Review: ‘Max Payne’
Review: ‘Max Payne’
In Max Payne, Mark Wahlberg plays a hard boiled cop whose family was brutally killed by a band of street thugs in his home. Embarking on a black ops revenge tour to find the last attacker, Max stumbles onto clues pointing to a pharmaceutical firm. Meanwhile, on the streets, a new drug is beginning to become the hit of every underground party: a blue vial that seemingly gives it’s user a sense of euphoria and erases any sensation of fear. As with any mysterious blue narcotic, side effects include seeing everyone as a shadow demon. (Sweet, sign me up!) After the murder of a club-goer Max was loosely linked to, her sister, Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) –a never really explained Russian mobster– teams up with Max to find out who’s behind the deaths of their loved ones along with the notorious blue vial drug called Valkyr.
While red-eyed flying Valkyries can normally save movies, it almost certainly does not here. Nor do Sin City-esque effects and Mila Kunis speaking fluent Russian while totting a machine gun twice her size (She does). Mr. Wahlberg, who has had some shining performances in films like The Departed and We Own Night, continues a slide which started in The Happening. Cardboard, even for a video game movie, Wahlberg mugs his way through the film, which makes Ms. Kunis (TV’s That ’70s Show, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) look like the only acting heavyweight.
