Max Payne
Agent Max Payne saw his family murdered and since then he’s never been the same. He’s become withdrawn and got moved to the police department that handles unsolved crimes in a move that hopefully will bring him towards the killers. When one day a woman is found dead after having visited him, his former partner finds a connection between the woman and his Max’ family. However, before he can talk to Max about it, he gets murdered as well. Max goes out to investigate and with the help of mobster Mona Sax he finds out that everything is connected to a former military soldier who uses some experimental drug. But what he doesn’t know is that some of his friends cannot be trusted…
Sound and Vision:
The image is very dark, almost comic-like, which very much resembles the color palette used in the game this movie is based on. The amount of detail is sufficient and also the special effects are nice to watch. Colors are sporadic and extremely bright, a bit like in Sin City. Compression errors are absent and overall we can only say that this is a good transfer.
The soundtrack does its job nicely with plenty of detail and lots of use of the surround speakers and subwoofer during the action scenes. Nice work!
Extras:
– Audio commentary by director
– Making Of Max Payne
– Alternative and deleted scenes
– Features
Although the extras look thin at first sight, they’re actually pretty interesting and not as standard as on most discs. Definitely worth checking out.
Conclusion:
Max Payne is based on the videogame with the same name and to be honest we have to say it’s one of the best videogame adaptations we’ve seen lately. The atmosphere is right, Mark Wahlberg does an excellent job and the only cast member who seems to be out of place is Mila Kunis from “That 70s Show”. It’s hard to believe in her as a deadly mob killer. The image and sound recreate an atmosphere a lot like that from Sin City but although this film doesn’t manage to reach that level of quality, it does help the atmosphere.
All in all definitely a movie to check out if you’re into games but the general public may find it a bit fragmentaric due to some scenes feeling a bit awkward within the given storyline. The blu-ray contains also a couple of interesting extras that are certainly worth checking out and also the image and sound quality have nothing to complain about.
6.0