DVD Reviews

Give 'Em Hell Malone – DVD Review

By Frankie Dees Jan 30, 2010, 15:20 GMT

When private eye Malone attempts to retrieve a briefcase from a seedy hotel, he walks into a trap. Bullets and blood fly as Malone battles an army of thugs to protect not only the case, but also a bombshell client who may be more trouble than she\'s worth. Starring Thomas Jane, Ving Rhames and Elsa Pataky. Directed by Russell Mulcahy. ...more

You gotta give Thomas Jane credit for taking chances with experimental genre projects, but (much like ‘The Mutant Chronicles’) this film is less than the sum of its parts. The film is mean to be a contemporary ode to film noir, but falls short.

It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly it went wrong as the script by Mark Hosack seems serviceable and Thomas Jane and Ving Rhames give it their all, but the film ultimately seems to suffer from a low budget that doesn’t allow the scope of this project to breath. It also has to deal with surprisingly sloppy direction by the usually dependable Russell Mulcahy of ‘Highlander’ fame. 

We start off with a promising ultra-violent opening that gets us acquainted with the narrating titular Malone (Jane) where geysers of blood are sprayed in the quest to secure a suitcase.

Settling into film noir conventions right away with Jane narrating in a raspy all-knowing voice advising that “once you’re dead, you stay dead”, the film seems to take itself seriously here but then quickly falls into a more cartoonish ‘Dick Tracy’ feel. 

Malone was hired to retrieve the suitcase by our film’s femme fatale Evelyn (Elsa Pataky). She is attempting to make a trade to get back her brother - who was taken hostage by a local mob boss Whitmore (Gregory Harrison). Malone soon has his hands full since Whitmore has a couple more tricks up his sleeves – some nasty villains by the names of Boulder (Ving Rhames), Matchstick (Doug Hutchinson) and Mauler (Chris Yen). The villains’ purpose in the film is simply to get the suitcase by any means possible. 

There are other convoluted machinations going on, but that’s basically the gist – Malone’s got something and some colorful villains want it.

Ving Rhames is the most effective of the heavies (literal in his case) with Boulder being evil only through the power of love (makes sense when you see it). However, Doug Hutchinson, who I’ve been a fan of in the past, clearly relishes overplaying his role here as Matchstick - in a villainous role so over the top Pacino’s ‘Big Boy Caprice’ might be getting jealous. French Stewart gets to elicit a few laughs as ‘Frankie the Crooner’, a singing lothario type. 

Again, besides an amusing opening, it’s not near as much fun as it sounds and never really manages to take shape as a self-contained movie. It actually kind of reminded me of a television pilot that showed promise but needed to work on its formula - discounting the violence and language of course. 

The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks relatively good for a low-budget pic. Colors are purposely saturated a bit to tap into that whole film noir look. A Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also included. 

Special Features basically consist of three on-set interviews with Thomas Jane, Doug Hutchison and Elsa Pataky. The interview with Thomas Jane is particularly amusing as a continuous beeping keeps happening in the background and Jane seems visibly annoyed and comes off as somewhat of a jerk.

It’s hard to say whether he’s trying to be in character or what but the fur coat he’s wearing during the interview doesn’t help his case much. If you’re a Jane fan, I suggest you stay away from this interview.

Credit for trying something new but I think Rain Johnson had much more success with trying to bring film noir elements into a contemporary world with ‘Brick’. Jane and Rhames do a good job, but the film’s tone never finds its footing. I’m striking this up as an interesting failure that might be worth a rental to fans of the cast.

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