The
last 15 minutes of "The Next 3 Days" had more suspense and more action
than "Harry Potter 7" had in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Now don't get me
wrong, "3 Days" is in no way a great film, and epic nor does it have the
'magic' and/or special effects of "Harry" but the  audience certainly gets more involved in the former film.

Crowe,
as college teacher John Brennan, has lost some of the extra heft he has
been carrying around the past few pictures but he hasn't lost an ounce
of his actor's face that can express silence or fierce determination
with just a look. John, a mild mannered man, is going to break his wife
out of jail, who has been incarcerated after she has been found guilty
of murder because he knows she is innocent, incapable of such a crime,
though the evidence and the jury says otherwise.

Starting with a sharp cameo by Liam Neeson,
who wrote a  book about escaping prisons having learned from personal
experience, John takes the knowledge he has been given, then starts
doing research on the Internet, using google, watching how to videos and learning step by step from the underworld of Pittsburgh.

This picture is carried by Crowe with the help of a fine cast of supporting players such as Brian Dennehy, RZA, Elizabeth Banks and Ty Simpkins as their son.

The
film is directed by Paul Haggis who also adapted the script from a
French film. He keeps the action going while drawing you into the
Brennan family. He throws in red herrings, wrong leads, all the while
giving the details of planned escape that goes constantly awry.

For a good thriller, plus a star performance by Crowe, "The Next 3 Days" is a good film