All in Good Time Review

Callum Edmunds, AKA MauLer, is the latest YouTuber critic/grifter attempting to show he can make a short film with a thriller set in one location.

In a random barn in the English countryside are four hostages. Three of the hostages who plead for their lives are coldly shot by The Boss (Nicholas Rowe). However, the fourth hostage (Jason Flemyng) remains calm, and when The Boss’ gun jams, he uses it as an opportunity to find out why the hostage didn’t react.

Anyone who has visited YouTube will know that some of the most popular film and TV ‘critics’ are really culture war warriors. They see films through the lens of race and gender, and Hollywood enforcing political messages and diversity at the expense of white men. Yet, they sang Citizen Vigilante because of its political message even though it was made by someone known as one of the worst filmmakers ever. These people regurgitate the same points, which gets very boring very quickly, and they all hang with each other in their own echo chamber. Will Jordan, AKA The Critical Drinker, or the Cynical Stinker, acted as a producer, having made his own ‘proof-of-concept,’ Rogue Elements. MauLer is known for making extensive videos that could last for hours, so, ironically, one of his shortest projects was a short film.

All in Good Time started on an embarrassing note with the company logo for Crescent Creative Media. Whoever designed it should have been fired because of its inconsistency, as it used a crescent moon as a C for the word ‘Crescent’, but a crescent moon and a regular C for Creative. This was beyond amateurish, but it should have lowered everyone’s expectations early.

All in Good Time was an empty experience. It was mostly a two-hander about a crime lord and a mysterious man who doesn’t flinch when he was about to be shot. There was potential in the idea because there was some mystery, and it made the most out of minimum resources. It was set in one location. If it had been around five minutes, it could have been a solid first effort and a good learning experience. However, it was 18 minutes, or 15 minutes without the credits, and it felt longer.

All In Good Time felt like it was written by someone who wanted to make a cool British gangster film and failed miserably. The dialogue was overwritten to try and sound badass. A choice line was The Boss: “This gun has killed more people than the plague.” It was cringeworthy. Neither character had anything worthwhile to say.

The story of the short had no context. We are just thrust into the middle of the story where people beg for their lives and get shot immediately. The aim was to show that The Boss was a ruthless man who was willing to kill in cold blood. There were vague mentions of events that led the Hostage to face the Boss; they meant nothing. The Hostage could have been letting his dog do its business on The Boss’ lawn for all we know. All In Good Time was set in the same universe as Rogue Elements, and both shorts had the issue of just starting in the middle of the story, leaving viewers confused. More short films are being made set in this universe so they could flesh out the story, but I don’t have much hope.

All In Good Time did have better cinematography: it looked like it could be projected on a big screen. It didn’t look like it wanted to emulate the later works of Steven Seagal’s filmography. But that’s as far as the praise goes. Rogue Element might be nearly three times longer than All In Good Time, but The Critical Drinker’s film had more entertainment value. Rogue Elements had some decent fight scenes, and it’s easier to mock because the man who complains about badass girlbosses made a film with badass girl bosses.

The big mystery of All In Good Times was how they got Jason Flemyng involved? He’s a respected character actor who has been in blockbusters (X-Men: First Class), British hits (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch), and acclaimed dramas (Shifty, Boiling Point). Recently he has been doing a lot of TV work in the UK. Did the production offer him a good payday for one day’s work? Did someone on the production know him and call in a favour? Did he want to show support to some indie filmmakers? What’s really strange is Flemyng is an outspoken left-winger: his politics are the opposite of MauLer’s and The Critical Drinker’s.

All In Good Time was a short film with no value. It was neither entertaining nor insightful, and it can’t even be mocked.