Max Payne is yet another big-screen adaptation of a video game that fails to impress. Mark Wahlberg, who can sometimes be unexpectedly good, is at his inert worst as a stony-faced, grieving New York cop seeking revenge for the murders of his wife and child. He goes about this grim business against the clichéd backdrop of a standard-issue urban dystopia so permanently murky it's tempting to conclude the power workers all got depressed and stayed at home. There's also a subplot that revolves around a drug that conjures up giant winged demons, which may or may not be real. The gimmick of the computer game was that the player could slow down time at certain points. The movie, despite its flashy visuals, manages the same trick - its 90-odd-minute running time feels twice as long.

A DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy, and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death, join forces to solve a series of murders in New York City.