Better Call Saul returns for its fifth season on February 23rd — but don’t expect any current music to make it on to the soundtrack. If there’s one word creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould would use to describe the sound of Saul, it’s “wistful.” And, to hit that note, the duo and their music team often turn to the vaults.
When we last left struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), he had finally been granted permission to practice law again — and he’s doing so under the name Saul Goodman (finally). Meantime,...
When we last left struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), he had finally been granted permission to practice law again — and he’s doing so under the name Saul Goodman (finally). Meantime,...
- 2/19/2020
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Padraig Cotter Jun 22, 2017
The Max Payne movie failed to capture the essence of the videogame - but a new fan film is having a go...
The original Max Payne videogame feels like the result of its developers spending a weekend bingeing on The Matrix and various John Woo movies, while taking the occasional break to read some Raymond Chandler novels. It was a stylish, fluid third-person shooter that made heavy use of slow motion and bullet time, with the story being told through graphic novel panels. Max himself was an insanely cool lead character, and the game went on to become a major hit. It spawned two further games – released in 2003 and 2011 respectively – and remains a cult favourite to this day.
It also spawned – like pretty much every successful video game – a movie adaptation in 2008. Mark Wahlberg took on the title role, with Mila Kunis playing Max’s love interest Mona. While the movie made a modest profit it did little to impress critics, with the harshest judgements coming from the fan base itself.
The movie is essentially forgotten now and is on the same video game movie scrapheap that also houses Hitman: Agent 47 and Tekken. On the flipside of the coin is Max Payne: Retribution, a 2017 fan produced short that manages to recreate the unique feel of the game for a fraction of the cost. For the sake of an experiment let’s contrast the two adaptations, and see if passion and creativity are any match for a Hollywood budget and a major star.
Max Payne: Retribution (2017)
This short doesn’t adapt any particular storyline from the series, and instead feels like a mash-up between the original game and its sequel. The story involves Max – still eternally grieving for his murdered family – trying to save Mona Sax from Jack Lupino (played by director Leroy Kincaide), a drug kingpin with a nasty Devil worshipping hobby. It’s a contained story that gradually builds to an epic gunfight in a drug warehouse.
Fan films are often well-meaning and filled with passion, but are let down by a lack of budget, acting talent or filmmaking ability. It’s one thing to get actors and dressed them up like video game characters, but it’s another thing entirely to breathe life into it. Thankfully Max Payne: Retribution manages to bypass a lot of those potential pitfalls, coming across as a sincere tribute to the franchise.
A love for the material is evident in every frame, from the countless Easter eggs (Max drinking Kong whisky, Address Unknown playing on the television etc) to the faithful recreation of the main characters. Actor Joan James Muixi certainly has the look of old school Max and does a good job with the stylised dialogue. Sadly he lacks the gruff authority of original voice actor James McCaffrey, but then again replicating McCaffrey’s distinct sound is near impossible anyway.
The attention to detail of the short is impressive, especially given Retribution’s modest £1500 budget. The budgetary stretch marks are visible in certain sets or effect shots, but what the crew was able to achieve on that amount is impressive. It has a slick cinematic look, from a moody early scene of Max washing his face while bathed in neon to the warehouse finale. This sequence manages to cram in all the classic elements of the game too; slo-mo, duel wielding and even a spot of bullet time, and it’s a nicely choreographed shootout.
Like many fan films it’s not flawless. Some line readings feel off and a few scenes play out a little long, but Retribution remains a stylish ode that understands what made the series so interesting in the first place. That, and the moment Max picks up another handgun and prepares to dive, should be enough to produce a smirk in even the most jaded fan.
Max Payne (2008)
There are certain characters and franchises that are fundamentally aimed at adults, and trying to tone them down for a lower rating usually ends in disaster; think Live Free Or Die Hard or Alien Vs Predator. Max Payne is a game defined by a high bodycount and bloodshed, so the decision to make it a PG-13 movie was already a sign it was walking down the wrong path.
