Looking at more fan film stuff because I can sometimes see talent behind them, I decided to look at the last of the Max Payne fan films on IMDb. I will have to say aside from it all being in Italian I'm thinking "Aside from it's length, this is exactly how a Max Payne movie should be made".

If you've played the games you get a basic plot synopsis of it in this game, there are changes - sure but unlike the Hollywood movie I actually didn't mind this. It's about a cop who's wife gets murdered by junkies addicted to a synthetic drug called "Valkiria" (I'm guessing it's Italian for Valkyr). Crazily obsessed he starts pursuing leads on this. His friend Alex Baldur gives him the name Jack Lupino, the one who'd most likely be giving the drug out but he is an addict himself. After Max kills his gang and finds it has connection to a corporation named AESIR, he gets a call from BB Hengsley asking to meet and it turns out he's a traitor. When he kills the help BB brought along to kill Max, he says that he won't win and he says an ending monologue on how he will.

In terms of faithfulness to the source material, this hits it on the head better than any of the Max Payne films that I have seen. It is a very stylized movie (which actually works really well) and for the budget the action isn't half bad. I say isn't half bad because you can tell fake, but this is a bunch of friends with a camera so given the circumstances it's nitpicking.

If there was any really big complaint with it, it's that I don't feel the emotional connection to the story in the same way I do for the games. I mean they do this for some part but in terms of wanting to see Max get out of it okay, wanting the villains to be killed and feeling sad when his wife dies. All this stuff is lacking in getting anything but the bare minimum of reaching that.

In terms of an adaptation it's actually pretty good in telling the story of the game considering the circumstances. But my advice is look at this and then look at Max Payne: Hero. Because that short does get the drama of the situation across better. I will see some of the other stuff this guy has done but in short, They DO follow the story pretty well but the emotion is lacking.