The Next Three Days was a far better film than I had anticipated so perhaps that skewed by overall view of it, but I found it to be fairly even with the third act revving into high gear for a thrilling and satisfying end. But how does the Blu-ray stack up? Check it out within!
The Next Three Days (2010)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Thriller, Drama
Lionsgate | PG13 – 133 min. – $39.99 | March 8, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Paul Haggis
Writer(s): Paul Haggis (screenplay)
Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, Liam Neeson
Theatrical Release Date: November 19, 2010
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, 3 Featurettes, Deleted/Extended Scenes, Outtakes, BD-Live, Digital Copy
Number of Discs: 2
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 7.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.40
Disc Size: 44.0 GB
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish
THE MOVIE – 4/5
John (RUSSELL CROWE) and Lara (ELIZABETH BANKS) are a loving couple with a son living the American dream in a big house and driving nice cars. The movie opens, after a short mysterious scene involving John and somebody dying in the backseat of his car (we don’t see how or why until later), at a restaurant where John and Lara are having dinner with John’s brother and his wife. The couples, or I should say the ladies, are debating about whether it’s a good thing to work for a woman stemming from a heated workplace fight Lara had with her female boss. The next morning the police pound down their door and arrest her on the spot for the murder of her boss.
What apparently happened, in a stroke of really bad luck (and luck, much of the good kind, plays a significant part in this film), is her boss was struck by a fire extinguisher in a robbery attempt, the robber bumps into Lara as she’s leaving work leaving blood on the back of her coat and before leaving – with the body laying on the ground on the passenger side of her car – she picks up the extinguisher and sets it aside thus her fingerprints are on the murder weapon.
We flash forward from “the last three years” to “the last three months” where the appeal, filed by their attorney (DANIEL STERN), does not go their way and they’ve run out of options. Now, it’s the last three days and Lara is set to go to be transferred from the county jail to state prison and serve her life sentence.
John seeks out how to break her out because he knows she won’t survive on the inside – when all of her appeals were exhausted, she attempted suicide. He finds a man named Damon Pennington (LIAM NEESON) who had broken out of various prisons no less than 7 times and had published a book on his experiences inside prison. So basically John picks his brain on the how’s for which, seeing what John is doing, offers up details on what it takes and the obstacles, if you are successful, that are on the outside.
The film isn’t anything special with Russell Crowe giving a fine if not forgettable performance as he had for the past few years (including last year’s good political thriller, State of Play). He plays up the character well enough as the husband and father willing to do whatever it takes to bring his family back together. The character himself goes through a great transformation from a meager guy getting taken advantage of to kicking butt and outsmarting law enforcement towards the end, so on that front the film does go a little into the suspension of disbelieve arena.
Why The Next Three Days does succeed is in part due to a couple members of the supporting cast and writer/director Paul Haggis. First, we’ve got veteran Brian Dennehy in a role where he literally has maybe 4 lines yet but he emotes so well that it helps expand the emotional impact on Crowe and his situation; for someone who spends much of the film in jail, Elizabeth Banks also has a few great scenes one being the revelation that she’s run out of appeals and another when her son won’t even look at her; and finally Liam Neeson may only be in the film for maybe 10-minutes (if that) but given the entire plot hinges with what he has to say, it’s brilliant casting (in one of the featurettes, Haggis explains that Neeson was filming something else in Vancouver – The A-Team – but came to Pittsburgh for one day).
As for the writing and direction, there’s no doubt Paul Haggis has skills in both areas though most dismiss Crash as overrated (I still have it highly regards myself) while he excelled for his contribution in the James Bond reboot, Casino Royale as one of the 3 writers. Here, he’s remaking a recent 2008 French film entitled Pour elle (aka Anything for Her) which co-stars Diane Kruger in the Banks role. I haven’t seen that version but based on Haggis’ comments he made this to look and feel grittier in comparison which certainly at times, especially during the drug-dealer scene, it is.
One other great thing about the film comes in the score area. Outside of his work on the Batman movies, I’ve never been a great fan of Danny Elfman as I find most of his scores to be a bit too quirky for my taste (casualty of working with Tim Burton) but with The Next Three Days, there are a few moving cues and if anyone wants to hear it, try track, “The Truth” on the soundtrack, it’s both beautiful yet a bit of a haunting undertone to it.
The Next Three Days isn’t a groundbreaking thriller by any stretch but it does offer a whole lot in terms of action and enough character development to carry its sufficient 2 hour 13 minute running time.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.25/5
The Blu-ray comes with a glossy slip cover and, similar to The Expendables release, has a cut out on the back.
Feature Commentary – Writer/Director Paul Haggis, Producer Michael Nozik and Editor Jo Francis provide a low-key but decent track offering up info on the story, how it is different from the French film, different takes, casting, etc. It’s not the greatest commentary but you do get to learn a few things.
Making The Next Three Days (18:31; HD) – This is your usual ‘making-of’ featurette where it goes through the origins from the French original to translating it to American audiences and, according to Haggis, making it “darker”. The featurette has the interview footage with the cast (Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks) talking about their characters and crew (Paul Haggis, producer Michael Nozik) speaking to filming in Pittsburgh.
The Men of The Next Three Days (6:47; HD) chronicles the male actors in the film (Crowe, Dennehy, Neeson) talking about the casting and what their characters are about.
True Escapes for Love (7:38; HD) is a short featurette, hosted by Jason Begh (Det. Quinn), talking about the real stories of crime couples who helped the other break out of prison.
Cast Moments (2:25; HD) is s typical gag reel with flubbed lines or character breaks.
Deleted Scenes (13:09; HD) – There are 13 scenes included here with all but one that probably was worthy of reintroducing into the final picture due to a great performance by Elizabeth Banks, otherwise they were pretty forgettable and unnecessary.
Extended Scenes (6:18; HD) – Here are a few more scenes that were cut down probably due to pacing issues and, like the others, weren’t that good.
We get previews for other Lions Gate films including The Lincoln Lawyer, Rabbit Hole, Biutiful and 3:10 to Yuma.
This release also contains a DVD Copy and a Digital Copy download code.
VIDEO – 4.5/5
The Next Three Days is presented with a 1080p high-definition and its original 2.40 aspect ratio. While it’s nothing spectacular, it’s still a good looking transfer with coloring that looks about right (not overly saturated but not bland) and the detail level is quite good.
AUDIO – 5/5
If there’s anything you can count on a new release Lions Gate Blu-ray to do, it is to provide an awesome aural experience. The 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is well balanced throughout from easy to understand dialogue coming from the center channel to the action/thriller scenes, not to mention Danny Elfman’s score, which make use of the other speakers.
OVERALL – 4.25/5
The Next Three Days was a far better film than I had anticipated so perhaps that skewed by overall view of it, but I found it to be fairly even with the third act revving into high gear for a thrilling and satisfying end.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 03/04/2011
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2.