Max Payne

‘Max Payne’ is to the original computer game what ‘Sin City’ was to the graphic novel, a neo-noir revenge thriller whose flashy monochrome visuals cannot disguise its black-and-white morality and obsession with skimpily dressed femmes fatale and phallic firepower.

Mark Wahlberg is convincingly monomaniacal as Max Payne, a rogue cop seeking vengeance for the murder of his wife and child. Fortunately for him, Max’s search overlaps with a Russian mobster’s search for her strung-out sister, Natasha (Bond girl Olga Kurylenko).

Unfortunately for them,  drug that induces hallucinations of flying demons has turned ex-soldier Jack Lupino (Amaury Nolasco) into a killing machine. Beau Bridges has fun as Max’s mentor, now head of security for secretive pharma corporation Aesir.John Moore directs the hell out of the action, while Jonathan Sela’s glistening photography captures the snow and rain that fall on these bloody New York streets. But you’d have to be on crack not to guess the ‘surprise’ finale.