Max Payne

A.O. Scott of the New York Times is one of several critics who can't figure out what Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, is supposed to be all about. But no matter. "A coherent story would be a lot to ask, and would in any case slow down the movie's rhythm," he writes. Likewise Claudia Puig comments in USA Today: "About the only thing it has going for it is the stylized production design and a few cool special effects, but the story couldn't be more inane nor the characters less credible." In the New York Post, Kyle Smith sums up: "Max Payne has three words on its mind: blam, blam and blam." Sam Adams in the Los Angeles Times is among those who suggest that video games rarely make good cinema launch pads. "Turning video games into movies may be one way for studios to coax teenagers away from their laptops," he observes, "but this time around, the results are miserable, in every sense of the word." And Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune latches onto the obvious pun: "Max Payne," he writes, "offers max pain."

there are no "enemies beyond the natural world" (and I was really looking forward to them)....and the "unthinkable betrayal" has already been used to death in cop fliks....still, payne is enjoyable enough as an action movie that is incessantly being snowed on....some are likely to star it higher....if you dig it that much, you dig it that much....so be it.