. The junkies had the same wing tattoo that Natasha had. The problem is that people with that tattoo who could possibly lead Max to the identity of the intruder who got away are now being killed off by winged demons. Max is soon joined by Natasha's sister Mona ( Mila Kunis ), a gun toting member of the Russian Mafia who is looking for vengeance. Together they uncover the truth behind the drug Valkyr, and discover that what seemed to be a break in by junkies may have really been a hit on his wife for something she knew.

Based on a video game that involves mostly gun fights, there are too few actual shootouts in the movie. You have to wait nearly an hour before the first major gun battle begins, and the movie is only 95 minutes long. Another climatic gun battle ends the movie, along with an explosion that has no reason to be there other than to look cool. Most of the movie is Max's investigation and people being killed by the Valkyries. There is even a surprise extra scene following the closing credits that does nothing but set the movie up for a sequel. The movie disappoints as an action thriller. Instead of attempting to be like John Woo, the producers wanted the movie to be a dark supernatural thriller. But that is all thrown away when in the third act the Valkyries are explained away as hallucinations caused specifically by the drug of the same name. In this case Max Payne disappoints on all levels.

THE SCENE:
Olga Kurylenko had begun her American film career a year earlier in yet another screen adaption of a video game, 2007's Hitman. A few months before her breakthrough role as a Bond girl in Quantum of Solace she landed this small but memorable role as the party girl Natasha who gets herself killed after visiting Max's apartment. She is first seen at 8 minutes wearing a short red satin slip dress with thigh high black boots. While that outfit is memorable, she further adds a black vinyl jacket at 13 minutes. This is seen only briefly as Natasha enters Max's apartment, removes the jacket then dress, and lounges on his bed in just her boots and black panties ( covering her chest with a blanket to give the movie a PG-13 rating ). But at 14 minutes after being thrown out by Max for making fun of his dead wife, Natasha winds up by herself walking down a dark alley with the jacket back on. It is one of those cliche death scenes found in hundreds of horror movies. Natasha is talking to a friend on her cell phone, and when she hangs up she begins to notice shadows on the walls. She sees the Valkyries approaching her and runs off screaming with them in pursuit. Next comes a typical Hollywood stumble that only seems to happen to terrorized women being chased and only exists in the script to allow the killer to catch up. The final image of Natasha is her lying on her back on the ground staring up at the approaching Valkyries and giving of a final terrified scream. And that is the last we see of her. When the police find her the next day her body is scattered in small parts all over the alley with only a tattoo on a severed arm allowing Max to know who the victim was. Lets not forget that Mila Kunis is also in the movie as Natasha's sister Mona. Not given an opportunity to dress up as nice as her sister, she does wear a black coat with some vinyl trim that is first seen at 14 minutes, a black leather coat at 59 minutes, and is wearing some black leather pants beginning at 1 hour 21 minutes. None of these outfits memorable and with most of the film being shot in the dark of night are barely noticeable. She does wear a black dress around 20 minutes into the movie that at first glance looks like leather, but in a later scene turns out to be normal fabric, only having a slight shimmer in the earlier scene due to the lighting.