Give 'em Hell Malone (2009) Reviews

• 1940's Detective movie Noir meets Sin City-esquire action

  flowasis12009-12-23

  I saw this movie recently on bluray and I must say I was mightily impressed. Though I'm not usually a huge Thomas Jane fan,I must confess to be an aficionado of all things Ving Rhames. Frequently type cast as the heavy, it's expertly acted roles such as Ving's Boulder, than makes him the undisputed go to guy when you need a very scary henchmen/goon to strike fear in the hearts of audiences. Ving simply kicks ass in this noir thriller that's a tongue and cheek homage to the 40's style detective movies. Jane does a good job channeling his inner Humphrey Bogart and the action sequence are some of the best I've seen in a straight to bluray film in some time. I won't get into the particulars of the story, but I will say that the film is well acted for the most part(Jane obviously is having a good time in the role) and that there are a few plot surprises. Overall, you could do a lot worse than this with your Saturday evening.

  More

• My 296th Review: Surprisingly good film noir

  intelearts2009-12-26

  I expected this to be my Christmas turkey - but it is actually pretty darn good. The first 8 minutes (no spoiler intended) are excessive - your granny might not like it - and overall the film is raw in places - though not squirmingly so. It is a good pastiche of the 40s film noir nothing too smart or dumb, some humor, with a psycho arsonist and the obligatory Japanese girl with knives, a high body count, a hardboiled hero, a femme fatale, a decent enough plot, and all in all the time went by very fast indeed. All in all, an uber violent and cool attempt with comic book sensibilities that fans of Sin City, Shoot Em Up, Wanted, and The Tournament will lap up.

  More

• Nice looking but mediocre

  drgrozozo2009-12-24

  Lots of gory effects and nice idea about throwing them into ambient of film-noir. That's about it for this movie. As for acting, I only liked supporting actors French Stewart and Leland Orser (Frankie and Murphy) as rest of the cast was mediocre at the best. Never felt any spark between boring Elsa Pataky (Evelyn) and not-so-believable-as-unbuttoned-drunkard Thomas Jane (Malone). Malone does get a cool voice, that seems to be a standard for cinematography these days :) Characters are cartoonish, we can see bits of Sin City in it, unfortunately they are clumsily developed and often over the top. World is mix of 50s and cell-phones, music is scarce but appropriate and pleasant. There are few fresh spots and lot more clichés and borrowed places. Too bad, with more creative freedom it could be fun flick. Overall movie looks good, it just doesn't have good enough script. I doubt you could say who actually hired who to do what and why when you finish watching.

  More

• Shootings galore, but there is a story in here

  bob-rutzel-12010-07-03

  Former Detective and now freelance vigilante (for lack of a better description) Malone (Jane) believes he was set up and he needs to find out why the box everyone is trying to get is so important. Watching this movie was like watching a comic book come to life. The dialogue, costumes, and cars from the 1940s made it so. I know many action movies are based on comic book super heroes, but this was going a bit too far and I almost shut it down. And, as far as I know there was no comic book based on the Malone character (I could be wrong about it, but…….I'm just saying). There is so much shooting and killing in the beginning, sleepy time was coming upon me. But, nothing else was on tap so I stayed with it. Actually, it was quite entertaining and not bad at all. Yes, the shootings and killings went on unabated, but there was a story in there too. Honest. For those of you (and me too) who forgot who Thomas Jane is let me fill us all in. He is the Punisher in those other movies actually based upon The Punisher comic book. Well, he may as well have been the Punisher in this one too. But as he says, he is a hard one to kill and yet, he does take some pretty hard whacks, and gunshots too. But, not to worry his mother tends to his gunshot wounds. This Malone character doesn't mess around and neither does Doug Hutchinson appropriately called Matchstick, who likes to light fires every place he goes to kill people. Ving Rhames is a mountain of a man and if I heard it right, his character, Boulder, used to work with Malone back in the day on the job (Police work). The only thing he is afraid of is the story he believes that Malone actually reached in and took the hearts out of the people who killed his whole family and ate the hearts. And, let's not forget Gregory Harrison (as Whitmore), from some medical TV show back in the day. Well, he's a meanie in here and likes to use a baseball bat. This is non-stop action, shootings and killings,but there is a story in here. Honest. You just have to stay with it. Okay, some twists too. A meaningless note: sometimes Thomas Jane sounds like James Arness You know from Gunsmoke back in the day. Oh, one more thing. There is a note at the end of the movie that says: TO BE CONTINUED. Can't wait. Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: Yes, a brief shot of Elsa Pataky in the shower. Language: Yes.

