Mark Wahlberg

Review: Max Payne is a decent action movie

February 15th, 2009 at 12:22 am by Laff at the Movies under Entertainment

Its not Payne-ful, but its not a new action classic, its okay, but I’m not overly excited about this movie.

Maybe if I played the video game that “Max Payne” was based on, I would be more into this movie… but considering it took me about a week to actually finish this review tells you something… right? 

You may or may not know that I actually like Mark Wahlberg in the hero role of these second-rate action movies… but this one is just okay for me.
 

The action was good, the gunfights were good, but the overall feel was like a mix between “Sin City” (2005), ”The Matrix” (1999), “Blade Runner” (1982) and a little bit of “Constantine” (2005)… with the grittiness, otherworldly, and futuristic feel… but it was missing the heart that make those movies much better… except “Constantine”, this movie is better than that.

Wahlberg either ends up playing a pretty good part in movies with critical or popular success: “The Departed” (2006), “The Italian Job” (2003), “The Perfect Storm” (2000)… or playing a pretty good part in movies that don’t get the attention, or good reviews: “We Own the Night” (2007), “Shooter” (2007), “Three Kings” (1999).   For the record I like all of the above to varying degrees.

But “Max Payne” didn’t blow me away… I wasn’t wowed… I wasn’t amazed, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat, surprised by the twists, or clamoring for more… perhaps its because I’m not a teenager who hasn’t seen a similar storyline in at least a dozen movies before it.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

(more…)


Review: “The Happening”: freaky good

June 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm by Laff at the Movies under Entertainment

(RE-POSTING FROM 6/22/08)

“The Happening”: freaky good

 

After two sub-par movies, M.Night Shyamalan returns with a solid suspense movie that plays right into our modern day cultural concerns about terrorism and government conspiracies !!!   “The Happening” doesn’t play around… its bold and right in your face with the opening scene… its graphic and violent and earns its “R” rating.

 “The Happening”

MY TAKE (no spoilers):  Unlike some movies of this genre where the director takes time to develop the main characters or “the evil” … “The Happening” wastes no time getting right to the event itself… the “good guys” are then brought in and their quest to figure out what is going on and why begins.