Give ‘Em Hell, Malone is yet another one of those straight to DVD pseudo noir action flicks trying to cash in on the style of much better films like Sin City but unfortunately comes off more like a carbon copy of other bad films like The Spirit, which were also trying to rip off the Sin City magic.
Tom (billed here as Thomas) Jane is the title character of Malone, an ex-private detective who is hired to retrieve a mysterious suitcase from a building full of heavily armed gangsters. After a violent shoot out, Malone realizes he was set up and sets out to investigate who is responsible and also to discover the meaning behind the suitcase’s contents which have a personal connection to Malone and for some strange reason are constantly referred to by all characters as “The meaning of love”.
While the film has shamelessly “cool” moments of over the top violence and some forced noir-esque dialogue, it’s not a complete write off due to some of the talent involved.
Tom Jane is a fine, underrated actor who is always enjoyable playing the tough-as-nails herom but ever since appearing in minor hits like The Punisher and The Mist, his film career has seemed to have really stalled. Luckily he has the critically acclaimed new HBO series Hung to fall back on.
Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) co-stars as a mob henchman but hasn’t much to do except look big and tough, which he always pulls off successfully. Incredibly sexy Spanish actress Elsa Pataky (Snakes on a Plane) gets to play the love interest of sorts but ultimately comes off as just plain annoying and her accent doesn’t do much to help the situation. Then there is the matter of Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile), who plays the film’s most animated villain Matchstick.
Matchstick is an over the top cartoony villain that is hideously disfigured due to a childhood accident playing with matches and now uses his fascination with fire as his weapon of choice. At first there seemed to be something engaging about Hutchison’s performance until it becomes abundantly clear that he is just lazily channeling the vocal ticks and mannerisms of the late great Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker from The Dark knight. At that point there wasn’t much left to savor but Tom Jane’s tough guy routine and a partly amusing extended cameo from French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) as a sleazy lounge singer who utters the line “Suck my Sinatra”.
Aussie director Russell Mulchay helms this splendid misfire. Mulchay started his feature career off with much promise by directing one of the definitive 80’s cult classics Highlander, however a few years later undid all that good will by directing its universally loathed sequel and has since then for the most part been relegated to straight to DVD hell.
Verdict:
If you feel tempted to pick up Give ‘Em Hell, Malone while you’re at the local video store, do yourself a favour and don’t. Just rent Sin City again instead.
