The Next Three Days Throwback Review

Director: Paul Haggis

Writer: Paul Haggis (screenplay), Fred Cavayé

	Russell Crowe	…	John Brennan
	Elizabeth Banks	…	Lara Brennan
	Michael Buie	…	Mick Brennan
	Moran Atias	…	Erit
	Remy Nozik	…	Jenna
	Toby Green	…	Three Year Old Luke
	Tyler Green	…	Three Year Old Luke
	Jason Beghe	…	Detective Quinn
	Aisha Hinds	…	Detective Collero
	Ty Simpkins	…	Luke
	Veronica Brown	…	Female Guard #1
	Olivia Wilde	…	Nicole
	Leslie Merrill	…	Elizabeth Gesas
	Alissa Haggis	…	Junkie
	Daniel Stern	…	Meyer Fisk

In Pittsburgh,overwhelming evidence convicts Lara Brennan of killing her despised boss. For three years while she’s in county jail, her husband John cares for their young son and pursues appeals. When she loses, John decides to break her out. He consults a successful escape artist turned author, and he starts planning. He’ll need to disrupt jail routine, get IDs and passports, know how to evade a dragnet, find a destination, and squirrel away cash. Then, he gets word that Lara will be transferred to prison within the next three days– he’s out of time.

This was a movie I had wanted to see in theaters, but for one reason or another, I just didn’t get to it. so here’s my review.

The story is paced well I felt, with some moments here and there in the editing that gets this movie losing some points, but I shall get to that later. The movie starts off with a moment that is later played out in the film, and then back tracks (I’m not often a fan of those scenes but meh, it didn’t bother me too much). When we finally return to the main cast of the film, it’s at some bar and it’s a weird set of dialogue from the four characters about men and women and the work place. Then we cut to the next day, and kind of the ‘starting point’ to all the drama. Then it flicks to 3 years later, and then around the 20 min mark is when the ‘shit just got real’ moment happens. Russel Crowe’s character asks the question. ‘What if we choose to exist in a reality of our own making, does that render us insane?’ It’s at this moment I like to put myself into the story like ‘What would i do if that were me?’ That’s when you start to feel all the emotions really start to flow from Crowe (I’ll get to the acting next, bare with me). Once we get to the part where we learn he only has 3 days left, the story gets to be a lil more than one would believe, but still Hollywood enough for the audience to believe it is plausible. the story has an odd ending, but I’m going to leave that alone so you can watch it yourself.

RUSSEL CROWE CAN ACT! Since I saw him in Gladiator he has been in all these movies, and almost all have him acting at his best. He is so good at using words, facial expressions and body language to convey what he’s thinking, doing, and saying. Yes, the camera helps to emphasize these things, but it has to come from the actor first. The acting he gives us is nothing short of great like most of his other roles. I think it’s so hard to show believable affection to a kid that isn’t yours, but I would’ve sworn this kid was his they way he and the child acted with each other. Elizabeth Banks May be a good actor, but some of her moments weren’t all that. They just didn’t have the same emotion or any really emotion for that matter. She does have one moment that makes the audience really wonder what the hell? It’s when she “confesses” to killing her boss.. or was it just her insanity? The best actor besides Crowe, was Liam Neeson. Though only a cameo, it just had this essence of realism. The best acted moment is when John Brennan’s father discovers this will be the last time he says goodbye. John doesn’t know how or what his father knows, but he has the idea his dad knows this is “goodbye” and not “see you later, son”

The biggest problem I had in terms of editing and was, the time jumps. They weren’t bad, they just didn’t seem to fit well. It does give you a sympathy for John, but I feel that it could have been in terms of time jumps. There was a few random city shots that I felt weren’t needed in anyway. There wasn’t any shaky camera work that I noticed. There wasn’t any real noticeable meaningful camera shot. Yes, there were a few but nothing that was note worthy.

I don’t know how everyone else sees love, nor am I going to use this paragraph to explain my point of view on it totally. (Maybe I will in a rant or something) Love is shown in many various forms for each and every single one of us, but one thing we can all agree on, is that we know how much a person loves us by the lengths they go to, to prove it to us. Be it by simple loyalty, or by material things and everything in-between. But as I said, in these kind of movies, (drama movies really) I tend to put myself in the lead role to see if I’m actually willing to go those lengths depicted in the film for whatever the lead is chasing. It helps me connect to the film better. Its cool, I think, to see movies in that manner because then we, as the  audience, can realize our flaws as a person and where we could possibly improve. That didn’t happen so much for me because I know I’m pretty crazy when it comes something like this that I might actually do this. (Of course Might be screwed with that 72 hour curve ball.) Thats basically what this movie’s moral is. Just how far are we willing to go for our loved ones?  So if you watch this movie listen carefully to what Liam Neeson’s character says.

• Overall rating of the movie: 3.6 out of 5,
• Cinematography: 3 out of 5,
• Editing: 3.5 out of 5,
• Audio: 4 out of 5,
• Acting: 4 out of 5,
• Rent or Own? This one is tough but I think for the acting alone its worth an own.

THAT’S IT! Cheers: “To Peace” and May the Force be with you!

– Xavier – @CoolyoNgeLEW