Max Payne is one of the few video game-based movies that doesn't seem too tied down by its source medium. Though I haven't played the "Max Payne" games, I understand they're very cinematic in tone, driven as much by story as "A-to-B" style objectives. That, combined with a very distinctive visual style, had me looking forward to Max Payne more than recent game-to-film adaptations. But as evidenced by the likes of Hitman and the second Fantastic Four movie, it turns out Fox makes a better trailer than a complete  film. 

Mark Wahlberg plays the titular anti-hero, a cop still tortured over the murder of his wife and child. By day, Payne chases go-nowhere leads in his department's cold case unit. But by night, he's a stone-cold vigilante, blasting his way through the city's criminal underworld in a neverending hunt for his family's killers. In the midst of his quest, Payne crosses paths with a femme fatale (Olga Kurylenko) who's soon found dead -- with Payne's wallet nearby.

When his old partner bites the big one as well, all eyes fall upon Payne as the prime suspect. With the law breathing down his neck, Payne's search for the real culprit intensifies, though he finds an unlikely ally in the form of the dead girl's sister (Mila Kunis). Together, the pair takes to the streets to exact vengeance upon the city's evildoers, uncovering a strange conspiracy involving a dangerous drug that might lead Payne to what he's spent years searching for.

It's harder than you'd think to screw up a simple vigilante story, but Max Payne does it. All you need is a tough-as-nails lead, a healthy dose of gunplay, and enough style to cover up the bitter taste of a formula filmmakers have been using for decades upon decades. Max Payne does numerous things wrong, but it doesn't skimp on style. For director John Moore, whose previous picture was the flashy but unnecessary remake of The Omen, this easily emerges as the most visually impressive project he's taken on. From the snow falling on the city's shadowy streets to the dingy warehouses in which Payne does battle with criminal ilk, Moore nails the film's noirish atmosphere to a tee. Max Payne will play even better on DVD, for viewers would have the chance to pause and soak in the flick's crisp, dark atmosphere bit by bit. The action sequences are also tense and well-filmed, incorporating the slow motion effect the games have become famous for.

However, once you get past the visual frosting slathered all over Max Payne, you'll find a stale dessert not worth taking a bite out of. The gunfights  may be pretty cool, but there's too few of them, mostly scattered throughout the last half-hour. The time beforehand is spent mulling over a rather boring and cliched revenge story, one that grows even more tiring and muddled as it unfolds. The plot uses the film's style as a crutch a few times too many, preferring to cop a pretentious attitude and parade around like it's God's gift to film noir.

Rarely before have I seen a film show such little concern for its characters, as Max Payne not only populates itself with stock archetypes. The acting offers little in the way of redemption, especially in Wahlberg's case. Max Payne is supposed to be a so-called do-gooder whose rough actions make it hard to distinguish him from the crooks he mows down. But from the wooden way in which Wahlberg plays him, you'd think Payne was some constipated lunatic with a Steven Seagal fetish.

Quite frankly, Max Payne leaps around from random concept to random concept, more fascinated with seeing how it looks than with being a cohesive and entertaining experience. I'm as up for a mindless bullet buffet as the next guy, but Max Payne takes the action genre to a new, thematically-hollow realm of badness.

MY RATING: * 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation and rated "PG-13" for violence including intense shooting sequences, some sexuality and brief strong language.)