THE NEXT THREE DAYS, 2010
Movie Reviews!

A married couple's life is turned upside down when Lara Brennan (Banks) is accused of murder. Three years into her sentence, Lara's husband John (Crowe) is struggling to keep their family together and, realizing his wife's deteriorating condition, he decides to break her out of prison.

Release Date: 19 November 2010

Take a look at what's new today!

REVIEW:

It’s 7:21am, Friday morning, on November 19 2010. The movie The Next Three Days is about to open nationwide. I’m sitting in a whirlpool in the men’s locker room at my gym after a very hard workout. I’m physically exhausted and I’m thinking about my day ahead. An older naked gentleman sits beside me reading a national morning newspaper. He exits the pool and leaves his newspaper behind after only scanning it for 5 minutes. For the first time in over a year I pick up a newspaper and take out the entertainment section.

At 7:27am, I exit the whirlpool angry and ready for revenge......


A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, Cinderella Man, A Good Year, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Body of Lies, State of Play, Robin Hood, The Next Three Days - these are Russell Crowe’s last 10 films.

In 2001 when A Beautiful Mind came out, Russell Crowe was the biggest movie star in the entire universe. He was able to play powerful, good-looking, tough guys like his Gladiator role, while also reinventing his vanity to play depressed, angry but also geniuses in roles like The Insider and Beautiful Mind. No one could touch his diversity and people went to his movies in droves no matter what film he decided to play the leading man in.

LISTEN TO MOVIE RADIO
FILMMAKING NOTES Tips from the professions!

Even his 2003 choice to play a Napoleonic War ship captain in the period peace, very manly, Master and Commander film proved that even his female followers would see him anything he does. Then in 2005 the bottom fell out.

Russell had a PR problem. Journalists started to rail against him because he didn’t respect most of them and wasn’t shy about telling them all about his feelings either. Then he hit a hotel bellhop with his phone after a troubling yelling match he was having in his hotel room caused the employee to knock on the door to see what was the matter. I guess Crowe didn’t like that and took it out on him by hitting him with the phone. Reporters and pundits, looking for a story like this for ages to bring down the Hollywood golden boy, ran with it and with story after story turned this incredibly gifted actor into an Australian boob who had no respect for anyone, especially all those people who went to see his films.

In the summer of 2005, Cinderella Man came out to the theaters (after a long delay because Crowe hurt himself in pre-production as he was preparing for his boxing scenes and caused major delays in production) but not many people went to see it, even after most critics praised it (critics have a hard on for any Ron Howard film - those are just the facts. See rottentomatoes). In a span of 2 years the man who could open any film all of a sudden couldn’t even open a film about a true rags to riches story (a story ALL Americans love) that all critics praised.

Then his next film, A Good Year, bombed. 3:10 to Yuma did fairly well as Crowe played the bad guy (something American’s now saw him as). American Gangster did okay but it was more Denzel Washington’s film than his. Body of Lies bombed. State of Play did okay. Robin Hood bombed. And now The Next Three Days, as of this writing, looks to be another bomb.

And none of those films are bad films at all. If Crowe acted in any those films after Gladiator, ALL of them would of been a major hit and probably would garner Oscar buzz.

Movie stars, if you really look at it, are the ones who control Hollywood. In Tom Hanks’ heyday, no matter what film he did, would of meant huge box office results plus Oscar nominations. And critics, idiots that most of them are (if you meet them like I have, you’ll understand and see my reasoning s for that blanket statement) react to who’s hot and who’s not in their reviews. And if you’re a NOT, then they will generally pan your film. Unless, there is a marketing ploy of an acting comeback ala Travolta and Mickey Rourke. Then they’ll be suckered into writing a puff piece.

I can guarantee that if The Next Three Days opened in 2001, most critics would give it 3/12 out of 4 stars and talk about how the film is an analogy of today’s black and white world where we judge before we want to know the facts, because it’s just easier that way. And of course this film is talking about the same critics who write their reviews before they even see the movie (something a lot of them do!). Look at the ratings of The Next Three Days and you’ll see that most of them are giving it the old 2 stars of out 4. They can’t say they really hate it but of course can’t say they love it. All I can say it shame on you! This is a very good film that needs to be taken a little more seriously. But of course it won’t because for some reason these critics still have pull with people and the industry.

I do apologize as I’m usually not this negative. But I’m really upset that these people are ripping this film because it’s so obvious that they haven’t really seen this film. And perhaps they still have an axe to grind against Russell Crowe.


....I throw the newspaper in the garbage to make sure that no one else reads it, bolt out of the gym and look for the first screening of The Next Three Days in my city. I want to see this film for myself. I realize why I stopped reading newspapers after seeing what I saw in the whirlpool. I read two articles from critics who have moderated our WILDsound Film Festival events (and will never be back) about how things were better in the good old days and society is bottoming out. And using The Next Three Days as an analogy for this. Say what?

I have three pet peeves in life. #1 - People who are late. #2 - Radicals who fall on the far left or far right. And #3 - People who talk about how things were better in the good old days.

These two articles were on the front page on the #1 Canadian newspaper. They were using their own personal agendas in the review of the film The Next Three Days.

So I’m swinging back doing the same thing. They want to attempt to cut someone down at the knees, I’ll do the same thing back to them, plus punch them in the nose, because they deserve it. They want to fight, I’ll fight. And we all know that newspapers are dying not because of this new technology but because of people like them. If they actually wrote meaningful stories, people would still read them no matter how much ink they get on their hands.

DO NOT LISTEN to movie critics. Even myself. I’ll suggest to you to go see The Next Three Days, but why would you care what I think? Follow your instincts when picking what film to see. And if you do, you might want to see The Next Three Days. Maybe you’ll see that Russell Crowe is an even better actor today than he was 10 years ago when you really like him.

Critics are supposed to be journalists. They aren’t supposed to tip their personal and emotional agendas into their reviews. We should read them to gain insight and gain some sort of fun and entertainment with their words. NOT to be told what to think and what to like or dislike.

But I’m not too worried. Most of these guys will be out of a job and hopefully out on the street within the year. And Russell Crowe will still be making more films and in the end his body of work will speak for itself.

SUBMIT your SCREENPLAY Voted #1 screenplay contest in the world!	NEW MOVIE REVIEWS Read Today's POSTED REVIEWS	SEE 1000s of PICTURES Best of photos, images and pics	MOVIES YEAR BY YEAR Pages from 1900 to present

YouTube MySpace Facebook Twitter

THE NEXT THREE DAYS