ViewGuide

Created Dec 14, 2010 11:24PM PST • Edited Dec 24, 2012 10:35AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Any engaging thriller starring Russell Crowe makes for a better than average movie, even if this one isn’t getting the credit it deserves. So what if it’s implausible to the point of surrealism. Such reality liberties are the way of the world these days. Fortunately they lead to more than a few what-will-they-think-of-next grins in The Next Three Days.

   So Crowe’s wife gets sent up for a murder she didn’t commit and the only way he can save their family is to break her out. It’s no plot spoiler to state that he succeeds. The fun is watching how he does it, and in how he rallies others – including his wife – to his cause.

   Beyond the lovely and versatile Elizabeth Banks, the large cast features Russell Crowe and a bunch of vivid supporting players, many in cameos. The Liam Neeson scene in the trailer? Pretty much his entire performance.

   It’s also worth noting that The Next Three Days is the second strong Pennsylvania movie this fall, the other being Unstoppable. This one shows off Pittsburgh to great effect: incline railway, Golden Triangle, livable neighborhoods, even the polar bear at the Zoo.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Russell Crowe never gives a poor performance. Never. This isn’t one of his best, but he’s still great.

   Elizabeth Banks goes from glam to slam, yet fails the test of greatness: It’s possible to imagine other actresses playing her role.

   Notable supporting players:

   • Moran Atias steams up the the movie’s opening scene as an arrogant hottie. More please.
   • Jason Beghe’s got a great he-man voice and look. Why isn’t he a bigger star?
   • Olivia Wilde plays a smart and ultra gorgeous MILF. She’s gonna be a huge star.
   • Daniel Stern sighting.
   • Brian Dennehy is perfectly used. This great actor should work more.
   • Liam Neeson plays nearly the same role that Micky Rourke did in Body Heat, pace my The Wrestler review.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    The notion of a modern and mild family man pulling off a major prison break provides the film’s essential irony. A Prius driving, iPhone using lit teacher, he’s the quintessential Obama voter from ’08.

    Remake of the 2008 French thriller Anything for Her.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    Part of the film’s charm is watching a committed couple work through laughably heightened issues that are nonetheless recognizable to workaday parents and marrieds. Think you’ve got challenges in your house? You ain’t seen nothing.

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

    Sexy talk livens up the opening, after which women and children get severely menaced. Thrilling.

17. Sex Titillating 2.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.4

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.5

    What is it with the routine surrealism in ostensibly normal movies these days? Sure 33 visual FX people and two dozen stuntmen will buy you a 2.5 rFactor, but it becomes more funny than thrilling after a while.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Glib 2.0

24. Physical Surreal 3.0