During World War 2, in Malay, a small group of American soldiers are attacked on based and in the woods, forcing them to take a stand and fight for their lives.
Written by Brandon Slagle and directed by Louis Mandylor, the film is a war film which is decently entertaining. Slagle has recently released Battle for Saipan and shows here again that he can write a fight scene, may it be hand-to-hand fighting or weapons combat. Here, his previous collaborato takes the helm as director and does fairly well with the material. Is this a film war film fans have been clamoring for? Probably not. Is it a film that is decently written and directed? Yes. This is one of those most folks will pass by and ignore, but if one is looking for a war film with some good performances and few good fights, this is not a bad choice.
The cast here is interesting in that Mandylor also stars and directs his costars Donald Cerrone, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Peter Dobson, Ryan Francis, etc. The cast is also decent. Yes, it is yet another use of the term “decent” because the film is serviceable and so are almost every single department here. The acting is pretty good, Mandylor comes up on top of the performances with Cerrone and Jackson not far behind. The cast is decent, they all do ok, no one comes off severely out of place or like they are terrible, it shows that Mandylor can direct.
When the issues come in is with the special effects. They are terribly uneven. Some of them are great, one runs through the woods (or jungle?) is done with what looks to be all practical effects and it looks great. On the other hand, the cgi is absolutely horrible. The first bunch of effects, you’ll know when you see them, is all cgi and it’s just bad. We’re talking would have been bad 20 years ago. What happened here? Was this shot last, and they ran out of time or money for practical effects and just decided they would have to go with cgi? Did they just not care about that scene in particular? Something is off and it’s incredibly frustrating. The fact that is comes so early in the film and the effects found later in the film are so much better makes it make no sense. It also brings up the risk of people giving up on the film before being able to properly get into the story.
Both helping and hindering these effects is the cinematography by Niccolo De La Fere. The film looks really good, it’s well shot and well edited (by Austin Nordell) but because of that, it’s clear day when the bad effects are on the screen and it’s something that while it looks great, it helps the viewer see the issues with the cgi. Overall though, the film looks really good with some solid camera work and a clear understanding of how to shoot action on a medium budget.
3 Days in Malay is a decently made war film. Not being a World War II buff, it’s hard to tell if things are on point historically speaking, but as a “professional film nerd”, the film is decently entertaining, it keeps the attention throughout, has some good performances, the practical effects are solid, and it’s well shot, so it’s fits to say this is a decent movie worth checking out.