  More

• In absolute truth...

  djkaspar2009-12-29

  I first caught sight of this movie through a small article on a flick site. The theme interested me, and Ving on the cast made me rent it. James is not the best actor in the world, surely not as bad as his older lookalike, Lambert, but it's not fair to say he's not right for the part. I thought he was the only guy acting like the movie needed him to. I felt a lot of genre satire, and his apparent over-the-topping was precisely what I thought made Malone a pleasant character. Don't forget he did the amazing Stander in 2003, and worked great with Deborah Unger (now, she's something else...). Although he also did the pitiful Punisher. As for Elsa... what a disappointment! Her Spanish- Italian accent makes the character sound like an amateur Pakistani singer trying to qualify for American Idol. Stupid accent, absurd acting... but a fine looking woman nonetheless. But in reality, the biggest casting mistake was here... a more skilled actress, or at least, one who had a proper believable accent perhaps. (I doubt an emigrant could be so eloquent and yet have such a weird accent, so that made her totally over the top). Then, the "villain", Whitmore... never saw that actor before - that might not be a bad thing, though. But it was, he never felt dense, intense, or cruel... it's like he sounds like a detached and unrelated personage, someone who does not fit the movie. His output is the most evidently out of sync and the weakest of all, but I don't think this was a casting mistake - it's just bad writing and bad directing. Then there's so many holes in the writing... when Matchstick holds the kerosene against Evelyn and stupid Malone doesn't shoot his ass. What could he do? Wet her full of kerosene? I thought there was more attention given to the dialogs of Malone and Evelyn, and the speeches of Matchstick, that with any other character's discourse. Of course, Matchstick is annoying after 2 minutes into the film... his over-predictable and over-stereotyped infancy stories, his over-obsessed body language (the site does no allow me to use the proper scientific word for spacial body management) and his stubborn persistence throughout all the film kill the few moments of glory that Hutchison can provide for his faulty character. Finally, the real great character... Frankie The Crooner, played by the hilarious French Stewart. I hadn't seen Stewart since his 3rd rock from the sun days. In this movie I got to hear him swear and play a pimp crooner wannabee. Loved his look, feel, output, delivery, all perfect. Too bad he's not cast more often. Also the Stallone conspiracy: the car (1952 Chop Top Buick Straight 8) is the same as in Cobra, the mom is the same character idea as in "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot"... I see a Stallone pattern. I also agree that Matchstick is a timid attempt at recreating a villain as cunning and cruel as the Joker - the myth portrayed by the eternal Ledger, that Ving's Boulder is a rip off of Miller's Sin City character, Manute... and that the Mauler is the other Asian ninja hooker in Sin City, but she actually speaks (although poorly) in this flick. So a lot of this film is a collection of faulty rip-offs. Even the name Malone has been used countless times in this genre before! Seriously, you need a writer? I'll script you right up! Final words: it's a 5 for me. Because for all it's faulty downsides, it's actually a reasonably fun and funny film to watch, against all expectations. Something in it's imperfections makes it oddly unique, and almost so-bad-it's-good. There's something that came out OK in the end for me, but I can't really say what it was... maybe I was impressed by the first 3 minutes (the best part), and gave the rest a "discount". But I think it's the better part of the dialogs (as I hated the editing, too), I thought was funny, had verve and could keep me there, waiting for the next cheap and clever punch line. Or the cool car (rip-off, nonetheless), or the automatic revolver, or the way Malone was always half dead... or Pataki's swift nude scene. Well, I thought the movie had enough effort in it for me to deliberate and expose a supported opinion has a lover of all cinema, from mainstream to under-achieved.

  More