Max Payne D+

On DVD, Rated R, 100 minutes

The plus is for the stylized vision of a New York City stuck in perpetual precipitation. The D is for a half-baked plot, incoherent dialogue, and the waste of a decent cast of character actors and B-listers headed up by Mark Wahlberg and including Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Beau Bridges (Fabulous Baker Boys), Ludicris (Crash), Chris O’Donnell (Batman and Robin), and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace).

The film, based on the video game by the same name, tells the story of washed-up detective Payne who lives in the cold case room of New York City’s finest searching for clues to his wife’s murder several years previous. Wahlberg does what he can with an awful script involving street drugs derived from Pentagon top-secret narcotics, winged demons, double-crossing friends of the family, and hot women with Russian mob ties. The villain in this whodunit is a giveaway the moment he steps on to the screen and visuals will only keep you interested for so long (even if they include Kunis and Kurylenko). Black-and-white over-the-top plots work great for propelling video games because they can be grasped quickly, getting the gamer back into the action; however, films need more sophistication. Hollywood is wrestling with similar issues in the graphic novel adaptation at the moment. Hipsters and accountants alike seem to think these adaptations are the future of the film industry, but until they get a beating heart into the digital wizardry, do yourself a favor and buy the game not the DVD.