I cannot think of a movie easier to advertise than a hardcore as shit videogame movie starring Mark Wahlberg, in which he plays a hard-boiled disillusioned cop that hunts the prowls the underworld at night, endlessly seeking revenge. How can you go wrong?
Max Payne tries really, really hard to mess it up. Somehow, dark angels and some very solemn expressions get the job done.
The first thing you notice about the movie is that it is depressingly bleak. Everyone is perpetually pissed off, and the sky is overcast and constantly spewing all manner of atmospheric precipitation. (find the pun!) The opening scenes are generally God-awful--I condemned the movie within the first five minutes, with the terribly contrived dialogue, played out by terribly contrived characters within an incredibly cliched precinct. Mark Wahlberg sits behind his desk, brooding under a single lamp in the "cold case" unit (which is aptly labeled with a sign the says "Cold Case Unit"...I wonder if all office labels in a police station are hung like shopping center signs). Marky Mark seems to be saying, "I can't wait to get out of this shithole and kick some ass." The viewer hopes for the same thing.
Lo and behold, next thing we know Marky's framed, standing still, looking down an empty subway terminal, complete with flickering lights, dreary decors, and three strung out, sweaty druggies sitting on a bench. The movie, from then on, kicks in to gear, goes from 6 to 12, and starts busting out everything at its studio approved disposal.
The movie is at its most entertaining when it is completely absurd...the viewer is never quite able to make sense of the events. Valkries fly around and send drug addicts to their deaths, but somehow they're only seen by the ones under the influence, or fiending for their next dose. Then, when the climax is building, and you think that this will be explained, it abandons it and goes for a conventional ending. While this is the most noticable, there are dozens of abandoned plot lines and continuity errors that may be pure screw-ups, but seem as though the film-makers forgot about them and moved on. It's all for the best--if the film lasted five minutes longer, it would've surpassed its barriers of escapism and become pure bombardment of Disney sequel proportions.
Although it's fun, it seems as though every scene has been done before in some form. There are the jump cuts, the yellow-tinged flashbacks, the betrayals, and the eye candy of almost every recent mainstream man-flick (which is what I've taken to calling this sort of movie). Some of it even seems Guy Ritchie-esque, which was just a slap in the face considering RocknRolla was sold out...but I guess it was good to see this first, so that Ritchie's apparent triumphant return will seem all the more victorious and awesome.
There's not much to say about the film, except that it's a good time, and just as fun to make fun of during the most ludicrous sequences. I just wish it had stopped brooding for a minute to laugh at itself.
Suggestions: action movies in general