The Max Payne movie starts shooting in March. Oh video game movies… will they never learn? For years it has made me chuckle when even a new video game movie, and I warn that it will most likely suck because, well, all video game movies suck. But each time without fail, some fans of whatever game it is, vehemently defend it with assurances that THIS TIME it will be different! And guess what… it ends up sucking. Max Payne will be no different, even with Mark Wahlberg.
But as mentioned, it looks like it’s set to go into production in Toronto within the month. The following is from our friends over at Ropeofsilicon:
The question with this film is whether or not it will be a repeat of the disastrous Hitman or an actual good film. I have to assume Wahlberg wouldn’t want his rising star to come crashing down after the success with The Departed, but actors make some weird choices sometimes following major ups in their careers. I point to Catwoman as Exhibit A and Aeon Flux as Exhibit B. With that, I rest my case.
Max Payne is a great concept for a story, but being what it is, I have no hope for it having any quality whatsoever. There is always hope, and I’ll certainly give it a shot… I just won’t hold my breath.
ive seen the movie and honestly, i was not really that satisfied. the movie was good. but i was expecting more action and slow motion exhibitions max payne was all well-known about. =p
i seen the max payne trailer and it looks awesome, it reminds me very much of the game, i think this will be a good adaptation, cant wait to see it,:).
The game was good, not a orgasmic experience but good. The story was well made and planned, even with all the sudden twists in the sequel. nothing too revolutionary in gameplay, but putting all the stuff together it was a nice little thing. Too bad the movie will raep all the good things it had, vaporizing the reputation it cost it so hard to get. Demons? Satanic cults, what the fuck is this, revenant? its a fucking cop noir story, not a religious conspiration, for fuck’s sake! its like the fuckers who wrote the script couldnt notice that all the stuff in the game were fucking metaphors, he never fought against fucking valkiries, and that winter storm wasnt the fucking viking end of the world. Sam lake must be freaking out with this shit.
the movie will have demons which are a new enemy to max
I feel in the max payne movie it is inposible to get every single charecter in that would be ? anyway as long as the keep the story basic with the asier coperation and drug v they will do well ESSENTIAL SCENES OF BULLET TIME!
my idea is to just have
asier women
Mona sax
Jack lapino
vladimer (incase of sequel)
alfred woden
alex
jim bevera
who said hitman sucked, silent hill sucked dick and it copied the dam game :/
the basic idea here is the “typical” noir setting of a dark, desolate background.
but honestly how long has this genre been going on for anyway? maybe if this film was structured like the rest, sure your right to give bad comments for being just like the rest, being to mainstream as it were. Despite this, I’m going to give this one a chance because I think the director has balls to contrast the film the way it was origonaly intended. GBMP
here is one topic we agree on john…..
video game movies are all terrible.
Although I fucking love van dammes street fighter… but not for the reasons the producers intended.
anyway…the only game I have ever played and thought “i hope they make a film out of this” is max payne.
chances are it will be terrible but it is the only game i
have ever thought could work….
its a basic revenge story with dirty cops, dirty women and a fucked up antihero……and I fucking love revenge films.
but no doubt the producers will turn payne into a fucking clean cut good guy with no shades of grey and fuck the entire film up…but set it right in the world he inhabits in the game and stick to the sleazy grimy world in the game and write a story around the general idea it might work.
thats the problem with most video game movies…there is no real reason why they all suck so bad. i mean john you go on all the time about narrative of games versus plot etc etc but that has nothing to do with it…..as long as you write a good script it doesn’t matter whether its based on a video game or not. the biggest problem is the producers and makers of video game movies seem to think we are fucking idiots…..they think they can shovel any old shit out and people will go see it…..
doom could have been great…get decent talent on board and you could have had a decent sci fi actioner on that premise ….. but because the genre is looked down upon the makers never seem to care or try to deliver a decent product.
when you strip most games down they have fairly basic stories … so do 99% hollywood blockbusters…its what you do with the premise and how you tell the story that matters.
