The Next Three Days

"No prison in the world is airtight."

The Next Three Days is a slow building thriller about college teacher Russell Crowe planning out an escape plan to break his wife out of prison after she was arrested for a murder Crowe believes she has been wrongfully accused for. 

At first viewing, i thought the film was satisfactory but i watched it again recently and on second veiwing, i enjoyed it more. That usually happens, i enjoy movies when i watch it a second time. 

Paul Haggis, director of Academy Award winning Crash, does a good job conveying the life Crowe's character goes through planning a way to take his wife to a new life. He manages to make this film very grim, very dull as though Crowe's has virtually no chance of 'saving' his wife and resuming normal life with their young son. 

Russell Crowe, my favourite actor, does a commendable job. Not his best performance but at least he keeps you locked into the film to see what he does to ensure he can live his life with the people he loves together. Elizabeth Banks plays the wife, who suffers from the fact that she will never see her son grow up. Banks plays distressed and emotional wreck very well in her character. The chemistry between Crowe & Banks conveys the relationship the two have. 

Another important character is Liam Neeson's character, an escapee who Crowe interrogates to learn how to carry out his escape plan. I loved the one scene between the two, it was done very well and Neeson did a great cameo performance. 

As i previously described, the story starts slow and i think it moves at a good pace so it doesn't overload the veiwers with too much. We are constantly reminded about Crowe's devotion to rescuing his wife from injustice. After finalising the plan, Crowe carries out with interesting techniques and dangerous intentions, going where he would never have thought he would go, just to save his wife. 

Because of the story & what's at stake, the emotions are running high within the characters. Crowe takes dangerous risks with severe consequences to save his wife as does Banks who goes through aperiod of whether wanting to live or die. 

The final 40 minutes is what makes this film enjoyable, which is when Crowe finally carries out his escape plan. It is a thrilling, rivetting, fast paced chase at the end, escaping prison and escaping the authoroties, which I really enjoyed. One of the best on-foot chase scenes. 

More thrilling and more emotional than you think, The Next Three Days features good performances, a tense story with a rivetting conclusion, this is one film any Russell Crowe fan needs to see.

★★★★☆

Batman Begins

"It's Not Who I Am Underneath. It's What I Do That Defines Me."

Tim Burton directed the first major Batman movie in 1989. It was a great film with it's dark gothic tone, energetic villain and interesting hero. As the years passed, the Batman films degraded into a brightly coloured, slapstick, comedic style franchise geared for young audiences. Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin died a horrible death at the box office and no new Bat-films were released. For years, reboots ideas were being tossed around until Christopher Nolan decided to tackle the project. And what we got is a fantastic beginning of a terrific superhero trilogy, arguably the best. 

Nolan created a more realistic world, a new Gotham City which anybody can immerse themselves into the characters are more realistic than their comic book counterparts and there is none of the silliness of the Schumacher films. It retains a dark mood like Burton's films but doesn't go into gothic territory and it doesn't delve into the campy style of the 60's Batman. This is the dream film franchise every Bat-fan demanded. 

The first film, Batman Begins, starts the franchise reboot very well. It gives us a different look at the already established characters of the comics but changes their personality for the realistic world and we get more in-depth characters. 

The story looks at Bruce Wayne from youth dealing with his fear of bats and witnessing the death of his parents to his travels to the Himalayas training to become a fighter to rid Gotham of criminals. The story is very well paced and delves deep into the character of Bruce Wayne. I like the elements of crime films added with the presence of Gotham criminal kingpin Carmine Falcone. As for superhero fiction, there are elements at the end of the film which make it a true superhero film and transitions from origin to crime to superhero genre very smoothly. 

Bruce Wayne is played by Christian Bale, and in my opinion the best actor to portray Bruce/Batman. He plays a troubled young man seen at the beginning of the film very well and we sympathise with his choices of avenging his dead parents to his search to fight the means of injustice. Bale looks very comfortable playing he grown up Bruce Wayne and commands a terrifying presence as Batman, even if his voice is criticized for being too gravely The supporting cast is tremendous. Michael Caine is a good Alfred, although I wish he grew a moustache for the role. In previous Bat-films, Commissioner Gordon doesn't really have a large role. He is usually just in the background barking orders. However, Gary Oldman's presence adds incredible depth to the character and we have a connection with him because of Oldman's star power and the value of Jim Gordon to Batman in the comics. This film really brings us a proper Commissioner Gordon. Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman & Tom Wilkinson all play pivotal roles and are all relevant to the story. 