Before I start beating the film with a stick, let’s start with some positives. The film looks gorgeous, making the snowy New York where the story is set look like a beautiful wasteland. Director John Moore may not be a master storyteller but he’s got a great eye, and clearly had a blast shooting this neo-noir flick. The Valkyrie creatures are an odd inclusion, but they again make for a striking visual, which Moore milks whenever possible. The action scenes – when they arrive – are fun, with Max’s drugged out rampage in the finale injecting the glum thriller with a bit of adrenaline.
That’s pretty much it though, with many of the film's issues running deep. A big one is Mark Wahlberg and his characterization of Max. In the game he may be moody, but he also has a glib sense of humour and his inner monologue made him endearing. Here he’s a mopey, humourless git, and Wahlberg plays him with that singular note throughout. Kunis is completely miscast too, utterly failing to come across as a badass assassin. The rest of the cast are a mixed bag, but nobody here is doing their best work.
The game is almost non-stop action, where the movie is a meandering thriller for the most part. It often feels padded out with useless scenes, like Mona visiting a crime boss who has no bearing on the plot or a bizarre cameo by singer Nelly Furtado. There’s a remarkable lack of action in the first half too, and while it’s not half bad when it arrives, the PG-13 rating sands off the harsher edges.
The video game movie genre has a long history of disappointing fans, and while Max Payne is far from the worst, it was still a major letdown. The pervading feeling is nobody really cared about the material; Wahlberg admitted he didn’t play the game and the movie makes bizarre changes to the source. It doesn’t even feature a scene where Max dives through the air with a Beretta in each hand, which is just about the biggest sin of all.
I remember a friend – who is a big Max Payne fan – summarising it best, “Remember that bit in the game where Max walks around for an hour not shooting anyone? Of course not. That would be boring.”
The Winner: Max Payne: Retribution
It may lack a little spit and polish, but the makers of Max Payne: Retribution took a tiny budget and a lot of passion and funnelled it into a stylish adaptation. Fans should definitely seek it out, and it might help ease the payneful (sorry) gap between games. There’s talk of the makers of Retribution being in discussion with Max Payne publisher Take-Two Interactive about developing a TV series based on the short.
On the evidence shown here, that could be something very fun indeed.
Max Payne: Retribution will be available to view on the official YouTube page from June 24th.
The Max Payne movie failed to capture the essence of the videogame - but a new fan film is having a go...
The original Max Payne videogame feels like the result of its developers spending a weekend bingeing on The Matrix and various John Woo movies, while taking the occasional break to read some Raymond Chandler novels. It was a stylish, fluid third-person shooter that made heavy use of slow motion and bullet time, with the story being told through graphic novel panels. Max himself was an insanely cool lead character, and the game went on to become a major hit. It spawned two further games – released in 2003 and 2011 respectively – and remains a cult favourite to this day.
It also spawned – like pretty much every successful video game – a movie adaptation in 2008. Mark Wahlberg took on the title role, with Mila Kunis playing Max’s love interest Mona. While the movie made a modest profit it did little to impress critics, with the harshest judgements coming from the fan base itself.
The movie is essentially forgotten now and is on the same video game movie scrapheap that also houses Hitman: Agent 47 and Tekken. On the flipside of the coin is Max Payne: Retribution, a 2017 fan produced short that manages to recreate the unique feel of the game for a fraction of the cost. For the sake of an experiment let’s contrast the two adaptations, and see if passion and creativity are any match for a Hollywood budget and a major star.
Max Payne: Retribution (2017)
This short doesn’t adapt any particular storyline from the series, and instead feels like a mash-up between the original game and its sequel. The story involves Max – still eternally grieving for his murdered family – trying to save Mona Sax from Jack Lupino (played by director Leroy Kincaide), a drug kingpin with a nasty Devil worshipping hobby. It’s a contained story that gradually builds to an epic gunfight in a drug warehouse.
