Album Review

Give ‘Em Hell Malone –

• 19th May 2010

Taking a rather pulp subject of the classic private detective and turning it into what looks like a period set uber violent caper is clearly what the film-makers had in mind here. And for a long while it seems to work. You half expect it to go all Sin City on you with the level of OTT violence on show.

The film opens impressively enough with a long action scene where the bones break, the glass shatters and the blood flows. Thomas Jane as ever playing a noteworthy anti-hero, Malone. He dresses the retro part, talks the gumshoe talk, and even drives a rather old fashioned looking car. But it’s set in modern day. It just seems like a certain amount of characters have been trapped in time in this world.

As usual our Gun for hire finds himself embroiled in a business that appears out of their depth – Called in on a simple job that turns out to be way more complicated and by turns finds half the gangster community chasing him down for “The Meaning of Love.”

The supporting cast includes many a familiar type of gangster along with the always game Ving Rhames putting in a heavy appearance. Then you have Doug Hutchinson (The Green Mile) playing another level of psychotic villain (Much in a similar vein as he did in the last Punisher movie). This guys is covered in burns and is called Matchstick (Yup! He has played with fire one too many times).

Director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) makes a brave stab at giving the film an overall noir look and feel, but there is also a cheapness to the design that the editing just can’t escape.

There is just about enough drama and tongue in cheek dialogue to help it get by. The revelations at the end are welcome, but rendered a bit stale as they are revealed in part by a main villain who in all honesty is probably the films weakest link. Still the end coda implies that the story will continue. This is probably going to be down to how much money this film manages to rake in.

It is a sub-standard film that doesn’t for a second take itself seriously, so if you quite like disposable trashy pulp in your film entertainment then this would make a good rent.