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Max Payne

(2008, Rated PG-13, Action/adventure, Starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges)
  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 15, age appropriate for kids over 99; suggested age 15.
  • Is it any good?

    1.0
  • Common Sense says

    Video game adaptation is bloody but boring.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 15–18

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The lead character is motivated by the death of his wife and baby son. A major corporation is involved in bribery, murder, drug trafficking, and other criminal activity. The villain explains how committing murder made him feel liberated, as if all his problems could now be solved by force and will.
  • Violence:

    Constant extreme violence, including shootouts, shootings, knife-fights, and fistfights; blood and dismembered body parts are shown; one sequence shows a close-up of fingernails being torn from the hands of a man at the edge of a building before he falls to his death; shotgun murders, slow-motion bullet entrances and exits, explosions, and more, with dead bodies visible on screen. The closing credits are over a computer-animated collage of guns being shot, reloaded, and so on.
  • Sex:

    Some partial glimpses of naked breasts, panty-clad bottoms, and scantily clad women; indistinct flashes of a sex scene in a flashback. Kissing. An underwear-clad woman writhes on a bed and makes sexual advances, which are rebuffed.
  • Language:

    Strong language, including one non-sexual use of "f--k" also "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "piss," "hell," and more.
  • Consumerism:

    A Macintosh computer is clearly visible.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Characters drink hard liquor, wine, and beer to excess (some also drink more responsibly). A character poses with a cigarette but doesn't smoke it. An experimental military performance-enhancing drug is abused and sold as a street narcotic, with supporting characters suffering fierce cravings for it. The lead character takes two doses of it to rouse himself after a near-drowning, and viewers see his resulting violent hallucinations, including black-winged demonic angel-like beings. A major corporation traffics the drug on the street.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Max Payne

Parents need to know that this video game-based action movie -- which was originally rated R and still feels more like that than a PG-13 -- is extremely violent and loaded with images of characters shooting or being shot. The plot revolves around a major corporation murdering to protect the money it's making after turning a failed military performance-enhancing drug into a street drug. The lead character takes a couple of doses to take advantage of the drug's energizing properties after a near-fatal drowning, so the last 20 minutes of the film are seen, in part, through his hallucinatory perspective. In addition to the constant violence, the movie also has plenty of salty language, sexual content, and drinking.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about why Hollywood turns video games into movies, and whether the (theoretically) interactive experience of playing a game is different from the more passive experience of watching a movie. Does violence impact you in different ways when you're participating in it vs. just watching it? How so? Families can also discuss revenge and vengeance -- movies glamorize them, but are they, in fact, ethical things to pursue when wronged? How else can people seek out justice?

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Our Members Say

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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Parent Reviewer
    I rate this title on for age 13 and give it 5.0

    awesome movie

    I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!! it was good but it wasnt bad at all but it was a little too gunny.

  2. Kid Reviewer Age 12
    Lives in Wisconsin
    I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give it 4.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate language
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Negative role models

    Great Movie. I have not played the games but this movie is great and makes me want to buy it. There is one (kinda) bad sex art where a woman takes off her robe (we see her back and she isn't wearing a bra) she hops in a bed and tries to get Max in there but he refuses.

  3. Kid Reviewer Age 12
    Lives in Wisconsin
    I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give it 4.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate language
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Negative role models

    Great Movie. I have not played the games but this movie is great and makes me want to buy it. There is one (kinda) bad sex art where a woman takes off her robe (we see her back and she isn't wearing a bra) she hops in a bed and tries to get Max in there but he refuses.

  4. Teen Reviewer Age 15
    Lives in Massachusetts
    I rate this title on for age 15 and give it 3.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use

    Ok (Unrated Version)

    Not That Great there is 2 f-words (one with mother) Some spraying blood (not like an r movie) and brief drug use. There is also brief sexuality

  5. Teen Reviewer Age 15
    I rate this title iffy for age 10 and give it 1.0
    My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message

    excessively terrible.

    it's junk. absolute junk. This is the worst movie I've ever seen in theaters in the 5 years I've been reviewing movies.

  6. Teen Reviewer Age 15
    Lives in Utah
    I rate this title on for age 12 and give it 3.0

    Max Payne is better than expected.

    I heared this movie was really awful so i thought i would give it a try and i actually liked it on some standards and Mark Wahlberg is really as Max Payne.

  7. Adult Reviewer
    Lives in Florida
    I rate this title on for age 14 and give it 5.0

    this movi is fan based only

    i am a big maxpayne fan, i own the games and everything, this was a great movie, Mark Wahlberg plays his character well, its exactly like the character in the game. sure its not made comepletely like the game, but it manages to capture the key aspects of it. this is a great movie that should have been released years ago, so dont be fooled by overly criticized ratings of it, this movie does not contain any flashbacks of sex or nude breasts, i own this movie so i know what im talking about. This movie is a little late for its generation but still delivers a nice view, cant wait for the sequel!

  8. Parent Reviewer
    Lives in Massachusetts
    I rate this title on for age 14 and give it 2.0

    Hmm So So

    I guess you could but don't expect a Constantine.

  9. Teen Reviewer Age 17
    I rate this title on for age 15 and give it 4.0

    Woo!

    This movie was really good! I liked the mixed with the real and the imaginary 'angels of death' so you could see it from the perspective of the person who was affected by the drug and from the people who had not taken it. I haven't ever played the game so I don't know how much the movie was like it. I enjoyed the movie but I think it's only suitable for older kids, maybe older than 15.

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