Day One Hundred and Thirteen - Double Jeopardy, "Wow... I didn't believe this movie one bit."

The late 90's and early 2000's were a boom time for crime thrillers. For a while there, you couldn't swing a cat without hitting an Alex Cross or Ashley Judd movie (sometimes both, when you think of Kiss the Girls) and that trend has sort of died out lately. So much so, that I'm actually afraid that Fincher's take on the Millennium Trilogy will be stuck at one (granted, it was a tremendous 'one,' but still).

How... how did I get in this picture, again?

Back to the matter at hand, in 1999 Ashley and Tommy Lee Jones costarred in a silly thriller about a loving wife who is framed for murder by her husband and the best friend he was sleeping with. In the opening act of the film, there's really no clue as to what the film is about. Everything is lovey dovey and there's absolutely no tension save that the husband, Nick (Bruce Greenwood), is a bit of a dick when it comes to his art collection and there might be financial problems a'brewing.

Granted, you know what the premise of the film is going into it, but it just seems to come out of nowhere... and I suppose that's the idea as Judd's Elizabeth is blindsided by both her husband's supposed death and the litany of evidence against her. Still, it feels a little stupid that there was no real tension to build upon. No suspicions of an affair, no meaningful glances... just a single line that would be better for another situation, "better you hear it from us," used for something completely innocuous.

Then there's the prison sequence.

So close to a giant lesbian meth orgy!

Elizabeth spends six years in prison before she is paroled in the second act... and despite the emotional strain she is under, the big house seems like a rather reserved and sustainable existence. Now, maybe the writer skipped on the stereotypical prison drama to keep the focus on Elizabeth's mortification at having her child stripped away from her, but even uplifting prison films like Shawshank (admittedly, a much better film) had the Sisters and quite a bit of physical abuse. I really thought they were setting something like that up when the Margaret and Evelyn characters are introduced. There needed to be a least a pecking order beatdown before they became bosom buddies, but all it took was a few stolen smokes. Blech.

Honey! Ixnay on the aked-fey eath-day!

Once our righteously pissed heroine gets her parole and we're finally introduced to Tommy Lee Jones' parole officer, what should be a great game of cat and mouse is just a simple half hour of connect the dots that wastes a perfect opportunity for Judd to out Greenwood at a black tie gala and sends the audience sightseeing tourista N'awlins... from the French Quarter to NO's famous above ground cemeteries (where a prime chance to kill her is wasted) and back again.

I think my main problem with the film is that there's just no smarts involved. It's a paint by numbers movie that has no real tense moments or true emotion. Even when Elizabeth is supposed to be breaking down in tears or full of righteous anger, Judd plays her so false and wooden. I'll tell you true, I wouldn't have believed her crocodile tears on the witness stand and her denouement hug of her long lost child felt like a camp counselor giving an awkward going away embrace to her favorite camper whilst simultaneously avoiding his first boner.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

This wasn't a great outing for Jones, either. His motivation is tacked on and the stories need to always have him following footsteps instead of really asserting himself means that when he actually tries something during the climax, it feels out of left field and is just as false as Judd and her antics. I mean, at least in The Fugitive he felt menacing in his dogged pursuit... like a noose was actually tightening. Here it was just "Oh hai, Ashley!"

Thank the Maker he made No Country For Old Men with the Coens or I'd have no more respect for him.

I feel a bit bad for Bruce Greenwood. He's redeemed himself for this terrible showing in recent years thanks to his work with J.J.Abrams, but I can't help but laugh every time he's on screen in this picture.

At best, I think Double Jeopardy is a date night movie that you can throw on for something in the background while you're spending most of your attentions snogging your partner. It's definitely the kind of film you can slide in an out of without missing anything.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Seventy-nine - The Next Three Days, or "Tension. Pure, Unadulterated Tension."

Thrillers are generally hit or miss with me... even if they have a clever premise, they're either riddled with plot holes or stretch my suspension of disbelief far beyond the breaking point, leaving me a bit bitter, even if I enjoyed myself.

Take The Fugitive, for example.

I love that movie, but it's so utterly ridiculous. The one-armed man, the U.S.Marshals, the real reason for the murder/coverup, the dive from the dam... all of it. Prime popcorn movie, but even as it's relatively smart, it still makes me sigh all over the place.

The Next Three Days, however... wow.

This is the pattern from which all thrillers should be cut.

First of all, it keeps you amped pretty much the entirety of the movie. Even when there's a moment of relaxation, it's bookended by supremely tense moments... and that's right from the start.

The movie opens on a dinner where Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks are double dating with his brother and sister-in-law. An argument unexpectedly breaks out and I could feel myself digging my fingers into the cushion of my seat. Then, there's a brief intimate interlude, so... sexual tension. From there we have a moment of respite where we see domestic bliss then--BAM--police are busting down the door.

And there are sequences like that throughout the entirety of the movie. Good, smart, tight moments of pacing, always keeping you on the edge of your seat.

We see Crowe's character John go from supportive, but despairing, husband and father into a new phase of his life, one dedicated to getting his wife out of prison, no matter what the cost... so long as they are together as a family. He sells his house, his furniture, everything. He even goes so far as to consider robbing a bank... but settles for the ill-gotten gains of a neighborhood drug dealer instead.

Elizabeth Banks doesn't get as much screen time as Crowe, but she's just as dedicated to her own role. Whether it's her jailhouse suicide attempt or her pushing her husband away, Banks' Lara is every bit believable... especially considering, for the length of the movie, you're never really sure that she actually is innocent. Her husband is, though, and that's all that matters. It's a great way to keep the audience suspicious, yet invested... skeptical, yet sympathetic.

I also love the supporting actors... whether it's Daniel Stern as John and Lara's lawyer, Brian Dennehy as John's gruff father, Olivia Wilde as a playmate's mother... Liam Neeson, The RZA, Lennie James, and Kevin Corrigan. There is a tremendous cast of side characters here, and every single one of them is authentic and pitch perfect.

Honestly, The Next Three Days is one of the smartest written, well directed, impeccably shot, and excellently acted thrillers that I've seen in years.

Seriously, go out and check this movie as soon as you can. It ranks up there with Cloud Atlas, Lincoln, and Paperman in terms of great films that I've seen in the past year. I only wish I had caught it in the theaters.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~