Literally something for all tastes on DVD this week as we’re getting a new thriller (The Next Three Days), rom-com (Morning Glory), indie comedy (Four Lions) and this year’s Best Documentary Feature winner (Inside Job). Hard to argue with that selection it fits all moods. And if you’re a horror fan, you even have this year’s buzziest TV series, The Walking Dead, unleashing its zombie-filled first season on DVD.

Oh. Yeah. There’s also this little movie called Jackass 3 coming to DVD today as well. I’m not sure what exactly to call that fanbase, but I imagine they’ll be enjoying the film at home with about a crate of Mountain Dew.

Check it out below…

Feature Films

The Next Three Days

Picture this moving coming out in 2006:

Paul Haggis, fresh off winning (roughly) 457,000 Oscars for traffic. Russell Crowe, still hot off residual love for his three-straight nominations to start the decade and the (weirdly) rave reviews for Cinderella Man and Master and Commander.

They probably grab somebody like Charlize Theron (another Oscar winner) to fill the Elizabeth Banks role since they have a lot more clout. The rest remains the exact same. The exact same movie, just at a different time for buzz and the corresponding clout to get a more award-worthy actress.

With that movie and that team at that time – this is an Oscar contender. With 10 nominees, it probably gets Best Picture – because critics would instantly have Haggis and Crowe penciled into the “good” category and grade them on enough of a curve that a pretty flat thriller instantly moves into “Oscar-worthy” status on their reviews simply because they’ve been told they must think that anything Crowe and/or Haggis does is exceptional.

Don’t believe me? A Good Year nearly got Crowe a nomination in 2006 for a movie that absolutely nobody remembers. Paul Haggis’ In The Valley of Elah (which co-starred Theron) earned its lead, Tommy Lee Jones, an Oscar nomination and almost got Paul Haggis another triple crown of Picture, Director and Screenplay for a very run-of-the-mill murder mystery that came out in 2007. If there were ten nominees that year, it definitely would have been nominated for Best Picture.

Now, Crowe and Haggis make a film together that gets completely ignored because their stars have tarnished a bit and critics are now able to think about them rationally again.

The point? Know-nothing critics who write their reviews based on conventional wisdom rather than any sort of insight have an alarming amount of power with regards to the Oscars. No, they don’t vote, but their reviews, opinions and the buzz they create often dictate which movies the voters see and fuel campaigns.

And if those critics had gotten a hold of this film in 2006, it likely would have ridden their wave of cloyingness all the way to the Kodak.

But, hey, you might’ve liked it. In that case, you can buy The Next Three Days on DVD.

Also:

• Four Lions – Buy Now
• Jackass 3 – Buy Now
• Inside Job – Buy Now
• Morning Glory – Buy Now

TV on DVD

“The Walking Dead”: Season 1

Can you name Frank Darabont’s last film?

That would be The Mist, the unevenly received Steven King adaptation that smacked of studio interference and last minute changes. It came out 4 years ago.

Before that, there was a six-year gap between his films as his very personal The Majestic bombed and undoubtedly erased the goodwill he’d built up with The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption before that.

We’ve only gotten four films from Darabont, and now he’s relegated himself to working for television. And y’know what? That’s an upgrade.

For creative forces behind-the-scenes such as Darabont, there isn’t a better playground for their minds to frolic than on the small screen. Budgetary pressure is normally gone, turnaround time is so fast that the studio doesn’t have time to meddle, and networks have now begun encouraging show-runners and creators take the auteur path of creative control that defined film’s renaissance in the 70s.

After all, AMC is the network that reportedly told Vince Gilligan that Breaking Bad was the worst idea they’d ever heard and then immediately told him to go make it.

This is why television has surpassed film in terms of quality in recent years. Advances in filming technology has allowed it to achieve the quality of the big screen, allowing creative visionaries to head to television and tell their stories without anyone hanging over their shoulders. This gives us shows like Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos and Arrested Development – all better than any movie I can remember coming out in a long while.

Now we have The Walking Dead maybe the best example of a cinematic superstar moving to television and jumping in full-stop. Not as an executive producer or simply lending his name, but running the whole show.

If this continues, studios may lose all their best minds to television in short order.

And if you prefer Darabont’s work on the small screen, you can buy Season One of The Walking Dead on DVD.

And Just So You Know, This DVD Exists…

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Oscar winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis returns to theaters this weekend with his latest film, The Next Three Days. It stars Russell Crowe as a desperate man who’s willing to do whatever it takes to reunite his wife with their family, the only problem is — she’s in prison. From that premise alone you can imagine all the craziness that will ensue. Is The Next Three Days a worthy follow up to Haggis’ previous works? Find out in our review…

The Players:

• Director: Paul Haggis:
• Screenwriter: Paul Haggis, Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans (Pour Elle)
• Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Ty Simpkins, Lennie James, Olivia Wilde, Helen Carey, Brian Dennehy, Aisha Hinds, Jason Beghe, Allan Steele, RZA, Liam Neeson, Jonathan Tucker, Kevin Corrigan
• Cinematography By: Stéphane Fontaine
• Original Music By: Danny Elfman, Alberto Iglesias

The Plot:

The Next Three Days centers on John (Crowe) and Lara Brennan (Banks) and his undeniable quest for her freedom. After having an argument with her employer, Lara is arrested the day after her boss’s dead body is found in a parking lot. All of the evidence points to her as the killer and she’s sentenced to serve some serious time in prison. Her husband John feels as if the system has given up on finding the real murderer so he decides to take matters into his own hands. After extensive research, interviews, and hours of strategizing, John sets out to do the unthinkable — break his wife out of prison.

