This thriller guarantees not to thrill
The first minor disappointment of 2011 is The Next Three Days, a long, slow-moving, unthrilling thriller about a teacher who decides to help his wife, unjustly convicted of murder, escape from prison.
It’s based on a mediocre French film from 2008, Pour Elle (Anything For Her). It’s been improved by the casting of Russell Crowe in the leading role. He looks like a man who could easily run out of patience with the legal authorities and take matters into his own hands.
Flop of a film: Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks star in the dull The Next Three Days
Sadly, writer-director Paul Haggis hasn’t addressed the central weakness of the original film, which is that there is no twist. The movie does not even explore the possibility that the wife (Elizabeth Banks) might be guilty of murder and playing her husband for a chump.
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The prison break is neither all that clever nor terribly believable. The hero is too much of a bungler to convince us that he could bring off so daring an exploit.
Not even Crowe can make us suspend our doubts about his transformation from mild-mannered academic to heartless action-hero.
Prepare to be bored: Not even action-man Russell Crowe can salvage this dull story
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