The Next Three Days review

 Number 936 on the top 1000 films of all time is Paul Haggis' action thriller 'The Next Three Days.'

John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is a teacher whose wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is sentenced to life in prison for murder. He is only one who believes she is innocent and begins plotting to break her free from prison.

Paul Haggis also directed Crash. I didn't like Crash. I thought it was half-arsed and contrived. I would say the same for the Next Three Days. It doesn't just stretch my suspension of disbelief, it snaps it in half. The whole film is completely implausible.

Let's start with John Brennan who is the unlikeliest hero ever. He's a teacher. You would never believe he could stage a successful prison break. To aid him, he tracks down and consults Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson) a former convict who successfully escaped from prison. Damon Pennington helps him, because of ... reasons, before disappearing and not featuring again. John goes onto learn criminal skills like making bumper keys by watching Youtube skills. Although he has a few initial mishaps, he goes onto master these skills. This is ridiculous. You can't just master something by watching Youtube videos. It takes a lot of practice. I realise they don't have the time to show this, but they could have tried at least.

And it's unbelievable that John Brennan, a teacher who is naive enough to ask a street dealer about forging passports, and then goes onto be robbed by him, to be able to pull off a prison break. It might have been a bit more believable if Damon had physically helped him instead of offering information. I also think Russell Crowe was miscast. True his American accent was better than expected, but he wasn't believable in the role. He's an action-star who has played cops and robbers alike. He wasn't suitable as some naive teacher venturing into the world of crime.

I also thought that we were sorely missing Lara's perspective on things. One reason, I enjoyed prison drama Felon was that it focussed on the husband's life within prison and the wife's life outside of it. But this film was all John Brennan with only snippets of Lara's life. If we were going to care about her escaping, we should have seen more of her in prison. She tries to commit suicide, but we only hear about it, instead of seeing it. This scene was far more important than one of the silly, over-long musical sequences.

Also, after John breaks Lara free, he starts to be pursued by cops Lieutenant Nabulsi (Lennie James) and Sergeant Harris (Allan Steele.) Yet they only appear nearing the end of the film, as if they were an afterthought thrown in by Paul Haggis. It's very strange, as John was initially investigated by the cops who quickly dismiss him as a nutcase.

Why does Paul Haggis or his films feature on this list? Neither Crash or the Next Three Days deserves to be included in the top 1000 films of all time.