Max Payne
Dir: John Moore
2008
**
Having never played Max Payne the video game, on which the film is based, I have nothing to go on as far as adaptation goes but I'm not sure if that matters so much does anyway. I liked the noir style of this film, the direction is impressive, the darkly lit alleyways, the no-mans land of New York's side streets and the lingering snow that continually floats throughout the film were all really nice touches. I thought the CGI demons/dark angels were done particularly well. Also, the acting was fine - Mark Wahlberg isn't the worlds greatest actor but he's likable and that's what gets him through. I thought Chris "Ludacris" Bridges was also quite good and thought he deserved a bigger role. The only real problem and unfortunately the most important thing to get right in a film, was the story. It was uninteresting and predictable. Style over substance.

A Good Day to Die Hard
Dir: John Moore
2013
*
I didn't think much of Die Hard 4 but compared to this it was a masterpiece. It couldn't have felt less like a Die Hard film if it had replaced Bruce Willis with Melissa McCarthy. There were big scenes but not that certain special scene that all the other Die Hard films had. Just when you think they've done something good, like the nod to the first film where they throw Hans Gruber out of a window, the bad guy gets unnecessarily chopped up by a Helicopter. A clear case of too much of one thing and not enough of what matters. Die Hard 5 is somehow my 6th least favorite Die Hard film.