Movie Review: The Next Three Days

As mentioned in my last post, DirecTV recently gave me three free pay-per-view movies for being such a loyal customer. Wasn’t that nice of them? I really do like DirecTV. The only problem I have with them is that their CEO is the third highest paid CEO in America and yet they raise their prices by about $4 every couple of years. Um, Michael White, how about you take a pay cut and pass the savings along to your loyal customers, like me?

Anyway, I haven’t seen a lot of movies in the past few months, which you may have noticed from lack of movie reviews here on the blog. So, I was pretty excited to get this unexpected gift since there are a lot of movies I have missed in the theater.

Last week, I got the first of the three free movies – The Next Three Days, starring the always handsome Russell Crowe. Although I do think he was at his handsomest in Gladiator – wouldn’t you agree?

I knew that Tony had seen this movie because when it came out many moons ago, he tweeted that it was good; and I know from experience that it’s hard to please Tony when it comes to the movies so I figured I would give it a look and see if I agreed.

The basis for the movie is this: Russell Crowe’s wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, is arrested for murder and all the evidence points to her guilt. The first half hour or so was confusing at times to me because unlike some movies, there was no “three months later” or “the next day” or “one year later”. Instead, she was arrested in one scene and in the next she’s lost her chance of an appeal. I found that sequence to be kind of strange.

The movie goes on to show how Russell (yes, we’re on a first name basis) plans a jail break for his wife. I don’t think I’m giving too much away here because I think most people out there know that this is the basis for the movie. During the time of the jail break planning, the movie is quite suspenseful and I love a suspenseful movie. However, I don’t know if it’s me getting older and more realistic or what the deal is, but all I could think about was how stupid Russell’s plan was and hoe he should stop worrying about breaking his wife out of jail and start planning a future for him and his kid.

I won’t let the cat out of the bag as far as whether or not Russell breaks his wife out because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ll let you rent the movie and see for yourself. As far as suspense thrillers go, this one was pretty good. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and even caught myself holding my breath on a few different occasions. If you can overlook the fact that Russell should be spending his time more wisely than planning a jail break, then you should really enjoy this movie. Pick it up from your local Redbox this weekend.