The Next Three Days (2010)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Crime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Theatrical Trailer Deleted Scenes Featurette-True Escapes for Love Featurette-Men of Next Three Days, Bump Key Video Outtakes
Rating	?
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	127:42
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:50)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paul Haggis
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Russell Crowe Elizabeth Banks Michael Buie Moran Atias Remy Nozik Toby Green Tyler Green
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In what is becoming a very common approach these days, this film is a remake of a quite recent French film which was successful and well received. In this case (as is often true) it did not result in a big theatrical hit for the remake, despite having some good qualities. The Next Three Days is based on a 2008 film, Pour Elle or Anything for Her. It should have had the pedigree to succeed with an Academy Award winning director/writer at the helm and starring (in nearly every scene) an Academy Award winning actor. Russell Crowe is excellent as the determined husband, John Brennan, trying to clear his wife of murder charges.

    In my view, Paul Haggis has let this project down by not trimming more time out of the first hour as the set up takes to long. As both director and screenwriter it can only come down to him really. It is designed to be slow burn rising tension but it fells more bloated rather than slow burn. Sure, there are some good scenes with excellent acting but some of them are unnecessary to the plot. Interestingly, the commentary mentions that the French film only runs for 88 minutes, which probably should have been a good indication that 122 minutes might be too many. Bizarrely they also mention that their original cut was over 3 hours!! Regardless, there is much to enjoy in this film and the second hour has a lot going for it, with quality action scenes and chases. Also, the acting standard is high throughout.

    The plot is pretty straight forward which also calls for a shorter running time. Many have complained that the story is completely unbelievable but if you feel this you shouldn't see the film in the first place. Most thrillers stretch the bounds of believability but hey, they are FICTION! John Brennan (Crowe) is a teacher at a community college. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks), who works in business and their young son. The film opens with them out to dinner with John's brother and his annoying girlfriend. Lara who is obviously agitated, mentions a run in she had with her boss earlier in the day and then argues with the brother's girlfriend, breaking into a full blown physical confrontation. The next morning, police burst into John and Lara's house arresting her for the murder of her boss who was found dead in the car park where the boss and Lara both park their cars. John tries every legal possibility to clear his wife's name, although the evidence is too great and she is convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years. John decides he cannot accept this and decides to take things outside the law.

    Besides the two obvious leads there are also smaller roles for two excellent actors, Liam Neeson (in a quick cameo) and Brian Dennehy, as John's father. Both do good work in their normal way.

    Overall, this is a decent film, with excellent acting, let down by a bloated first hour.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout. Some of the scenes in this film especially early on are very dark and the shadow detail struggled a little at times especially when things were moving fast.

    The colour was very good although the Pittsburgh locations were mostly shrouded in grey clouds or rain, dulling down the colour palette.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which are clear and easy to read. Annoyingly, every time a line of dialogue appeared onscreen, so did a white line across the bottom of the screen. If it was there permanently it would not have been so annoying but it flashed on and off, becoming distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This disc contains an English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 plus a 2.0 stereo track, an Audio Descriptive 2.0 stereo track and a 2.0 commentary track.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to hear and understand.

    The score by Danny Elfman was a highlight of the film adding significantly to the ambience of the film and helping to build tension.

    The surround speakers were used for some directional effects such as car crashes and for music.

    The subwoofer was used to support music and chase scenes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu was pretty standard featuring minor motion and music.

Theatrical Trailer (0:35)

True Escapes for Love (7:23) 

    A short featurette hosted by one of the lesser known actors about real life prison breaks done for romantic reasons in the US. Quite interesting.

Deleted Scenes (15:10) 

    A large selection of mostly small scenes. Some are interesting but none are essential.

Extended Scenes (5:07) 

    Another set of extra scenes, which are also worth a look.

Bump Key Video (1:38) 

    Full version of the video used in the movie explaining what 'bump keys' are.

Cast Moments (2:24) 

Men of the Next Three Days (6:34) 

Commentary - Paul Haggis, Producer - Michael Nosick, Editor - Jo Francis 

    The Region 1 version is pretty similar  however but we seem to have missed out on the Making of which is featured on that disc. Region 1 by a nose.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall