Max Payne review: Innovative and impressive gothic noir in this classic shoot 'em up

It’s well over a decade since the release of the first Max Payne game, but his franchise is now a multimillion pound best seller, his character revered by critics and loved by fans. So what was it that made Max Payne so special way back in 2001? And, 12 years on, how much of the game’s legendarily gritty noir has been tarnished by the inevitable force of time?

It’s something of an understatement to say that Max Payne, of the New York Police Department, is not a lucky man. Just a few minutes into the game his wife and child are brutally slain and his best friend and colleague murdered. From there Max Payne becomes as bloodbath as our psychotic antihero sets out on a quest to avenge his family. It’s not an original or particularly interesting premise, but the game’s storytelling is intelligent enough for this to be easily forgivable. Payne’s tale is told through an impressionistic graphic novel format rather than animated cutscenes, with a dark, seedy art style and brooding voiceover performances from James McCaffrey as the lead.

Max Payne is, if nothing else, an action game.  Max is a near indestructible killing machine, wiping out waves of enemy thugs with a wide variety of weapons and dozens and stunningly effective painkillers. There’s no shortage of opponents; Max’s body count numbers in the hundreds by the game’s conclusion, but as shooting the same enemies in similar situations is the backbone of the game, it does become a little tedious. It doesn’t help that only a few enemy character models were built, and coming up against a clone army highly damages the game’s style and believability. It’s therefore fortunate that the actually gameplay mechanics are largely excellent, and the first ever use of Matrix esque bullet time in a video game proves to be a useful and impressive feature. The game’s graphics are certainly outdated, and there are sticky animations and utterly ridiculous stationary facial models, but this is forgivable considering Max Payne’s age and how excellent the recent Max Payne 3 looked.

Better than bullet time though is the game’s intense neo-noir style. Set in a snow-coated winter New York, Max Payne thrives on seedy hotels ridden with prostitutes and back alleys full of mobsters, creating a blackened atmosphere well ahead of its time. There are also some deliciously nasty supporting characters and a plot that twists and turns delightfully over its lengthy three parts, helping to add to this ambiance. The game is unafraid of displaying its influences too, there’s plenty of banter between guards as they discuss classic martial arts films, and the deliriously violent ending in which Max storms the headquarters of a villainous corporation seems a direct homage to the final shoot-out in The Matrix.

It might be visually showing its age, but Max Payne remains an expertly crafted slice of gothic entertainment, packed with pop culture, stained characters and levels of violence to rival Grand Theft Auto. Max’s character is both terrifying and oddly likeable, and it’s no wonder GTA’s creators Rockstar Games bought this iconic franchise.

8/10

 

 

Captain Phillips review: A gripping and intelligent American thriller (come again)!

It’s fair to say the film landscape has become dreadfully cluttered with movies featuring the line “based on a true story” over the past few years. In fact, I’ve recently noticed fewer films which lack those dreaded words than films that do, something that never ceases to depress me as Hollywood begins to give up on imagination in favour of unnecessary sequels and real-life pictures. But Captain Phillips is something different; it’s a film that truly demonstrates just how brilliant a movie can be. Even when it’s based on a true story.

Captain Phillips sets itself in 2009, as Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), captain of the Maersk Alabama, sets sail for Kenya laden with 17000 metric tons of cargo and twenty crew members. It’s not long before the inevitability of the “true story” sets in and the ship is hijacked by four Somali Pirates, led by the unsettling villainous Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi). Hanks is superb in the title role, but it’s Abdi who really steals the show as Muse, creating a character we can both empathize with and despise at the same time. The film is highly commendable for not just presenting these pirates as a series of foreign cardboard cutouts; taking screen time to flesh out their characters and even making the audience feel for their difficult predicaments.

What’s easily the best thing about Captain Phillips is its intensity, particularly towards the closing stages of the film. As the movie progresses, the screens shift from the vast establishing shots filling the exposition to confined, claustrophobic spaces and shaky camerawork, a technique expertly used to present the mounting desperation of the situation. It’s full of sounds too; the shouts of the Somalis; cries of pain and sprays of bullets build an atmospheric crescendo, enhanced by John Murphy’s powerful score (adored by myself for his work of the Kick-Ass soundtrack).

