The Next Three Days (6.5/10)

A movie may be interesting, but that doesn't mean it's that good. "The Next Three Days" is Paul Haggis's newish movie. The mind behind "Crash" (2005) and the superior "In The Valley of Elah"knows what he is doing behind the camera. I prefer him there then the writing field (Crash has never been a favorite screenplay of mine, elements are quite bad). However this movie just never sweeps you up. It's one of the films you see and say "It was alright, just a movie... time to move on with my day." The plot sounds decent, Russell Crowe plays a mild mannered community college teacher (that doesn't seem right from the gladiator) who's wife (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for the murder of her boss, I won't say if she is guilty or not. Crowe remains loyal and tries to help her get out of jail. When he told legally this will not happen, he decides to break her out. The setup and procedure to pull off this mission is quite fun. We learn and see the world of fake I.D's, bump keys, and several ideas on police actions during the escape. However the whole ordeal is about Crowe taking things into his own hands. He is bullied around alot through his dealing and never makes a convincing tough guy (I'm not to sure what the goal was with his character). He plays the part of acting virtuous but is really just selfish, the film addresses this once. Bringing up a theme and almost never mentioning it again then having scene after scene without it to spring it up 30 minutes later... doesn't work. It's alright, but that doesn't really cut it.

6.5/10
Recommendation: If it's in your house, give it a go. It's not a bad movie by any means, just not anything special. Crowe, Banks and thriller fans may really like it. I say see it just for Liam Neeson's cameo. The guy is a show stealer.