The following is an editorial from Your Daily Dose of Jack. All thoughts and opinions are solely the author’s and do not represent those of the Drury Mirror.

Throughout 2019 I’ve made it my mission to watch at least one film a day in order to broaden my horizons in the art of film making. I invite you to join me on this journey, as I both watch and share my thoughts, through bite sized reviews, on the vast array of films the world has to offer. My goal is to introduce you to a variety of films, some you have heard of, others you might not have, watching them throughout the weeks as I do from the comfort of your own home. Enjoy!

“Mulan”

Graphic via Pixabay.

“Mulan” is a 1998 animated action film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, following the titular Mulan as she goes to fight the Huns for the Chinese army in the place of her father.

The animation is great, if a little restricted at times, but it is still nice to see the beautiful hand drawn animation, as it isn’t used as much nowadays even if animation has come a lot further since 1998. The scenes that take place in both the war and the city still look incredible, using nice vibrant colours that stylistically will stand the test of time.

The Chinese flair is great with relaxing and inspiring music throughout. Many of the memorable songs have become classics. “Mulan” has the signature Disney charm with good physical humour and funny dialogue that is only complemented by the great voice acting by everyone, especially Eddie Murphy as the dragon.

Despite this, it still manages to be dark in places, showcasing the horrors of war as much as can be done in a Disney film, which I appreciated.

Overall “Mulan” is a charming film with great animation and voice acting, all complemented by the distinct Chinese flair throughout. Recommended.

“Lord of War”

“Lord of War” is a 2005 crime drama directed by Andrew Niccol following an arms dealer as he sells firearms around the world whilst dodging both law enforcement and warlords.

“Lord of War” immediately sets up a uniquely stylish tone with an opening sequence that tells the story of a bullet from factory to battlefield, featuring great music throughout that helps give it this style.

Whilst the style is unique, the way it is told in the documentary style has been done lots of times before. Though it is still enjoyable, I feel like I have already seen the film. I’m treading through familiar story beats found in other films, even if that formula is effective.

Nicholas Cage is surprisingly good as the titular lord of war. He narrates throughout the film, which is only helped by good writing. “Lord of War” has an interesting concept, one that becomes even more interesting the more you learn about it, and the sheer scale of the arms dealing that goes on in this film is almost incomprehensible. This is even more shocking when you find out it’s all happening today.

Each location in the film visits has a different colour palette, which gives each setting a unique feeling. However, certain locations can be over-saturated, which feeds into that style previously mentioned but is often a bit obnoxious.

The cinematography is fairly good throughout, although at times the shots can be out of focus, which ends up looking quite unprofessional. The film is also quite slow. The pacing in the second half highlights this and was even boring to me at times despite its exciting premise.

“Lord of War” can be a great film with its stylish tone and premise that highlights a problem not often tackled. However, it is brought down by boring pacing and questionable cinematography at times. Recommended.

Photo via Pixabay.

“Roma”

“Roma” is a 2018 drama directed by Alfonso Cuarón, which follows a domestic worker and the family she works for over a number of years in 1970s Mexico City.

“Roma” is an incredibly well shot film. There’s not a bad shot in the entire film, even though it has a lot of long takes that would have taken plenty of skill to pull off. “Roma” allows you to really soak in all of the locations, so they always feel like realistic places. Due to the length of some of these shots, it’s a miracle the filmmakers even managed to pull them off with hundreds of extras often on screen together.

Along with the sheer number of extras, there are also so many different things going on in the film, whether it’s cars driving past, or rioters in the street. It is all executed with such finesse that I can’t imagine how long it took to get right. The dialogue sounds natural, and subtle plot points weave themselves into the conversation nicely.

However, “Roma” lacks any kind of significant plot, causing it to just seem like a series of events as opposed to a tight story. Coupled with the very slow pace, I often found myself bored, just waiting for something significant to occur.

“Roma” is a masterclass when it comes to camera work and direction, including some of the best I have ever seen, but the almost non-existent story and extremely slow pace left me bored through most of it. Enjoyable enough.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is a 1974 horror directed by Tobe Hooper. Five teens visit their old family farmhouse and end up stumbling upon a family of cannibals, causing them to fight to survive.

The film is tense in places, and you often feel on edge whilst watching, even if the extended chase scenes become comical at times. You often feel grimy whilst watching, like everything in the house is covered in a layer of dirt, nicely showcasing how little the teens belong there.

Graphic via Pixabay.

The set design of the house includes lots of little features which complement the fractured psyche of the family. The acting isn’t great, but it fits into the film’s low budget grindhouse style, which is paired with the realistic brutality of the violence. In the film, violence isn’t showy or over the top gory. It is just quick and brutal, which shocked me, especially since it takes place mostly in the day.

