Max Payne
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 17, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
9
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
A dumb film with a great conceptual hook from a director who visualizes better than he dramatizes. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineCammila Albertson
For a movie of its type, Max Payne is a little short on excitement and heavy on pathos. Read full review
60
Film ThreatMark Bell
Simple, it is as by-the-books formulaic as can be, and there's not a surprise around that the corner that isn't obvious immediately. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The film provides ample opportunity to attack the MPAA's hypocrisy. Max Payne is a bloodbath, yet it manages a PG-13 rating by keeping the explicitness of the killings just a whisker shy of what would be necessary for an R. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Max Payne, game or movie, has precious little to say. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
The attempts to out-Matrix "The Matrix," with bullet-time super-slo mo, are staged with such theatrics that they're unintentionally funny. This movie also has "Blade Runner" on its mind, and Raymond Chandler, but mostly it's a weak little sister to "Sin City." Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
At least in a video game the player decides who needs to be killed, and what trail to take in the labyrinth. The Max Payne moviegoers are passive hostages on a long ride they've taken so many times before. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In a post-Matrix, post-John Woo world, a handful of slow-motion shootouts shouldn't be all that's on offer. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Max’s righteous anger finds various allies and targets, though it is not always clear who is which. They are played by Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges and Ludacris with just enough panache and expressiveness to uphold the (increasingly irrelevant) distinction between a movie and a video game. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A film that feels far too familiar for the likes of Wahlberg to juice up, hallucinatory valkyries or no. Read full review
40
EmpireStaff (Not credited)
This tired, neutered action thriller won't cause you max pain, but you might wince every now and again. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Max Payne couldn't be more appropriately named. Sitting through this stylish-looking but derivative, vacuous and bullet-riddled movie inflicts maximum pain. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
What kills Max Payne is that the characters think and feel in slow motion. Half the time, mentally, they're just running in place. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The best way to sit through Max Payne is by using minimal brain. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A banal revenge melodrama-cum-detective story, but fans of the video game on which it is based should not be alarmed. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin Chang
Stylishly made, armed to the teeth and ludicrous in the extreme. Read full review
30
Washington PostMike Mayo
This highly stylized adaptation of the popular Max Payne video game is 70 percent dark, snowy atmospherics and 30 percent loud, violent action. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyJim Ridley
The role requires Wahlberg to run the gamut of emotions from A to A. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Max Payne offers max pain along with min invention, and the only thing that keeps it out of the bottom of the Dumpster--it’s more of a top-of-the-Dumpster movie--is the presence of Mark Wahlberg. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's just a grindingly inert death-wish thriller. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
With its flat story, numbed-out protagonist, and faux artistic lighting and set design - everything is dark or moody or darkishly moody or moodily dark - Max Payne seems a good half hour longer than its running time. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
This is not a movie that has great passion for pleasures of the flesh. Its sexiest scenes involve bullets cutting through the air in the slowest motion possible. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
If you stay and watch the endless end credits, there's a short scene that hints a sequel is coming. That's what I call real pain. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
Turning video games into movies may be one way for studios to coax teenagers away from their laptops, but this time around, the results are miserable, in every sense of the word. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The story has more holes than a shot-up metal door, the acting feels bored at best, and the intermittent action, while passable, hardly makes up for the downtime. Read full review
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