Fan films are often well-meaning and filled with passion, but are let down by a lack of budget, acting talent or filmmaking ability. It’s one thing to get actors and dressed them up like video game characters, but it’s another thing entirely to breathe life into it. Thankfully Max Payne: Retribution manages to bypass a lot of those potential pitfalls, coming across as a sincere tribute to the franchise.
A love for the material is evident in every frame, from the countless Easter eggs (Max drinking Kong whisky, Address Unknown playing on the television etc) to the faithful recreation of the main characters. Actor Joan James Muixi certainly has the look of old school Max and does a good job with the stylised dialogue. Sadly he lacks the gruff authority of original voice actor James McCaffrey, but then again replicating McCaffrey’s distinct sound is near impossible anyway.
The attention to detail of the short is impressive, especially given Retribution’s modest £1500 budget. The budgetary stretch marks are visible in certain sets or effect shots, but what the crew was able to achieve on that amount is impressive. It has a slick cinematic look, from a moody early scene of Max washing his face while bathed in neon to the warehouse finale. This sequence manages to cram in all the classic elements of the game too; slo-mo, duel wielding and even a spot of bullet time, and it’s a nicely choreographed shootout.
Like many fan films it’s not flawless. Some line readings feel off and a few scenes play out a little long, but Retribution remains a stylish ode that understands what made the series so interesting in the first place. That, and the moment Max picks up another handgun and prepares to dive, should be enough to produce a smirk in even the most jaded fan.
Max Payne (2008)
There are certain characters and franchises that are fundamentally aimed at adults, and trying to tone them down for a lower rating usually ends in disaster; think Live Free Or Die Hard or Alien Vs Predator. Max Payne is a game defined by a high bodycount and bloodshed, so the decision to make it a PG-13 movie was already a sign it was walking down the wrong path.
Before I start beating the film with a stick, let’s start with some positives. The film looks gorgeous, making the snowy New York where the story is set look like a beautiful wasteland. Director John Moore may not be a master storyteller but he’s got a great eye, and clearly had a blast shooting this neo-noir flick. The Valkyrie creatures are an odd inclusion, but they again make for a striking visual, which Moore milks whenever possible. The action scenes – when they arrive – are fun, with Max’s drugged out rampage in the finale injecting the glum thriller with a bit of adrenaline.
That’s pretty much it though, with many of the film's issues running deep. A big one is Mark Wahlberg and his characterization of Max. In the game he may be moody, but he also has a glib sense of humour and his inner monologue made him endearing. Here he’s a mopey, humourless git, and Wahlberg plays him with that singular note throughout. Kunis is completely miscast too, utterly failing to come across as a badass assassin. The rest of the cast are a mixed bag, but nobody here is doing their best work.
The game is almost non-stop action, where the movie is a meandering thriller for the most part. It often feels padded out with useless scenes, like Mona visiting a crime boss who has no bearing on the plot or a bizarre cameo by singer Nelly Furtado. There’s a remarkable lack of action in the first half too, and while it’s not half bad when it arrives, the PG-13 rating sands off the harsher edges.
The video game movie genre has a long history of disappointing fans, and while Max Payne is far from the worst, it was still a major letdown. The pervading feeling is nobody really cared about the material; Wahlberg admitted he didn’t play the game and the movie makes bizarre changes to the source. It doesn’t even feature a scene where Max dives through the air with a Beretta in each hand, which is just about the biggest sin of all.
I remember a friend – who is a big Max Payne fan – summarising it best, “Remember that bit in the game where Max walks around for an hour not shooting anyone? Of course not. That would be boring.”
The Winner: Max Payne: Retribution
It may lack a little spit and polish, but the makers of Max Payne: Retribution took a tiny budget and a lot of passion and funnelled it into a stylish adaptation. Fans should definitely seek it out, and it might help ease the payneful (sorry) gap between games. There’s talk of the makers of Retribution being in discussion with Max Payne publisher Take-Two Interactive about developing a TV series based on the short.
On the evidence shown here, that could be something very fun indeed.