However, when the film does have night scenes they are too dark, making it hard to see what is going on. In these moments, I had trouble following the scene. The sound mixing is just bad at times, which broke my immersion into the film as the dialogue is often hard to hear.

There are also some strange quick zooms that left me confused as to why they were included, as well as some bizarre editing. Lots of random shots were included for no apparent reason, which often broke the flow of the scene and created a very abrupt ending.

Overall “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” still holds up as a very tense, low budget horror flick with some great set design and visceral violence that is ultimately let down by bad editing and sound mixing. Enjoyable enough.

“Silver Linings Playbook”

“Silver Linings Playbook” is a 2012 drama directed by David O. Russell that follows Pat, a man who just left a mental institution as he tries to rebuild his life. As he does so he finds an unlikely friend in Tiffany, who offers to help him reconnect with his wife in exchange for a competing with her in a dance competition.

The acting is from everyone is great. The two leads steal the show. Bradley Cooper is amazing. You always feel uneasy whenever he is on screen, and you never know when he is going to snap. Jennifer Lawrence, whose character is eternally distrusting, gives a cold performance and never opens herself up to anyone.

Both performances are entirely convincing, and I was invested in their relationship throughout the film. It never caused me to become bored at any moment. This is helped by the great music, which often nicely reflects the mood of the characters and in doing so makes the performances even more emotional.

The writing always helps you to connect with the characters more, and by the end of the film I felt as though I knew both of them personally. The film was also surprisingly humorous at times, and given the fairly serious subject matter, it helped to give the film much needed comedic breaks.

However, the camera work was often strange, sometimes moving far too quickly or zooming in at strange moments. Whilst it never fully broke my immersion, it did dent it a little.

Overall “Silver Linings Playbook” has some incredible performances that are nicely complemented by the film’s writing and music, and whilst the camera work can sometimes be strange, it never dulled my enjoyment enough for it to matter. Highly recommended.

“Son of Rambow”

“Son of Rambow” is a 2007 drama directed by Garth Jennings following two unlikely friends as they attempt to remake the original “Rambo: First Blood” using just a camera and their imagination.

The whole film has a childlike sense of wonder to it, which gives it quite a nostalgic tone and makes the viewer think back to when they did these kinds of re-enactments as children. Because of this, the film is quite heart-warming at times.

The two leads are surprisingly good for child actors, never amazing but always convincing enough. However, their British accents quickly get obnoxious as each character takes a different stereotypical British accent–one is posh, the other cockney, etc.

This only serves to highlight the average writing, which sounded quite amateur. The set pieces in Will’s imagination are pretty inventive, using a childlike drawing style to animate scenarios that is really effective. These drawings appear throughout the film in notebooks and on walls. They reinforce the film’s childlike sense of wonder and make it seem like a lived-in setting as opposed to just a set.

However, the camera work is relatively boring throughout, and only over did the bare minimum required to get by, never trying to impress.

Overall “Son of Rambow” is heart-warming film with decent child actors and inventive animated sequences. It’s a shame that the camera work is so uninspired and the writing so average. Enjoyable enough.

“Cradle 2 The Grave”

“Cradle 2 The Grave” is a 2003 action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. It follows a jewel thief whose daughter is kidnapped after he steals some black diamonds that an international arms dealer needs to get his hands on.

Photo via Pixabay.

The first thing you’ll notice about “Cradle 2 The Grave” is the terrible title, which not only sounds awful but has no relevance to the plot whatsoever. Following that are the bad opening titles that just look amateur and don’t give the viewer a very good first impression.

This amateur look continues in the bad editing. Random shots are inserted for no reason, and the film uses unneeded slow motion. A lot of the audio has been dubbed in post production. It looks and sounds terrible as it does not sync up at all with the mouth movements of the characters.

The camera movements are erratic. The camera constantly moves for no reason, which gets especially bad in the action scenes. Particular chase scenes are hard to watch as the camera never stops moving. The sound effects used in these action scenes are laughable. They sound like the sound designer got a collection of stock sounds and decided they needed to use all of them in the film.

To add to this is the uninspired music, which is just generic cop movie music that gets boring after about ten seconds. The acting is pretty terrible all round, and it’s not helped by the terrible writing, which includes downright cringe-worthy lines that constantly appear throughout the film. On top of that, the writing’s blatant exposition just made me roll my eyes.

The plot is incredibly generic and boring, which left me uninterested after the opening scene.

Overall “Cradle 2 The Grave” is bad in just about every way. The terrible editing, bad acting, cringe-worthy writing and boring plot meant that I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Not recommended.

Scoring System:

• Highly recommended
• Recommended
• Enjoyable enough
• Decent watch with friends
• Take a look if you’re bored
• Not recommended

Written by Jack Goodman.