Give Em Hell Malone

Give Em Hell Malone was directed by Russell Mulcahey and stars Thomas Jane, Ving Rhames, and Elsa Pataky. It's a riff on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, namely Kiss Me Deadly, right down to the mysterious case.

I am in a weird place with this one. The movie was sold to me as being set in an alternate fifties very similar to Sin City, and on that point alone, it had me wanting to see it. In actuality, the film was definitely set in the present with the main character wearing a fedora and trench coat which made it hokey instead of cool. This might not have bothered me if I was forewarned.

What disappoints me the most is that a movie like this had real potential and it could have been a lot better if they had spent the money and gone full retro with the look. I was half expecting something like Streets of Fire which had a hybrid look as well.

But  Give Em Hell Malone looked cheap in a very bad way-- like a total parody of the genre.  Again that would have been ok if I had known what to expect. But it was advertised as more.

The other thing that bothered me, and I think we need to retire, is the stereotypical Asian babe Martial arts assassin. It was great in Sin City, but it was a lazy construct in this one and made it more cliché.

The more I write and the more I think about this opus, it has all the worst elements of a Roger Corman movie and none of the charm. Skip this one and check out the real stuff.