Never have I been as happy to see a half-hearted attempt at a video game cinematic adaptation debut as I was when I saw that Max Payne had knocked Beverly Hills Chihuahua off the top spot.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Max Payne opened this weekend in the U.S. at number 1 with a respectable — given the time of year it is — $18 million. Based on the video game of the same name, the movie took a different, more ethereal approach to a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a fantastic shoot-em-up.

Sadly, Beverly Hills Chihuahua took second spot, showing once again that no matter how bad a movie is there will still be people who want to see it. Over and over and over and”¦ It managed to pull in $11.2 million this weekend, only just ahead of The Secret Life of Bees, which took third spot and $11 million. I’m not sure what it’s about, but it has Dakota Fanning in it, along with Queen Latifah and Paul Bettany, so I might go see it anyway.

When it comes to pure and unadulterated hatred, the MPAA ranks pretty high on my list (right next to the RIAA). Most of the time my ire is quirked by their dealings with DRM, permissions, and distribution. But this time, I’m sitting right next to John Moore, director of the upcoming Max Payne movie, in my hatred concerning their lack of consistency with movie ratings.

Moore has expressed his derision for the MPAA’s decision to give Max Payne an adults-only R-rating in a recent interview with Das Gamer. Describing their decision as being part of what he calls “Batman blowback,” Moore says that the MPAA “gave The Dark Knight a PG-13 rating and basically sucked Warner Bros. cock.”

With an October 17th release for Max Payne coming up, Fox has just released an international trailer for the movie.

Starring Mark Wahlberg as the title role, the movie is based on the legendary, hard-hitting interactive video game of the same name.

Max Payne tells the story of a maverick cop determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murder of his family and partner. Hell-bent on revenge, his obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmare journey into a dark underworld. As the mystery deepens, Max (Wahlberg) is forced to battle enemies beyond the natural world and face an unthinkable betrayal.

Check out the international trailer here below, along with the standard trailer recently released.