The Good:

• Elizabeth Banks: Banks is mostly known for her comedic roles in films like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and Role Models. She barely dips into other genres but when she does she’s amazing as proven by her performance in this film. She does a great job of making you feel the frustration that her character is going through with her heartbreaking performance.
• Trial and Error: The one great thing about the story is how it shows one man’s journey through trial and error. John is trying to break his wife out of prison and that’s no easy feat. You see him going on YouTube and asking around to see how he can get fake passports, how he can make a “bump” key, and how he can safely get out of the country within a certain amount of time. He visibly works for the knowledge. It doesn’t come to him overnight. It’s realistic.

The Bad:

• The Tone: It’s hard to tell if this is a hardcore drama, a thriller, or a subtle action film. The movie starts off with a comedic scene, and throughout jokes continue to appear when they’re really not needed. Most of the material came from the cops who were investigating John. Instead of working they were busting each other’s balls and saying snarky comments. We thought this was a murder investigation?
• The Pace: The film seemed a bit long in the tooth. It runs at about 122 minutes and a good 20 of those could have been cut out.
• The Supporting Characters: The supporting characters are not developed well. All of the cops blended in to one. They all seemed like extras from “NYPD Blue,” with the main offender being the lead investigator (Lennie James) who was pulling off his best James McDaniel impersonation. Also, there’s a storyline with John’s dad, played by the great Brian Dennehy that they don’t really explore.

Overall:

The Next Three Days isn’t a horrible movie, but its definitely not one of Paul Haggis’ best. As a whole it doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat but the final act delivers some good action and decent suspense. This is a definite hit or miss.

Rating: 6/10

The Next Three Days opens on November 19.

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Will you be going to see The Next Three Days this weekend?

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Back in June we learned that Oscar winner Russell Crowe was attached to star in the big screen remake of the popular TV series The Equalizer. He’s set to play the title character and according to a report from THR he’ll get a little help from Paul Haggis. The duo previously worked together on the upcoming thriller The Next Three Days and it looks like they’re at it again.

The trade says that Haggis won’t direct but is in negations to pen the screenplay for the film. The studio is currently on the look out for someone else to take on directing duties. The Equalizer is based on the cult television series of the same name that starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall.

In a lot of ways the character is like a vigilante. He has a murky past that’s never fully disclosed; all we know is that he used to work for an organization called The Company or The Agency or something ambiguous of that nature. He’s an unconventional hero to say the least but he gets the job done. Even though Haggis isn’t currently up for the director’s chair that doesn’t mean it’s not a possibility. Stay tuned.

What do you think of Haggis and Crowe working together again?

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Elizabeth Banks is an actress who can easily transition from comedy to drama. Banks is known for her work opposite Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, but now she’ll be teaming up with Oscar winner Paul Haggis. According to THR, the actress is in final negotiations to star in the writer-director’s upcoming project The Next Three Days. More on Banks and Haggis below.

The story of The Next Three Days centers on a husband and wife who are put in a horrible situation that places the wife in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Her husband must race against the clock to exonerate her and find the real killer. The film is a remake of 2008 French feature Pour Elle, which was written and directed by Fred Cavaye. Russell Crowe will star as the husband, while Banks is up for the role of his wife.

Production on The Next Three Days is scheduled to start next month. Like I previously stated, I’ve seen Banks do her fair share of drama as well as comedy, but I am a bit surprised by her casting choice in this film. For Haggis to place her opposite someone like Russell Crowe she must have given a hell of an audition. Just the thought of those two playing a married couple seems somewhat off to me. Even with my reservations I have faith that she can pull off whatever is thrown at her.

What do you think of Elizabeth Banks being cast in The Next Three Days?

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Are we in for another seriously dramatic Russell Crowe film? According to THR, the actor’s next project The Next Three Days may have all the makings of an epic drama. Crowe is in final negotiations to star in the film, which will be directed by writer-director Paul Haggis. The two Oscar winners will team up for the feature that will be produced and distributed by Lionsgate, the same company that backed Haggis’ 2004 effort Crash.

The story of The Next Three Days centers on a husband and wife who are put in a horrible situation that places the wife in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Her husband must race against the clock to get her out, and find the real killer. The film is a remake (no surprise there) of 2008 French film Pour Elle, which was written and directed by Fred Cavaye. Lionsgate bought the rights to Three Days via Wild Bunch and Fidelite Films back in June.

At the moment Crowe is busy filming his role as Robin Hood in the untitled Ridley Scott film. He last starred in the political thriller State of Play opposite Rachel McAdams. Everyone knows that Paul Haggis is the king off over the top drama and suspense,which are two things this actor is very good at. I miss Gladiator Russell Crowe, but then again don’t we all?

What do you think about Russell and Paul teaming up for The Next Three Days?

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