A blockbuster budgets of $55 million has been wisely spend as the film is luxuriously shot, particularly during the early stages with sweeping views of the ocean and impressive establishing shots.  The script is also intelligently written, a rare asset for most major Hollywood productions, and Paul Greengrass’s direction is excellent.  The script is perhaps guilty of becoming too overblown during the finale, but overall it sustains the viewer’s attention consistently throughout the movie.

It’s almost unheard of for a Hollywood biopic (if one can call it that) to be intelligent, well acted and entertaining all at once, but Captain Philips has it all. It’s a superb film that does full justice to a draw-dropping tale, wearing its “based on a true story” tag with pride and providing over two hours of gripping entertainment.

9/10

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines review: Pure pop-rock fun

As the days get colder and the nights draw in, it’s sometimes nice to take your mind of the chilly outdoors with simple, happy music. And that’s why we need more bands like The Vaccines, whose debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is not only jolly enough to thaw a snow covered football pitch but is also musically excellent. With strong beats and fuzzy power chords, this is as good an album as any for a cold, wet winter.


Clocking in at just over half an hour long, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines is a short album full of short songs. It’s therefore remarkable that most of it is extremely memorable, largely due to the band’s tremendous overreliance on colossal choruses. Indeed, the album’s most summery and simple song Nørgaarad repeats its “her mind’s made up she don’t wanna go steady/she’s only seventeen so she’s probably not ready” leading line four times in its 100 seconds, making use of just 3 chords in the process!

The Vaccines create a brash, unapologetic sound with Árni Árnason’s prominent bass lines merging with Pete Robertson’s powerful drumming, which helps to keep most of the songs so simple and joyful.  Justin Hayward-Young’s vocals are another matter however, as he regularly creates a darker undercurrent to songs like Post-Breakup Sex with murky lyrics and singing which sounds a little quieter in the mix than you would expect.

However, the album is best defined by songs like If You Wanna; short, sweet and featuring an undeniably overmilked chorus. It’s not complex, inventive or even particularly original, but it is great fun, and sometimes that’s all that’s needed.

6/10

  

Gran Torino review: Clint Eastwood orchestrates an entertainment masterpiece

When an established actor directs and stars in their own film, it’s sometimes the final symbol of decadence as they move, kicking and screaming, towards total irrelevance. Fortunately, this is not the case with Gran Torino, a film so deliciously entertaining that it rivals much of the brilliance of actor come-director-come-producer Clint Eastwood’s legendary past work.
 
Over the course of a career lasting more than 50 years, Eastwood has become a world famous macho symbol, but in Gran Torino he plays a man falling apart. Far from the iconic heroes and villains Eastwood portrayed in countless westerns, Walt Kowalski is an unpleasant alcoholic Korean War veteran with a bitter hatred for his Hmong community in his neighbourhood. As the film progresses however, Walt begins to see the error of his far-right views and befriends his young neighbour Thao and his family.
 
While it might sound like the classic redemption cliché, the film takes several dark turns and explores themes of intolerance and gang culture. Eastwood is superb as the grizzled Walt; his experience obvious as her swears and spits his way through every scene. That said, his direction seems someway self-obsessed, devoting most screen time to himself with few moments where he does not appear. The supporting cast is excellent, with Bee Vang playing a convincing Thao and Christopher Carley as the woefully underused priest Father Janovich who attempts to help Walt after the death of his beloved wife. This script is also sharp and crisp, merging tension and suppressed violence with flashes of wit perfectly conveyed by the cast.
 
Eastwood’s direction and the superb script make Walt’s redemption convincing through subtle changes in his character over the course of the film including language and facial expressions, and we again see the impressive wealth of Eastwood’s experience as he creates a believable and perversely likeable character. Indeed, Eastwood’s appearance makes the film, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing Walt.
 
Gran Torino is a wonderfully entertaining film, but its flashes of feeling make it an even better picture. It’s but no means perfect; you can complain of Eastwood’s overbearing direction and the occasional cliché; but even so it’s a funny and touching movie well worth its place in Eastwood’s catalogue.
 
8/10