Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Based on a widely popular video game from Rockstar Games, Max Payne the movie involves a bitter DEA agent with a murdered family, trying to stop the plague of murders and death by strange drugs in his city.

As usual, I have not played the video game, just watched the movie, so I’m reporting from that angle only. With that in mind, I actually really enjoyed this movie. Mark Wahlberg is generally a fine actor, whether the movie is big or small, he throws himself into the part whole-heartedly. Mila Kunis, of That 70’s Show fame, stars as Mona Sax, the assassin of the underworld who’s determined to avenge the murder of her sister, somehow involved in this druggie mess. Beau Bridges is in this one too, whether his character is a good guy or not you get to decide for yourself. It was odd to see Bridges through, as he is unfortunately getting on in years and the rest of the cast made him look positively ancient. And then we have the rapper Ludacris as Officer Bravura of the IA, also chasing Max Payne. Ludacris’ acting talents seem okay, but the movie doesn’t give them a whole lot of chance to shine.

So we have a rogue cop chasing down the last few people who were involved in the murder of his wife and kid. So he thinks, right? There’s a pharmaceutical company working on strange chemicals to, shock and surprise, give to the army to make better soldiers. And it turns out these chemicals aren’t good for the soldiers, so they end up going black market and junkies begin dying amid visions of black angels, aka Valkyries. Enter Max Payne, already in the midst of insane revenge for his wife and child, hot on the trail of who he thinks is their murderers, only to find out the plot is much thicker and more painful than that!

A little bit Constantine, a lot like The Punisher, Max Payne is a fine video game turned movie romp!