Mark Walhberg: Max Payne Film All About the Gamers

In the face of some pretty dire reviews, Mark Wahlberg has said that the Max Payne movie, based on the Rockstar game, is aimed squarely at fans of the interactive original.

Wahlberg, who plays Payne, said, "First and foremost, we wanted to satisfy the die-hard game fans, and hopefully it will draw a lot of other people to the film based on the images that they see [on the trailers]."

How the hell does Mr Wahlberg know what a die-hard gamer even looks like? This was the man who, in July this year, told People magazine, "I didn't want to play (the Max Payne game) because I have an addictive personality..."

Meanwhile, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (who plays internal affairs detective Jim Bravura), said, "It takes it to a whole other exciting and action-packed level. It was so exciting and surreal to be in the movie."

If early reviews are to be believed, however, Wahlberg and Bridges' comments don't reflect well on the game the movie has apparently surpassed (in terms of action) or the gamers it was made for.

Words like "Lacklustre", "Horrid" and (someone had to do it) "Payne-ful" have been thrown around liberally. One Finnish reviewer went as far as forcing a choice between watching the Payne movie or a Uwe Boll flick as deciding whether to catch 'fever/plague' or 'tuberculosis'.

SPOnG, for its part, will reserve judgement until it has gone and stared at Mila Kunis for a couple of... sorry, watched the film when it hits the UK on November 14th.

^{Sources: redandblack.com
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