As many of us long-time gamers would know, the videogame industry has long tried to emulate the movie industry. In the 90s, that was made manifest by games chocked full of FMV content that proclaimed themselves as 'interactive movies'.
In reality, most of these products could hardly be considered 'interactive'. They were really just stories on railroad tracks that tied the gameplay down to the FMV content. Nevermind the fact that much of this FMV was poorly directed material featuring actors with declining prestige and questionable talent (Tia Carrere? Kirk Cameron? I'm supposed to be impressed?)
Any twit can use 'movies' to string together the context that drives the design.
Max Payne, on the other hand, is a franchise rethinks the idea of games that are 'inspired by the movies' by using the conceits of cinema --- camera angles and the use of shutter speed to 'manipulate' time as it exists on the screen --- as the basis for its entire design.
If that sounds kind of high falutin, then think about it in these plainer terms: In
Max Payne, you are the director and the survival of your lead actor depends entirely on your cinematography. Just because Max can move in slow motion, it doesn't mean the world is at his mercy of his every dive and pirouette.
Mindless choreography doesn't just result in a boring fight scene: Shoot-dodging into an open area isn't just nonsensical in a movie, it results in death. Waste your bullet time gratuitously and suddenly you're out of the precious stuff at a time when it would be most dramatically opportune to use it.
As such,
Max Payne is the art of directing action cinema made into a supremely simple action game.