Conor Nolan reviews the new film Max Payne

MOVIES based on video games have a pretty chequered history in the cinema, writes Conor Nolan. And to my mind the only one worth its salt is Tomb Raider.

Max Payne is a witless, pointless and utterly daft movie based on the video game of the same name, and for me it was a painful experience having to sit through it for 99 minutes.

Max Payne is a maverick cop – a mythic anti-hero – determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murders of his family and partner.

Hell-bent on revenge, his obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmare journey into a dark underworld.

As the mystery deepens, Max is forced to battle enemies beyond the natural world and face an unthinkable betrayal.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Max Payne, a man who has little regard for rules – and nothing to lose – as he investigates a series of mysterious murders that could be tied to the death of his wife and child.

But there are massive forces, both real and beyond imagination, that are conspiring to keep the devastating truth hidden – and Max forever silenced.

Joining Wahlberg in the movie are Mila Kunis as Mona Sax, a beautiful Russian mobster and assassin; Olga Kurylenko (leading lady in Quantum of Solace) as Natasha, Mona's thrill-seeking younger sister; Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as internal affairs detective Jim Bravura and Beau Bridges as Max's mentor, BB.

In its defence, Max Payne does feature high voltage action and stunts that will please the likely teenage audience.

But the case for the prosecution rests totally on the fact that the movie has no narrative flow, it has no discernible plot and the producers have ripped off everything that was great in more superior movies like The Matrix and Wanted.

In one of the least realistic scenes in the movie Max is pursued by the villains armed with machine guns and as he returns fire with his pistol, he fails to reload it once during the five minute chase scene.

Everyone knows that a pistol has a limited number of bullets in a magazine, but clearly not Max Payne – nor the director or producers of this silly action flick.

I am not the target audience for this type of movie, but I do have to ask what possessed Mark Wahlberg to agree to star in this affair after his commanding performance in the epic gangster movie, The Departed.

The much respected LA Times critic neatly sums it up for me: "Turning video games into movies may be one way for studios to coax teenagers away from their laptops, but this time around, the results are miserable, in every sense of the word."

Rating: 2 stars

Cert: 15

Web: www.maxpaynethemovie.com

Duration: 99 minutes