I like the choice of villains, The Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul, played respectively by Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson. They have never been portrayed on film and aren't as well known as Joker, Mr. Freeze and Riddler. Murphy & Neeson play their roles very well. There roles in the story make it more compelling since it was Al Ghul who trained Batman and adds a Student Vs Teacher battle at the end of the film. Although we mostly saw the man behind the Scarecrow mask Jonathan Crane then his villain alter ego, but the character is set up very well and raises hopes that Scarecrow would have a larger role in a future film. How disappointed Scarecrow fans would be when The Dark Knight did come out, 

Adding the realism of the movies, Nolan doesn't include a lot of CGI. Although scenery like in the Himalayas is CGI, Nolan doesn't depend a lot on CGI which adds more credibility to the film. I enjoy films more when it uses CGI only when needed and Nolan definitely used the special effects where applied. 

In conclusion, Batman Begins is the beginning of one of the greatest trilogies in history. The characters are incredibly detailed and have a lot of depth, the origin story is splendid and the plot is very well constructed, despite some minor complaints, such as the reason for the diabolical plan which isn't explained very well. The realistic Gotham environment has hints of Burton's scenery of his first Batman film. With none of the silliness from Joel Schumacher's films and not going to gothic like Tim Burton, Christhopher Nolan gives us a different and realistic world of Batman we fans needed.

★★★★★

The Grey

"Once more into the fray.

Into the last good fight I'll ever know.

Live and die on this day.

Live and die on this day."

The Grey is a bone-chilling, gory survival thriller about a group of oil drilling workers in Alaska who after surviving a plane crash must survive the dangers of nature as they attempt to return home. They must survive an onslaught of a pack of wolves stalking them & killing them one by one in classic monster horror fashion. Along the way, the survivors bond together & fall out with each other and discuss humanity.

As the title suggests, this film is a very dark film. Grey is the primary colour you think of when you first glance at the scenery. The atmosphere is chilling & lonely, captured very well by director Joe Carnahan, who chose amazing locations. 

Liam Neeson play John Ottway, a sniper who kills wolves at the oil drilling plantation. His character is suffering from an issue with his wife, which explored through flashbacks through-out the film. Liam Neeson does a fantastic performance with many ranges of emotions, from depression to fear. He is definately the highlight of the film. It's definately one of his best performances. The other characters are all different which works well in survival films. The egos & fear of each indivdual is explored and the actors do great work. 

A survival horror thriller about wolves would draw comparisions to Jaws & Alien, both feature a killer hunting humans in an isolated location. The killer is hardly seen and usually sppears in shock scenes (appearing when you least expect it) which are really effective. However, The Grey manages to be more original by the characters perspective of faith, which is explored well, especially with a scene involving Neeson at the end. 

The death scenes are imaginative and impressive, considering the number of nature horror films there have been. Some may think it'll be predictable. It is sometimes, yet the violence and gore compensates the predictablity. Deaths are really memorable. Another scene featureing death is the plane crash, which when watching at the cinema, was one of the most horrifying experiences i've ever had. 

Spoiler alert! 

In the cinema, Everyone was dissapointed with the ending, which is a cliffhanger. What everybody, including myself, was expecting was Liam Neeson Vs the Alpha Wolf in an epic battle for survival. I was surprised with the cliffhanger after all the hype in the trailer. But when i watched it on DVD, i concluded that the cliffhanger was the best possible end to the film. Everything that was looked at previously (Neeson's wife, poem his father wrote & survival skills) comes together and fits nicely into a fantastic ending where Neeson accepts his fate. 

I mentioned that it has similarities with Jaws, Alien & Flight of the Phoenix. With Jaws, the similarities lie with an animal most people didn't take seriously until they saw th film. Afer Jaws, people where scared of sharks. Same with The Grey, after watching it, wolves seem more scary. With Alien, the crew are being killed one by one until an epic battle between the lead character & the killer (Sigourney Weaver & The Alien in Alien, Liam Neeson & Wolf in The Grey). Flight of the Phoenix obviously draws comparisons with the plane crash, although The Grey's crash is just terrifying for me. Another relatable movie is The Thing from Another World because of the setting. Although not set in the same place, the snow and coldness & isolation is a major part of both films. 

The Grey, with it's dark, unsettling atmosphere with a mostly silent score which changes to dramatic music, it's violence, philosophy of faith and characters, this is definately the best survival film I've ever seen. What Alien, Jaws, Flight of the Phoenix did was look into the characters and their techniques of survival. The Grey goes better on all the qualities these films have. Although not in the same class as Jaws, The Grey should be remembered as a fasntastic tale about survival and faith. Backed up by one of Liam Neeson's best performances, this film is definately about Survival of the Fittest.

A fascinating look at human survival featuring excellent performances and gripping, intense dramatic scenes of peril.

★★★★☆