I think the biggest reasons people had hope for halo is that for the first time you had a genuine academy award winning A list film maker involved in a video game film. I certainly can’t think of any other video game film that had someone of jackson calibre involved…
anyway….in summation i just think that there is no real reason a film based on a game couldn’t work…the film makers need to try harder and not treat it with lazy distain
hell transformers is based on a fucking toy….
chris (the real one). “the thing that makes a bad videogame is the same thing that makes a bad movie…..poor direction, poor writing, and bad acting.”
You’ve just named pretty much the 3 things that make ANY film. YES a video-game film COULD be good, but only if the writer is allowed to completely ignore the game’s story and improvise. My argument was that computer games have terrible stories when taken away from the experience of playing the game.
Maybe the best way to go with video games would be for the director to play the game and then write “a story INSPIRED by the game”. This way the film need bear no real resemblance to the game plot, but could be (very) loosely based on the games setting/themes.
Also I agree with Darren “In some cases “good stories” in videogames are influenced by (or outright ripped off and stolen from) previously produced movies and novels, with or without permission.”.. although I would also add that they are also often ripped from books also. I think Max Payne falls into this category although ripped is probably a harsh word and I prefer “pays homage” to the revenge movies.
I have faith that the film will be treated with the proper respect. I don’t see the film as an epic fail. The game had a serious tone to it, why can’t the movie do it also? I still consider Mortal Kombat the best video game movie of all time, but maybe that can change with Walberg as Max Payne.
hitman did not suck!
Well said Oldshell!
In fact, I want to quote another commenter:
Chris (the real one)
Here cometh a whirlwind.
Y’know something? I had mixed feelings about Resident Evil 1, but the film was a hit. I didn’t care a lot for 2, that made money. Everyone who loved the shit out of the game told me “AVOID 3” due to the reason Chris Real One gave. Then, last month, I decided to give it a chance, see how bad it is, rant on it like “everyone else”…and guess what?
It was the best, the best The Best of the three Resident Evil films and, it just happened to be the one that strayed away most from the majority of the RE game storyline. Then I started thinking about aside from Resident Evil, the other two most successful video game adaptations. The first Mortal Kombat and the Tomb Raider films. Especially Tomb Raider. While I thought the TR films weren’t all that great (mostly due to Anj Jolie’s performance) it was a step in the right direction.
In other words, a character(s) who are true in essense to the origin, but are in an entirely new story/adventure.
As some of the int’l friends may recall, I never played the game Silent Hill (and I still haven’t!)…but I loved Christophe Gans’ Le Pact Des Loups quite a bit and I still am curious about Crying Freeman …I saw Silent Hill and despite some stupidity “for the fans”, I enjoyed the film overall. I thought owed a bit to John Carpenter’s “In The Mouth Of Madness”, but overall, I enjoyed the film overall.
Then there were those folks like, oh, lets say Gio Campea, who thought Silent Hill was a piece of crap. He seen the film, thought it was crap. Fair enough.
Oh, no…you are wrong. You HAVE to play the game to understand! These films have plots! The film rules because it was just like the game! It seems everyone who hates this brilliant film hasn’t played the game o whch it was based
I have heard it, ad nauseam directed at folks who didn’t care for that film. Now, that arguement directed at those who didn’t care for the film puzzled me. I never played the damn game and I enjoyed the film overall But then even the parts in the film which I disliked the same types of people said to me even though I enjoyed the film overall…what do you think “they said”? Was it:
“Oh, no…you are wrong. You HAVE to play the game to understand!”
Damn skippy!
Now I’m scratching my brain…I’m lost. Really. I mean…Chicks in tight leather pants. That’s what I disliked. WTF is there to understand?
The way I understand Payne, and, no, I haven’t played the game, is that it’s storyline has been done a zillion times in cinema: The Revenge Story. Can Payne bring anything new to the table? Doubtful.
