The Next Three Days
Lionsgate | Release Date: November 19, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 17, 2010
Damon's how-to-break-the-law lesson - as ludicrous as anything else in this enjoyably zigzaggy exercise in accumulating peril - grants Neeson the fun of experimenting with an American ex-con accent for his one scene. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesNov 18, 2010
The characters are so vivid that the suspense never lags. Crowe is best in buttoned-down roles like this one, and he holds the husband's fear and resolve in balance. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 20, 2010
Offers enough suspense to make it worth the price of admission. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithNov 19, 2010
I didn't buy how The Next Three Days plays out - but I almost bought it, and that's good enough for a thriller. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 18, 2010
The Next Three Days is genre fare - no pretensions, no nonsense. Read full review
75
MovielineStephanie ZacharekNov 17, 2010
The plot is worked out with care, and it takes its time, unapologetically, in a manner that's perfectly suited to thinking adults. The whole enterprise reeks of class. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreNov 17, 2010
A detail-oriented thriller that lets us keep up even as it races to a conclusion. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 20, 2010
A ponderous but mesmerizing tick-tock thriller. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 15, 2010
An accomplished, intelligent, often exciting piece of work, but I can't help wishing that Haggis had figured out how to make it more fun. [22 Nov. 2010, p. 140]
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 20, 2010
In its final half-hour, all the stops are pulled. The movie is still wildly implausible but at least it's hurtling forward. The only thing missing from the proceedings is a windmill for John to tilt at. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeNov 19, 2010
An okay thriller with lots of smart flourishes, The Next Three Days has us hooked early on but never quite gets us in the boat. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 17, 2010
The Next Three Days might have fared a lot better if the screenwriters had stuck to "The Next Two Days." Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 17, 2010
The movie is a competent thriller, but maybe could have been more. Read full review
60
Total FilmSimon KinnearJan 25, 2015
Haggis struggles to make his presence felt over ludicrous thrills, but Crowe is superb and the entertainment factor high. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoJan 3, 2011
Okay, but it lacks conviction. Read full review
60
TimeMary PolsNov 20, 2010
Slick, well acted and engaging. It's also morally bankrupt--a film that makes you feel as though you've been taken for a smooth ride by the Hollywood machine and dropped somewhere very nasty. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 18, 2010
The increasingly unlikely escapades culminate in a finale that's as narratively lazy as it is morally questionable, lending further credence to the voices that proclaimed Haggis absurdly overpraised for the 2004 Oscar-winner "Crash." Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 18, 2010
Haggis doesn't trust the action to carry his themes across without emphasis, and his movie suffers for it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 18, 2010
If The Next Three Days were just a little more mindless, it might have been more joyful. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 18, 2010
It plods along dutifully, with the occasional zigzag into contrivance, tidy coincidence and outright preposterousness. Read full review
50
USA TodayScott BowlesNov 18, 2010
Far-fetched is fine in most action flicks. And it would work here if Days were a straightforward police story. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 18, 2010
There are some things to admire in the film, based on the French movie "Pour Elle," most of which involve developments that would give too much away. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 18, 2010
Haggis finally finds the movie's groove late in the game, and the escape sequence itself is hectic, suspenseful, and enjoyably ridiculous. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonNov 16, 2010
Once the second act begins with a title card announcing "The Last 3 Months"-the amount of time John spends cooking up labyrinthine plans to spring Lara-Haggis's film becomes interminably nonsensical. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 13, 2010
Although involving, this remake of a recent French film never reaches the anticipated heights of excitement and suspense. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerNov 13, 2010
The movie was written and directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash) and when stripped to its logline, it's pretty ridiculous. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangNov 13, 2010
Paul Haggis' middling fourth feature evinces a sometimes pulse-quickening fascination with procedural details, and climaxes with a good dose of swift, suspenseful filmmaking. But what was briskly diverting in the original has been rather laboriously overworked. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 17, 2010
Paul Haggis is positive that withholding information while John makes "A Beautiful Mind" flow charts and deals with bad dudes will keep it interesting. Haggis is wrong. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 19, 2010
It's laughably, eye-rollingly absurd. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 18, 2010
About 33 minutes in, I couldn't help but think, if they do another close-up of your watch as it tick, tick, ticks toward another three, I will scream. But honestly, any screaming should be directed at Paul Haggis, who both wrote and directed this mess. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 18, 2010
There is all kinds of potential here, but Mr. Haggis lacks the Hitchcockian sense of mischief to make it blossom. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 18, 2010
How you feel about Paul Haggis's new film may depend on your contrivance threshold. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 16, 2010
You keep waiting for the movie to grow a brain, for that random attractive neighbor (Wilde) to turn out to be a decoy, for Banks herself to become suspect. Nope. The Next Three Days morphs into "The Fugitive" on steroids. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 18, 2010
It's damn hard to enjoy a thriller when you don't, won't, can't believe a word of it. Read full review
38
ObserverUna LaMarcheNov 16, 2010
Speaking of afterthoughts, Olivia Wilde has a bit part as a single mom who unwittingly aids and abets the Brennans in their escape, and Brian Dennehy lurches silently through a number of scenes as John's working-class father. It's jarring to see such big-name actors in such thankless roles. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 24, 2010
Maybe taking a cue from his namesake dish, that much-maligned Scottish pudding concoction made with sheep innards and root vegetables, Haggis presents a mishmash of genres in this redo of Fred Cavayé's 2008 French film "Pour Elle." Read full review
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