Max Payne: Retribution will be available to view on the official YouTube page from June 24th.
- 6/20/2017
- Den of Geek
"Better Call Saul" is finally here. I already published my initial review and interviews with creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, and with Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks, and now I have thoughts on the first episode coming up just as soon as I translate this review into Finnish... "Have patience. There are no shortcuts." -Chuck Those words by the older brother of Jimmy "The Man Who Will Be Saul" McGill are so important to Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould and all the other "Breaking Bad" alums who have continued onto the new show that I hope they all wear bracelets with that phrasing on them, like how the "Justified" staff has "Wwed" (What Would Elmore Do) jewelry. Those words formed the fundamental rules of "Breaking Bad," and the reason for so much of its greatness. That show took its damn time in showing us the journey from Mr. Chips to Scarface,...
- 2/9/2015
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
“Perfect Number” sees Korea turning to Japan for inspiration, an adaptation of the acclaimed Higashino Keigo novel “Yogisha X no Kenshin” (“The Devotion of Suspect X”), which previously made it to the big screen in the popular 2008 film “Suspect X” from Nishitani Hiroshi. The Korean version comes from actress and director Bang Eun Jin, whose last outing behind the camera was the revenge thriller “Princess Aurora” in 2005, and who won Best Supporting Actress at the Grand Bell Awards back in 2002 for her role in Kim Ki Duk’s “Address Unknown”. A tense, and in many ways quite unique crime drama, the film stars popular and versatile actor Ryoo Seung Bum (“The Unjust”) in the lead, supported by Lee Yo Won (“May 18”) and Jo Jin Woong (“Nameless Gangster”). Ryoo plays Suk Go, a reclusive 30-something math teacher, who lives next door to the lovely Hwa Sun (Lee Yo Won) and her...
- 3/20/2013
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
Brian De Palma's new film Passion was one of our favorites at the Toronto International Film Festival. I raved and rambled on about the film in one of our correspondences (though, as you'll see, I was wrong about one key facet of the film's production):
A remake of the solid Alain Corneau corporate thriller Love Crime, De Palma plunges without hesitation into the iconography, audience expectations, and conventions of noirs, sex thrillers, corporate intrigue, post-Hitchcock films and Brian De Palma movies themselves, retaining the shell appearance of all of these things but hollowing them from the inside out. The result is something out of late Resnais—a study of a study. And that study, of course, is of the cinema image. Remember how Rebecca Romijn watches Stanwyck in Double Indemnity at the beginning of Femme Fatale, as if taking notes? The characters in Passion have taken notes from...
A remake of the solid Alain Corneau corporate thriller Love Crime, De Palma plunges without hesitation into the iconography, audience expectations, and conventions of noirs, sex thrillers, corporate intrigue, post-Hitchcock films and Brian De Palma movies themselves, retaining the shell appearance of all of these things but hollowing them from the inside out. The result is something out of late Resnais—a study of a study. And that study, of course, is of the cinema image. Remember how Rebecca Romijn watches Stanwyck in Double Indemnity at the beginning of Femme Fatale, as if taking notes? The characters in Passion have taken notes from...
- 10/1/2012
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Co-curated by Marina Goldovskaya and Samuel B. Prime and co-sponsored by the French Film & TV Office, Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, Melnitz Movies and Documentary Salon present Return to Sender, Address Unknown—A Tribute to Chris Marker. On Tuesday, May 8 at 730pm, UCLA's James Bridges Theater will screen One Day in the Life of Ardrei Arsenevich (Chris Marker, 1999) and To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter (Emiko Omori, 2012). There will be a Q&A with director Emiko Omori following the screening.
Through film clips, journal entries, and personal ...
Through film clips, journal entries, and personal ...
- 5/4/2012
- by IDA Editorial Staff
- International Documentary Association
A favorite filmmaker and worth noting.
One of our favorite filmmakers here at Trailers from Hell is the great William Cameron Menzies, boldly graphic production designer extraordinaire. He also directed and produced, and gave us such classics as Things to Come, Invaders from Mars and the criminally obscure Address Unknown.
