The First Power (1990) dir Robert Resnikoff Max Payne (2008) dir John Moore

The First Power (1990) was one of those movies that scared the shit out of me when I first saw it in the early 90s (I think I saw it on UHF 62 as a double feature with Angel Heart one late Saturday night).  It just recently came out on DVD and download for netflix and I watched it last night.  The First Power is not a bad horror movie, though it is a Lou Diamond Phillips vehicle, and it's the only movie Robert Resnikoff directed.  On the plus side it has a Stewart Copeland score, Jeff Kober, and some very good - though dated - humor.  The First Power does not hold up as well as some its close contemporaries (i.e. Candyman (1992) ) but it's still worth watching again.

Max Payne (2008).  The little engine that tried and failed...or more accurately "tried and died".  I love Marky Mark and I love Marky Mark movies and I love Marco Beltrami and Marco Beltrami scores and I loved the Max Payne games but this was a walking botched abortion of a movie.  Worse than crappy, it was boooorrrring.  I paid for it so I refused to turn it off but bleh, for every one scene of "hey this kicks ass" there were forty scenes of nose picking.  I almost wanted to open my bag of Skittles and start sorting them into color coded piles.  The high point of the movie, Olga Kurylenko, who I think is the minxiest minx this side of Sherilyn Fenn or Jennifer Tilly, dies within fifteen minutes of her showing up on screen.  Half Constantine, half Sin City - Max Payne delivers on neither.  A waste of time and money and every actor that showed up in it.  Gong!