I don't believe in Heaven. I believe in Pain. I believe in Fear. I believe in Death.

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it I will.

You know what really makes me sad? Movies based on games. Besides Doom there has not been a single good movie that was created from a video game. Its been a long history and the butt of many jokes. For some reason people cant translate a great game into film and give that good feeling you had when you were playing. Max Payne SHOULD have fixed that.

They brought in big actors for the game, used real faces, a big long film noir-esque story, great twists, great action, it was practically begging to be made into a movie. But long after the games had lost their shimmer and shine and people barely remember it they finally decide to release a movie. The movie however lacks all the things the game did right. It has the overall story line in a general sense and they got the visual style and noir feeling...but the big problem was they decided to scrap most of the games actual narrative so they could put in their own narrative mostly focusing on the drug Valkyr and its affects. Now Valkyr was featured in the game but not in the way that the movie displays it. In fact the guy who created the game told people NOT to see this movie at whatever cost and that it shouldnt even be assosciated with the game except by title.

The effects of the drug are actually kind of cool and the distorted effect is good but the rest of the special effects seem cheap in comparison. So its pretty obvious to tell where the entire budget went to: getting the rights, the actors and the Valkyr special effects.

And besides the whole drug PSA thing they got going on in the movie, the acting sucks! Mark Wahlberg is pathetic. He conveys no depth, no emotion, nothing except bitterness. He could care less that his family was murdered and thats really distracting. Sly Stallone has more emotional range in Rambo then Wahlberg has in this entire movie. And bless Mila Kunis for trying but she cannot play serious roles yet. Maybe a few more years under her belt and a little more dramatic training and she can do roles like these but she was really miscast. The only good actor i noticed was Chris O Donnell...but he wasnt in the movie that long. Shame.

Really when I think about this movie it seems like a quick cash in on something we all were expecting to be much better. This is a bad movie and hopefully the Matt Damon and Megan Fox sequel/redo will be much better.

MY VERDICT: ABOMINATION TO CINEMA