Friday 7 November 2008

Max Pain

The title above may be the obvious take, but it's a true one. Cutting to the chase: this is a bad movie. I'm not sure if those who played the game love it, but since I haven't, all I can say is: crap!

I'm guessing the script writing went something like: play the game for many, many hours, then write the script from what was remembered. Possibly with an intention to go back and re-edit to ensure it made sense, but if so, that never happened. The disjointed script is what makes it on screen, and we get a very disjointed movie.

There is a plot surrounding drugs, but I'm wondering if the director was on any when he decided that cutting all over the place, never explaining anything, and, most importantly, never actually using any form of lighting was the best idea ever. (Which, for all I know, is an exact replication of what the game was like.)

Marky Mark, in the lead role, embraces his one defining quality: grimminessity. He goes for a dour expression, and lets nothing distract him from the mission of being obsessed and gloomy. The rest of the cast show more expression, although I'm not sure Beau Bridges (great actor that he is) was entirely suitable for his role.

Unfortunately, there can easily be a sequel, but we can only hope the negative reviews kill it dead. Don't bother with this.

[END]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, having played both games which I thoroughly enjoyed (the atmosphere, b-grade film noir, creepiness etc), I did think the movie looked a bit crap. I think the majority of computer game movie tie-ins fail to engage which is a shame. There are some truly brilliant games out there which could make fantastic films, but I doubt we will see many of them!