In order to be a success, the adaptation has to be just that. Adaptation. The stories for most games are paper thin…or worse. In some cases “good stories” in videogames are influenced by (or outright ripped off and stolen from) previously produced movies and novels, with or without permission.
Max Payne may be a great game. I’ll take your word on it.
Put the Payne story in a movie? Just another revenge picture. Or at least percieved as one.
And I fail at grammar.
Of all the video games that I’ve played, Max Payne is the one that would translate best into a movie. Like by far.
And @Mattiac, computer games are video games are interchangeable words.
The story was very much a huge part of the game, and worked quite well.
If any video game can make a good movie, this one can. It just has to bein the right hands.
Max Payne is a computer game and not a video game! But I still think that the movie will be a very bad movie! :( I have heard that the game was good. I don’t know if Max Payne 2 was good.
Wow…oldshell, not much faith…..there are games that would make good movies….its just the decisions made in production……resident evil and silent hill could have been good, but poor ideas and other problems let to problems….
resident evil 1 was okay but part 2 and 3 made up stupid stuff…..a good director with respect for the material and COMPETENT writers can make a good videogame movie….the thing that makes a bad videogame is the same thing that makes a bad movie…..poor direction, poor writing, and bad acting…..if people wanted to make a good movie rather than just cash in on the name
“a beautiful story”…. “Max Payne does have a very strong story”. Err…. were we playing the same games?!? I played both of them and I can’t remember anything revolutionary. I seem to remember it was just a generic revenge story wasn’t it? Man’s family killed… seeks revenge… dives in slow motions.. yada yada yada… gangsters or something… ends at the start. Done. Like most games, enough to fill, maybe, a half an hour episode on TV.In fact from what I remember, Max Payne was pretty much a tribute to all the old noir films, with a very-standard noir-esque character.
Fan boys….. let it go… you’re games don’t have plots good enough for movies. Let’s all just move on.
This is my theory why everyone always says games have great stories… Games always have to have their stories scaled UP. Yes the game might take 40hours to complete, but the majority of that time is spent running around/slashing/hacking/shooting etc. To the player the plot might feel great when your playing it however that’s just because you’ve spent so much time with your character running around and killing stuff and generally thinking “this slow mo diving and shooting shit is awesome… this game is fucking awesome”. This makes you biased when judging the story, especially because so many games such incredibly token story-lines . If you took the stories away from the games and judged them on their own merits they would be average at best. Halo for example would make a very mediocre science fiction novel, but people raved about it because the loved playing the game. It draws you in through the gameplay, and the time you invest in being the main character, time which the story on its own doesn’t really do.
In conclusion, Max Payne will suck.. please fan boys… stop telling us that your game “would make a great film”… it wouldn’t and the story probably sucks balls.
Hmm i expect a lot of slow mo diving
Jeff – The problem is, I think hollywood studios have a certain idea about what a computer game film should be, and might throw the excellent storyline and visual style out of the window.
If it was a pretty straight adaptation, it could work. If.
Max Payne does have a very strong story and while I haven’t played the frist I played the second and if its at all like the first the cinema style it has could translate over. It’s hard to say.
oh trust me if they made a movie off the halo universe, things would be different….ahahahaa ;)
Anyways, I think Mark Wahlberg is perfect fit to play Max Payne, he looks just like him. Max Payne does have a great story, and i hope that it doesn’t follow all the other video game based movies, crapsville, but it probably will. I wonder if they will have bullet time in it, that would be kind of retarded but who knows…..
@John
Dude, I totally have to disagree with your post. Ever since Max Payne first came out, I knew that it would be made into a motion picture BUT it would change the way people view video game based movies.
When playing Max Payne it unfolds in front of you like a beautiful story, and IMO would translate VERY easily into film (albeit with the right actors, director, crew etc). It has a great story, plot, twists, characters, character development and action. As long as its approached as a down and dirty shoot ’em up cop drama/thriller/action movie I think that it will defy what has defined the video game based movie genre for the better.