Mark Wahlberg stars in Max Payne, as the titular vigilante anti-hero of the best-selling Max Payne video games. He’s kinda like the Punisher, but Payne’s has more than vengeance on his side. He takes this drug (Valkyr) that turns you into super strong killing machine, but the downside is it has hallucinatory side effects. I dunno, perhaps it’s seeing visions isn’t so bad? Ah, who am I kidding? That sucks.

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I expect it to be a decent action flick (though I’d rather it be rated R), which is okay. Sometimes you don’t wanna have to think so much in the theater. The story looks coherent and easy to follow, even if you never played the game. Altho, what is up with those angel of death vision scenes? A bit out of place, but hey, I’ll let ‘em run with it, since they’ve got Mila Kunis in an action movie. It’s a nice change of pace for her, since I’m used to seeing her play the love interest in romantic comedies.

Find an interview with the director, John Moore, Mila Kunis, and Wahlberg here. And it turns out Mr. Wahlberg didn’t like the SNL sketch with Andy Samburg impersonating the action star talking to animals. Can’t you loosen up, Marky Mark? I better stop calling him that or he’ll say something nasty about me too!

That short was actually funny, which is a surprise. Most of the SNL digital shorts have just so-so with them riffing on really weird premises (kinda like some of the sketches), but this time with editing since they film them beforehand with a digital camcorder.

Lexi Alexander (director of Green Street Hooligans) is finally back on the scene with Punisher: War Zone. Maybe the director will bring an interesting feminine edge to all those violent action scenes.

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