“The Next Three Days” One Terrific Thrill Ride

“One Terrific Thrill Ride”

THE NEXT THREE DAYS is an exciting thriller that has you on the edge of your seat trying to guess what happens next and wondering if it is going to turn out the way you want it to.

Now, if you heard that it’s about a married couple in Pittsburgh, he’s a college professor and she’s his wife, you would probably pass on seeing it, right?

Right, but you would be wrong.

Russell Crowe plays John, Elizabeth Banks plays Lara, and they are anything but ordinary.

You see, three years earlier Lara was arrested, tried, and convicted of murdering her boss in a parking garage, but we don’t know if she did it and John is convinced that she couldn’t have done it.

In fact, when he and their son Luke visit her in jail, John tells her, “Everything is going to be all right. I promise.”

And then begins the extraordinary part of the story in which this mild-mannered college professor begins to figure out a plan in which he can break Lara out of prison, because all their appeals have failed.

First, he begins with an expert, Damon Pennington, played by Liam Neeson, who tells John in a wonderful scene that escaping from prison is easy, but the hardest part is staying free. He also tells John that Pittsburgh is “tough” and gives John exact details about what the authorities will do once someone breaks out of prison.

Naturally, John runs into difficulty acquiring the fake IDs he needs, as well as obtaining enough money to live on for five to six years.

In addition, John might be being watched by the police, and he can’t tell Lara about his plan, because he knows that she wouldn’t agree to it.

And then once the breakout occurs, the movie turns into one exciting scene after another, and it couldn’t get any more exciting.

A major hitch in John’s plans comes up, the story gets tighter, time is running out, and then a shock to end all shocks occurs, and it still isn’t over.

You ask yourself how you want it to end, and then there are some very nice touches at the end.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS is one terrific thrill ride without anything being blown up that keeps you guessing all the way to the end.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”