IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Michael_Elliott Malone (1987) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Malone (Burt Reynolds) is an ex-CIA agent who was used as a hitman. He has walked away from that life but when his car breaks down in a small town out West he finds himself in a new battle. It turns out that a man named Delaney (Cliff Robertson) is trying to force people out of this small town so that he can operate some sort of twisted game. Malone decides to come to the rescue of the people he's been staying with.MALONE is a pretty routine action film but at the same time it's certainly a lot better than the "A" pictures that Reynolds was doing earlier in the decade. It's funny to think that Reynolds career was booming thanks to films like THE CANNONBALL RUN, its sequel and STROKER ACE even though they were all quite terrible. The public soon caught up to that fact and before long the actor was making "B" movies.I must say, going through some of these films there's no question that the "B" movies I've watched were a lot more entertaining and that holds true for MALONE. As I said, this is a pretty standard action movie but there's certainly enough entertainment to be found here that one can have some fun with it. The film's main drawing point is Reynolds who turns in a decent performance and he's at least believable enough in the role. The film offers up nice suport from Robertson as the bad guy. Cynthia Gibb and Scott Wilson were good as the folks who take in Reynolds' character.There are some decent and rather bloody action scenes and it appears that the filmmakers really wanted a lot of blood when it came to the shooting victims. There are a lot of people being blasted here and there's no doubt that the film earns its R-rating. The story is rather weak to say the least and the film begins to lose momentum as it reaches its climax but if you're a fan of Reynolds then this is still worth watching.

lost-in-limbo Burt Reynold's might go low-key and solemn for his performance in "Malone", but when it came to delivering the action… it's a full-on assault. Slow-motion and shotgun = win-win. And that sequence is beautifully staged… for action fans. "Malone" is a moodily straight- face, if ridiculously plotted late 80s action fodder. Something very different to what Reynolds was participating in within this 80s period. Fans of "Sharky's Machine" might just dig it, because of the violence and a non-mugging Reynolds. Still what stood out to me just how closely it followed Clint Eastwood's formula in the 1985 western "Pale Rider", especially the connection the between the young impressionable girl (the delightful Cynthia Gibb) and the ex-CIA hit-man drifter who unwillingly gets caught up a small town drama. That was a western, but here it takes a modern-day approach but the western vibe of a mysterious stranger coming into town lingers heavily. Someone escaping their past, trying to get by to only find themselves bringing unwanted attention. The script is rather slapdash and some story arches are questionable (main character's ability to heal), contrived and incredibly silly. Like that of Hutton's assassin, in what feels like nothing more than to push the plot along and add motivation.Malone was a CIA hit-man who suddenly calls it quits despite the disapproval of his bosses. This leads him to hitting the road to escape his past, but he finds himself stranded in a small town when his car breaks down. For the time being he stays with the mechanic and his daughter until its repaired, but its not a peaceful stay as he comes to blows with a pitiless land developer with very ambitious political interest in seeing America weed out its traitors. For most part "Malone" is predictable, stoic and casually paced with quick bursts of brutal, heated violence. However this all changes when it becomes personal for Reynold's hit-man, as the crackerjack climatic showdown feels like something out of a comic book James Bond outing. Nonetheless some scenes do pack a punch and the striking sequence of Reynold's coming out of the shadows to confront Cliff Robertson's callously patriotic bad-guy is a marvellous touch. You gotta love his paranoid ramblings and the extreme lengths he goes to. Robertson nails down the puppeteer character with great intent, despite a certain hammy glee to his grandeur viper illustration. There's some good support from the likes of Scott Wilson, Lauren Hutton, Kenneth McMillan, Alex Diakun, Phillip Anglim, Dennis Burkley and character actor Tracy Walter who has a very memorable encounter with the title character. Director Harley Cokeliss' plain direction is sturdy without showing much style, despite his use of slow-motion and capturing shots of an attractive valley backdrop. Going back to serious roots, Reynold's "Malone" is sober, tough and mindless action."Are you so important?"

Robert J. Maxwell 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.

Comeuppance Reviews Richard Malone (Reynolds) is a former CIA assassin and Special Ops soldier whose car breaks down in the sleepy burg of Comstock, Oregon. He's trying to escape his past, but he runs afoul of the sinister Charles Delaney (Robertson), a small-town megalomaniac who is trying to take over the world. While in Comstock, he makes friends with the kindly mechanic and garage owner Paul (Wilson) , and develops an interesting relationship with his young daughter Jo (Gibb of Death Warrant fame). The town he's in is so small, he even develops fame among the locals as "The Guy With The Car Trouble". Even though Jamie (Hutton) is trying to stop his violent ways, he cuts through the corruption and red tape of the local Sheriffs and takes on Delaney and his many goons.Malone is 90 minutes of stupid entertainment at its finest. It's chock full with funny lines and absurd situations, way too many to recount here. Burt Reynolds' monosyllabic performance is just amazing - his contempt for the very fact that he has to be there is so open and unmasked. Luckily for the audience, that's absolutely hilarious. But it's not just Reynolds who has checked out: Robertson as the smarmy land developer who sends thugs to kill off his rivals is a total paycheck role. Both men phoned in their roles to extremely funny effect. I assume this was unintentional. Perhaps Reynolds assumed his mustache, funny faces, expanding gut and bizarre toupee would carry the day. As it turns out, he was right! It totally does.A lot of the running time of Malone is comprised of various people asking Richard Malone what his name is. There's always a pause, and then Reynolds exasperatingly exhales "Malone". This takes up a good 20-30 percent of the film's running time. Fortunately, this scenario gets funnier every time it happens.It has been noted the film's many similarities to the classic Western Shane (1953), but it also appears the later Radical Jack (2000) was heavily influenced by Malone (as has everyone else that's ever seen it). A mysterious man comes to a small town, a man that happens to be trained in the deadly arts, and tries to stop yet another small-town crime boss (I guess every little town has one) and must fight the "evil yokels" along the way.On the technical side, if you live in America and have Netflix streaming, watch Malone that way. It's in widescreen and the print they found is stunning. Even though we had seen it on VHS previously, watching it on streaming was like watching it for the first time. It really brought out the full potential and many nuances of the film.You'll be singing "I think we're Malone now" as you laugh your way through this very enjoyable gem.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com