User Reviews

MALONE is a typical 1980s-era cheeseball action thriller, starring none other than Burt Reynolds as the tough ex-CIA agent who finds himself involved in small town politics. It's very much of a muchness, similar to a Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal movie in terms of plot, with the latter's FIRE DOWN BELOW feeling quite close (although it's much better). The film takes rather a long time to get going, too bogged down in familiar plotting to really stand out, although the presence of such stars as Cliff Robertson and Scott Wilson help to keep it watchable. Where this does excel is in the action scenes, which are some of the most violent of the era; the blood squibs are bloodier than ever, and there's a sadistic delight taken in watching Reynolds blasting the bad guys with his hand cannon.

"Black Moon Rising" director Harley Cokeliss and British scenarist Christopher Frank have done neither novelist William Wingate nor actor Burt Reynolds any favors with their pallid cinematic adaptation of the novel "Shotgun." A contemporary remake of "Shane," this interesting actioneer doesn't live up to its promise. Of course, Burt Reynolds plays the protagonist but he should have left his toupee at home. The way that you can tell serious Burt from pretentious Burt is his hairpiece. He went without it in "Deliverance," and he was brilliant. In "Malone," the pelt on his head makes him look funny. Otherwise, the "Smokey and the Bandit" star is restrained and lifeless as the leading man who has problems shooting people that are faraway. He cannot bring himself to perforate a target in the opening scene. Later, we learn that this wasn't the first time that Malone couldn't pull the trigger. The differences between the gripping novel and the lackluster film can be summarized in the first scene. Malone pushes a conked out Mustang into town, whereas in the novel he was pushing along a VW Bug. Can you imagine Burt nudging a VW Bug? Clearly, Cokeliss and Frank must have felt that it was necessary to give our hero a cool car. Nevertheless, the VW Bug was neat in the novel. Not long after he arrives in town, our hero learns that a paranoid right wing fanatic, Delaney (Cliff Robertson of "PT-109"), has other plans for the town. Mind you, "Malone" evokes memories of the far superior western "Shane." The big difference between the books is that the narrator of "Shotgun" is a teenager. Marginally speaking, "Malone" does a few things right, but for the most part, this actioneer is contrived.

Once upon a time, in the 1970s, Burt Reynolds vied with Clint Eastwood for Hollywood male movie star domination at the box office. He was one hell of a popular guy, no denying, but when it came to outlasting and outstripping Mr Eastwood in terms of popularity, creativity and sheer movie mythology, ultimately he was on a hiding to nowhere.

Eastwood saw himself more as a film-maker than a star. Reynolds saw himself that way too. Problem was, the films Burt made were mostly uninspiring and forgettable box-office bubblegum time-wasters. Where Eastwood could boast powerfully iconic characters like The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry and Josie Wales Reynolds had Bandit, Gator McKlusky and Stick Stickley. When Eastwood started directing audiences got PLAY MISTY FOR ME, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES, and eventually the Oscar-baiting UNFORGIVEN. Reynolds gave audiences a taste of his directorial skills with GATOR, THE END, SHARKEY'S MACHINE and STICK.

By the eighties, neither actor seemed to still be at the top of their game, but Eastwood continued to remain a timeless epitome of cool machismo. Whereas Reynolds, with his 70s porno-star moustache and intricately coiffed toupé looked sadly hokey and anachronistic.

Which brings me to MALONE. This is one of those films that you feel you shouldn't like but do in-spite of your better judgement. Burt is an ex-special forces operative and CIA troubleshooter proficient at wet work. He loses his edge, aborts an assassination and walks away because he's had enough of the killing and stuff, etc, etc. He ends up stranded in a one horse town in a beautiful valley somewhere in California when his car breaks down. As is the way of such things, the parts he needs to get his car working again have to be ordered so he shelters with the local garage owner and his nubile daughter.

Meanwhile, mega rich and frozen-faced landowner Delaney (Cliff Robertson) is buying up all the local properties and strong-arming the populace out of his way. He's an ultra right-wing nut-job building an army to fight for truth, justice and the American way. Which translates as "kill anyone who doesn't agree with us or is in any way, shape or form different than us." Soon, Malone crosses the path of some of his hired goons and you can pretty much guess the rest. Yes, they've met the wrong guy this time. When Malone's ex partner and lover (Lauren Hutton) ends up with a plastic bag over her head at the hands of Delaney's thugs his aversion to all the killing and stuff, etc, etc, is forgotten and Burt and his trusty toupé embark on a one man wigged-out mission to blow them all away.

