Malone (1987) * *

Directed by:  Harley Cokeliss

Starring:  Burt Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, Kenneth McMillan, Cynthia Gibb, Lauren Hutton, Scott Wilson

Burt Reynolds was once the biggest box office attraction in the world.    His presence in even the poorest of films would boost the grosses.    By 1987, the year Malone was released, this was no longer the case.     Like Sylvester Stallone, Reynolds was a charismatic actor who chose mindless action films over films which could display his true acting chops.     No one faults him for it.    Who among us would turn down $20 million per movie for the sake of art?    But after a string of flops, even the action film roles dried up.   A movie like Boogie Nights (1997) gave Reynolds the chance to show his stuff and it resulted in an Oscar nomination.    Those roles, however, were few and far between.

Malone was a theatrical release, but it felt like a made-for-TV movie, albeit a violent one.    Reynolds plays the title character: a former CIA operative who opts for a less complicated life and stumbles across a small town under the thumb of a guy named Delaney (Robertson).    Delaney is a powerful man who is building up a network of baddies in an attempt to overthrow the government---I think.    At least, that is what it sounds like, although Robertson doesn't exactly spell that out in his numerous speeches he gives to Malone.    Reynolds was undergoing health issues at the time of filming (it was feared he had contracted HIV) and he simply looks and sounds exhausted.    His character is supposed to have a weariness about him brought on by years of killing for the CIA, but Reynolds is a bit too weary.    In some cases, he can barely muster up enough strength to string two sentences together.     He comes alive when there are fistfights or shootouts (or was that simply his stunt double).    It has sad to see an actor with such natural charisma and charm struggling so mightily.

Malone's car breaks down and he befriends the local auto shop owner (Wilson) and his very pretty daughter Jo (Gibb) who obviously has a crush on Malone.    He fends off her advances, although it seems to me he would hook up with her if he had more energy to do so.    There was certainly a vibe.   Instead, the shadowy character named Jamie (Hutton) is introduced to give Malone a hook up closer to his age.    She plays a current CIA agent assigned to kill Malone, but she winds up in bed with him with no further explanation.    I am guessing she is a former girlfriend, so whomever assigned her to kill him clearly was asleep at the wheel.   

The effect of blood spurting out on people's shirts after they have been shot looks like a ketchup packet exploding.    Malone is another of those movies in which the baddies fire dozens of rounds at the hero and miss badly, while Malone simply has to fire once to take them down.     This is also the type of action movie in which the hero walks away from a building that explodes into a giant fireball.    Debris and flames fly everywhere, but the hero simply continues to walk toward the camera without looking back or even being jarred by the noise.     How do they always know how to be just far enough away from an explosion so they don't get hit by anything?    And has Malone blown up so many other buildings before that he can simply ignore the loud noise?    I guess you get used to it after a while.

Malone is predictable and by rote.   I guess it is the best possible film that could be made with this material, but it clearly demonstrates a decline in the Reynolds mystique.     He would have brief respites with Evening Shade and Boogie Nights, but his days as a box-office giant were clearly over.   It's sad to see it unfold on screen like it does in Malone.