Mark Wahlberg's Disappointing Video Game Adaptation Has Some Great Action Sequences

If you came of age in the late 1990s and/or early 2000s, you will almost certainly remember when gaming was good. Long before the days of micro-transactions, DLC, and half-finished video games that need multiple patches to work, we lived through a true golden age wherein the games were fun and innovative, the consoles didn't cost $700, and nobody had to worry about venturing online only to have their self-esteem decimated by a mouthy 12-year-old. Still, while the games were great, the same can't be said for the movie adaptations. Take 2008's "Max Payne," the Mark Wahlberg-led film adaptation of the Xbox classic, which prompted Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News to write, "No amount of generosity could excuse the levels of ineptitude on display here."

Most will likely remember Remedy Entertainment and Rockstar's 2001 third-person shooter for its undeniably awesome bullet-time mechanic (the game debuted amid post-"Matrix" mania) that allowed us to eviscerate enemies in glorious slow-mo. With that in mind, the fact you can't fault Marky Mark's adaptation for its action scenes is surely a major point in its favor. In fact, even some of the critics who detested this otherwise wretched big screen interpretation praised director John Moore for his command of the action. Sure, it's not enough to make "Max Payne" one of the great action movies of the 21st Century. It might not even be enough to make it a passable action film. But it's worth noting for action fans who might be willing to give the movie another chance after a couple decades worth of streaming nonsense.

"Max Payne" is a prime example of how games used to possess a real subversive aura. Though it was developed by Remedy Entertainment, it bears the unmistakable Rockstar stamp, which, to kids of my generation, signaled a game that we almost certainly shouldn't be playing and which would be swiftly tossed out the window, should our parents discover it tucked between "Halo" and "SSX Tricky." Yet, "Max Payne" the movie mostly fails to translate any of that exciting transgressive energy to the big screen. It's action, however, is pretty darn good.

"Max Payne" isn't quite as bad as the 2002 action movie stinker "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" or "Alone in the Dark" (the worst-rated live action video game movie on Metacritic). But its 16% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes speaks for itself. Yet, even that dismal score doesn't convey how intensely critics felt about Mark Wahlberg's portrayal of the titular NYPD detective. Turns out, emulating the thrill of dual-wielding in bullet-time isn't actually as easy as you might think, and critics weren't shy about saying so. In fairness, I'd imagine showing an Xbox to Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times wouldn't exactly prompt an excited reaction. Yet, Andrews somehow embodied the disappointment of a generation when he described the "Max Payne" film adaptation as "a noir action thriller of such scowling, benighted violence that it could send manic depressives over the edge and make newcomers to that condition of us all."

And yet, as Nigel Floyd of Time Out put it, "John Moore directs the hell out of the action." Indeed, Wahlberg's New York City underworld odyssey is punctuated by some outstanding action sequences, one of which was met with approval by multiple users when it recently did the rounds on X/Twitter.

The "Max Payne" clip in question sees Mark Wahlberg's cop battle a SWAT team in a non-descript, "Matrix"-esque office. It prompted such positive X/Twitter reactions as "Extremely entertaining movie, if you watched this for the plot you were an idiot" and "This scene is pretty damn awesome." Indeed, every action sequence in the film feels at least somewhat propulsive, partly because the bullet hits play like mini explosions and John Moore finds a way to have some sort of shrapnel and/or generic paperwork ricocheting during every firefight. Still, how you can make a "Max Payne" movie with barely any bullet-time is beyond me.

The film grossed $87 million at the box office against a $35 budget, which is a financial success for sure. Still, there was no escaping the overwhelming sense of shame that accompanied this movie's release. I'd point to the Golden Raspberry award nominations, but it's long since been time to retire the Razzies. Instead, consider the fact that Scott Miller of 3D Realms — the producer and publisher of the original "Max Payne" video game — essentially disowned the film on social media.

That said, begrudging though it might be, the action's great. There's something in the X/Twitter comment that "even bad movies just looked better compared to most 'good movies' now" ... though, in the interest of our collective mental health, I'm not sure we want to pull at that thread. Look, I'm not saying "Max Payne" is a good movie. But we're in a streaming slop world here, so maybe there's something to this forgotten actioner? 

Though, as one X/Twitter user shrewdly points out, "The entire cultural landscape is so horrid, people are starting to do revisionism on the goddamn 'MAX PAYNE' MOVIE." Touché, stranger.