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Max Payne (PG-13, 2008)

common sense media says

Video game adaptation is bloody but boring.

parents & educators say
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What parents need to know

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.

Positive 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.
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More on Max Payne

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
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?

What's the story?

What's the story?
Based on the 2001 video game, MAX PAYNE follows the titular NYPD cop (Mark Wahlberg) as he hunts down the last of three men who killed his wife and baby son three years ago. Max's quest pulls him into the city's underworld, where a debauched, dangerous crowd is addicted to a new, high-powered street drug. Max soon learns that his wife's old employer, a major pharmaceutical company, may be behind the plague on the streets, as well as his wife's death. Max's search leads him to a glamorous assassin, Mona (Mila Kunis); his father's old NYPD partner, B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges); and Internal Affairs cop Lt. Bravura (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) -- but who are Max's real allies, and who are his enemies?

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 
A bloody yet pale imitation of stylish action films like Sin City and the brilliant action choreography of John Woo, Max Payne is an effects-loaded action film that's surprisingly ineffective. Part of the blame goes to Wahlberg, who seems to only deliver his lines in a low, hunched mumble or a full-throated bellow. Max is avenging his murdered wife and son, but Walhberg never generates any sympathy as Max -- it's one thing to be an anti-hero, but Max is anti-interesting.

The Max Payne video game came out in 2001 -- a lifetime ago in the accelerated timeframe of video games -- and you have to wonder why Fox is striking while the iron is, at best, lukewarm. The action is nothing viewers haven't seen before -- lifted from real action classics like Hard Boiled, Die Hard, and The Killer -- and the bizarre, monster-filled hallucinations endured by the characters who take the experimental drug just make the film feel even more ridiculously over the top. The post-credits scene includes a clear set-up for Max Payne II; the movie before the credits makes that feel more like a threat than a promise.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: John Moore
Cast: Beau Bridges, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run time: 99 minutes
Theatrical release: October 17, 2008
DVD release: January 20, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language.
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This review was written by James Rocchi
 
 

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What parents & educators say

14

Most useful reviews by all members

Bryan 484
teen, 15 years old
13
 
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.
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bradley4846
teen, 17 years old
15
 
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
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vixvis
adult
14
 
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!
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kmichael97
parent of 19 year old
13
 
awesome movie
I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!! it was good but it wasnt bad at all but it was a little too gunny.
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thejokerspencil
parent of and 3 , 11 , 12 , 17 year old
14
 
Hmm So So
I guess you could but don't expect a Constantine.
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-moviemaniac-
adult
15
 
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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Vinchenso
adult
14
 
The game was good but the movie is nothing like the game but good to the people who never played the game
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yugiohsux
teen, 17 years old
10
 
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.
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eastside01
teen, 17 years old
12
 
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.
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erica921
teen, 15 years old
15
 
badass action movie!!!!
badass so awesome 10 really awesome
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