This is a video game adaptation, faithful to the game in premise alone. The premise being that the main character (played by Mark Wahlberg) is a cop who comes home to find his wife dead and baby gone (though, in the game, I believe the baby was also murdered).Now, I don't remember the rest of the game's plot, just that it had a lot of ridiculously cool action throughout. The movie? Not so much, only in the last 20 minutes. The game's style I remember had sort of a throwback to old film noir, crossed with over the top 80's police actioner. I loved the game's style. The movie? A cool style as well; completely different, but cool. The movie's style is sort of a Sin City knock-off, like a graphic novel film noir feeling (in colour, though barely), but with a cool techno crossed with metal soundtrack. This style fits with the story, policier = noir, drugs = techno metal.
Is it a good movie, though? Well, 20 minutes of action in the end does not make this an action film, so what we're left with is a mystery thriller, which is neither mysterious or thrilling. Typically in mystery/thrillers many possible solutions are dangled infront of the audience, making them guessing at which is the right one. In this movie, however, there's only one possible solution, and more and more of it is presented. It's like getting a pet rat that is covered with a blanket, and you have to guess what it is. The tail's presented, and most people will say, "hey, it's a rat!", but some rodents have that sort of tail too, so it's back is then shown, well, there's hardly any question now, then the head's shown, and it is a rat. The movie expects surprise. And you might be if you've never seen a rat before (or in this case, a police thriller before).
So, expect heavy boredom through most of the film. Oh, and expect to raise an eyebrow at Jackie from "That 70s Show" playing... what? A dominatrix assassin? It's weird. And the plot about the drugs, well, I don't want to spoil it (yes I do, but I won't), but it's pretty weird too (even if it's obvious, it's still weird). And neither of them are weird in a good way. Though, their badness made the blandness more entertaining.
The film isn't atrociously horrible, I'll give it that. And, I enjoyed the last 20 minutes and was almost convinced the film was decent because of it, then I remembered the rest, and shuddered...
3.5/10
Author: J-P