David Bordwell, while researching the bizarre Menzies-designed Alice in Wonderland (1933), did a bit of delving into his astonishingly influential work, and published a sort of teaser for his elucidations here:
From the evidence I was encountering, it seemed that Welles and Toland’s accomplishment was to synthesize and push further some deep-space schemas that were already circulating in ambitious Hollywood circles. Connecting some dots, I realized that one of the earliest champions of aggressive imagery in general, not just big foregrounds and deep backgrounds, was William Cameron Menzies.
Don’t forget to click the links to his larger essay. It’s a must,...
One of our favorite filmmakers here at Trailers from Hell is the great William Cameron Menzies, boldly graphic production designer extraordinaire. He also directed and produced, and gave us such classics as Things to Come, Invaders from Mars and the criminally obscure Address Unknown.
David Bordwell, while researching the bizarre Menzies-designed Alice in Wonderland (1933), did a bit of delving into his astonishingly influential work, and published a sort of teaser for his elucidations here:
From the evidence I was encountering, it seemed that Welles and Toland’s accomplishment was to synthesize and push further some deep-space schemas that were already circulating in ambitious Hollywood circles. Connecting some dots, I realized that one of the earliest champions of aggressive imagery in general, not just big foregrounds and deep backgrounds, was William Cameron Menzies.
Don’t forget to click the links to his larger essay. It’s a must,...
- 6/19/2011
- by Joe
- Trailers from Hell
<p><img src="http://www.justpressplay.net/images/stories/newstream.jpg" alt="newstream" width="590" height="175" /></p> <p>Today's new additions to Netflix Instant Watch that are worth watching features works by great Asian directors Johnnie To and Kim Ki-duk. Oh, and there's a Viking movie, too.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">• • •</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img class="Image-Right" src="http://cdn-8.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/gsd/70120168.jpg" alt="" width="150" />Valhalla Rising</strong></p> <blockquote> <p>After years of slavery, Viking warrior One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen) escapes from his captors and seeks refuge on a Norse ship bound for his homeland. When a storm throws them off course, the crew lands at a mysterious realm inhabited by invisible demons. As the bloodthirsty creatures claim one sailor after another, One-Eye rediscovers his fighting spirit but begins to wonder if they have arrived in Jerusalem or someplace much more sinister.</p> </blockquote> <p>We don't get a lot of Viking movies, and when we do, too often it's played for schlock. This Danish film mixes a moody arthouse aesthetic with bursts of hyperviolence to an entertaining degree. Our own Rob Young wrote <a href="http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/40-reviews/6799-valhalla-rising.html" target="_self">this favorable review</a> for the theatrical release.</p> <p><a href="http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Valhalla-Rising/70120168" target="_blank">Watch!</a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img class="Image-Right" src="http://cdn-6.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/gsd/70118406.jpg" alt="" width="150" />Vengeance</strong></p> <blockquote> <p>Today,...
- 12/1/2010
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
Bette Davis outdoes Joan Crawford in the slapping department in the 1956 drama Storm Center, in which Davis plays a librarian concerned about civil liberties Following the lead of Time Warner, Sony Pictures has started the distribution of on-demand DVDs of rare (or somewhat rare) classics and not-so-classics found in its library. Columbia Classics has yet to offer Bette Davis in The Menace, Jean Arthur in The Most Precious Thing in Life, or Melvyn Douglas in The Lone Wolf Returns, but among their dozens of releases are a number of goodies. For instance: 10 Rillington Place (1970), Richard Fleischer's psychological study of a serial killer played by Richard Attenborough. Address Unknown (1944), directed by (mostly) art director William Cameron Menzies (Oscar winner for Gone with the Wind), and starring Paul Lukas (Best Actor Oscar winner for Warners' Watch on the Rhine). Jack Clayton's British drama The Pumpkin Eater (1964), starring Peter Finch, [...]...
- 10/26/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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