Certain actors on a marquee will give you a good idea what type of movie you're going to see: English actors = period pieces, theater actors = serious drama, former sports stars = brainless action movies. Obviously these are sweeping generalizations, but a marquee can still give you a pretty good idea what you're getting yourself into. So if you see Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Ludacris lumped together, you should probably expect the worst. Max Payne delivers on that promise. If the bad acting, pointlessly excessive action sequences and the suffocatingly tireless soundtrack don't make you beg for this mess to end, the well worn, boringly familiar plot will.Fans of the Max Payne video game will also be disappointed. The game was a nightmarish noir with surprisingly rich characters and an addictive storyline. The movie does no justice to the game and keeps very little of the plot intact, save for the titular character's tragic past. Wahlberg, as always, is wooden and gives Payne none of the tortured angst and cryptic depth he deserves. Mila Kunis is just awful, proving that great looks do not always deserve to be seen. Watching Kunis is the equivalent of watching someone else's child play dress up in a school play. Rapper turned actor Chris "Ludacris" Bridges also feels like he's costumed to play a part he has no ability to play - is it not obvious to Casting Director's this guy has less acting range than even the other rapper turned actor in this movie? You wonder if the execs behind these casting decisions really are so cynical that they believe no matter how talentless their hires are, they will attract their sought after demographic. If box-office is any indicator, these 18-25 year olds aren't as stupid as the Fox executives wish they were. I'm glad I didn't pay to see this big budget spectacle of shit because if I had, then I'd be really mad.
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