What can I tell you. It's dumb, predictable, contrived, thick-eared and really quite low rent. And it's great fun. Burt takes it all quite seriously, but ironically looks utterly absurd. The moustache, the wig, the denims, the paunch. But he punches, runs, jumps and shoots with remarkable enthusiasm and prowess. Whilst looking utterly absurd. Cliff Robertson has the quizzically stunned expression of a man who once won a best actor Oscar and is now wondering just what the hell happened to his career and just how did he wind up a second stringer in films like MALONE.

Yet I don't resent this movie one iota. Certainly not enough to call it a guilty pleasure because I don't feel guilty in the least. I like this film because I enjoy it. And if it came down to a choice of kicking back with some DVDs at home and watching either MALONE or MILLION DOLLAR BABY (even though Eastwood is number one in my book) it's going to be a clear case of home MALONE.

Burt Reynolds is an ex CIA hit man who coincidentally gets caught up in some sort of well-funded, ultra-patriotic plot in a small town in Oregon. Mister Big in this scheme is Cliff Robertson. Like one of those corrupt cattlemen in generic Westerns, he runs the town, including the sheriff, Kenneth MacMillan. When Reynold's car breaks down, he stays with the friendly garage owner, Scott Wilson. Wilson's nubile young daughter takes a shine to the disillusioned and taciturn Reynolds but he's too proper to take advantage of her advances, the fool.

After a run-in with a couple of Robertson's assassins, Reynolds winds up with a couple of bullets in his belly. He survives, of course, and is rescued and taken to a safe house by an old friend from the Company, Lauren Hutton. The suave local goons soon find the safe house and plastic-bag Hutton to death. This annoys the hero. And it provides him with the revenge motive that leads to the thoroughly predictable climactic shoot out.

Neat location shooting in British Columbia. Verdant forests, jagged hills, a pervading sense of tranquility.

Reynold's part could have been played by Charles Bronson, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, the young Clint Eastwood, the aging John Wayne, or Babaloo Mandel. It wouldn't make any difference. It's a strictly routine action movie put together with all the generic elements -- the car chase, the exploding fireball, the oily hood who never blinks, the villainous smirk, the hero who holds his feelings in check, the ugly guns, the incandescent eyeballs of the man behind the curtain.

Burt Reynolds is a likable guy. Few actors lack pretense the way he does, unashamedly and in a funny, self-deprecating way. But he never really had any good scripts except "Deliverance" and "Boogie Nights." Cynthia Gibb was already in her mid-20s when this was shot, not the teen ager her character is supposed to be. Not that it matters. Her acting skills are modest at best but she's had dance training and, in some eerie way, it lends cachet to her extraordinarily conventional beauty. Her nose in profile could have been designed with the aid of one of those plastic French curves that are used in high school geometry classes.

Cliff Robertson is a fine actor in the right role. He never dazzles because he's given to subtleties. The flamboyant "Charly" was an outlier for him. In other roles, as the CIA bureaucrat in "Three Days of the Condor," he manages to get all kinds of signals across with the merest change of expression, a smooth smile or a momentary lift of the eyebrows. By the time of "Malone", he must have needed parts because this stereotype is unworthy of him. He died recently.

The film is diverting, that's all.

Richard Malone is an ex-CIA agent, who wants to forget his past and maybe start things all over again.

Travelling through the United States, Malone has to stop for a few days in a small but beautiful town, after his car breaks down.

He soon becomes a friend of a family, and discovers that an eccentric millionaire of the region, Charles Delaney, keeps all the habitants of the town under his power, by fear and coalition.

What Delaney really wants is to become the next president and, soon, dominate the world.

But Malone decides not to make things so easy for Delaney: using his CIA profit, he will challenge him and all his hired assassins...

When Burt did Shane...

A typical action movie from Burt an MGM which were rife during the late eighties, but this is noticeable for three things, Burts wonderful wig, Burts increasingly tight trouser and shirt combo, and one of the most strangest bro-mances I have ever seen.

To let someone with a moustache of that calibre stay in your house after only meeting them once is strange, but the relationship the two male leads have is beyond the volleyball scene in Top Gun.

For the rest of the movie though, it's pretty standard, if very watchable stuff. Malone becomes protector and spends the majority of the film hiring a stunt double whenever he has to run from a distance.

Nothing really happens, there is a crash, and a siege which concludes with Malone sitting in the shadows and coming into view a couple of times.

The cast are fine, and it's okay stuff to watch, if forgettable.