KEY POINTS:
Mark Wahlberg is packing heat once again as a vengeful vigilante in bullet-fired action flick Max Payne. He talks to Michele Manelis
In an unpredictable world economy, it seems Hollywood studios are hedging their bets on relatively low-risk movies that can guarantee an inbuilt theatre audience from
video game and graphic novel fans. But are they any good?
Max Payne drops Mark Wahlberg in this gritty and violent world, playing an angst-ridden, widowed cop blinded by revenge.
An unusual choice after his Oscar nomination for The Departed earlier this year, Wahlberg, 37, blazes through this murky tale about a slain wife and baby and an ill-intentioned pharmaceutical company. The movie features otherworldly creatures, and, of course, a government conspiracy is thrown into the mix.
Says Wahlberg from his Beverly Hills hotel room: "I liked Max Payne. It was fun for me to beat up on a lot of people. I was able to hit and not be hit back. And also, the last few movies I've done, I've played very different parts. In The Happening I played a science teacher, and I play an accountant in my next movie, The Lovely Bones[Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Alice Sebold book], so I haven't really had the chance to 'go off' in the way that I like to so it was time to get aggressive."
And "go off" he does. For nearly two hours, to the backdrop of staccato gunfire, breaking glass, and falling snow.
"These kinds of movies are an escape. We're living in a crazy time and we need to have fun for two hours. But if you're asking me why guys like this kind of thing, I have no answer for you," Wahlberg laughs.
He says the movie, directed by John Moore (The Omen), is "not a movie with a huge message but it's hopefully very entertaining." And he bristles at the suggestion there is a glut of videogame adaptations, most of which are similar to each other. "No, I don't think there are, certainly not compared to how many dumb comedies you see every year. The unpalatable truth is that most videogame movies have failed whereas dumb comedies like Knocked Up, are usually very successful.
"It's bewildering. It's a phenomenon that these comedies present the American woman in a certain way. If the people who made those movies could spell `misogynistic', I'd refer to them that way."
Max Payne, a low-budgeted US$41.5 million (NZ$70 million) film was shot primarily in Toronto. Moore was going for a neo-noir look and atmosphere, reminiscent of The Dark Knight. Moore combines the action with melodramatic, slow-motion sequences.
The movie also stars Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Beau Bridges and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges - all of whom are now acquainted with the video game.
"Yes, I've played the video game," Wahlberg says. "It made me realise that games have changed quite a bit since my days at the arcade playing Pac Man. But I don't play video games often. I have a very addictive personality and as the father of three small children, it would be very irresponsible for me to pick up another habit. Golf is my only vice these days and I find time to do that in the early hours of the morning when my kids are still asleep."
