by Peter Shaw, Jr.

Going to the movies is supposed to be a fun thing to do with your friends or a date, and with the price of a ticket these days one would hope it, both the date and the movie, would be a good experience. With the list of movie blockbusters growing longer and longer the choice of which movie to see can be a daunting task. But let me help you cross one movie from off your list.

Max Payne, a movie based on a comic book and video game, generated high hopes for anyone who has read the comics or played the game. With one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars Mark Wahlberg (The Departed and The Italian Job) cast as Max, how could you go wrong? This movie found a way. It was extremely vague in the plot development and if you don’t have any pre-knowledge about Max Payne’s history before viewing the movie, then you are going to find yourself confused, searching for answers, and left in the dark. The back story given in the movie consists of a five minute sequence that doesn’t help develop Max’s character at all nor does it shed light on the story’s point.

As the movie goes on you find that Max is a stern faced, gun wielding, classic reckless cop on a rampage. This makes the movie’s twists and turns that much more predictable, and it continues to fall into the mold of every other rough revenge police officer movie ever spawned from Hollywood’s bottomless pit of copycat ideas.

The whole movie was very poorly made with shadow demons as random hallucinations, and Max Payne being peppered with bullets that seemingly have zero effect on his range of motion or vital organs. The story line in this movie is like trying to find a dime in a dark room. If you liked the last twenty or so movies from this genre, play them over in your head and don’t waste your time with Max Payne.

Buy, rent, or wait five years till it’s a special on TNT. Wait the five years and maybe it will be a better choice for meaningless Thursday night television over the inevitable CSI: Reno. Maybe.