No matter the reviews, John Morris and I were definitely going to see the thriller "The Next Three Days", given that the film was said to have loads of shots of Pittsburgh being Pittsburgh. As opposed to for example, the as yet unreleased "One For the Money" which made Pittsburgh into Trenton NJ.
The first reviews I saw ranged from indifferent to a downright bad one in the New York Times. However, the usually tough David Denby of The New Yorker liked the movie.........a lot. He calls it an "accomplished, intelligent, often exciting piece of work." The movie was written and directed by Paul Haggis who made Academy Award winner "Crash" and wrote the script for another Academy Award winner "Million Dollar Baby".
I am not a Hollywood movie person,being more an indepedent film fan, but this was fun, suspenseful, entertaining. While violent in parts, it had none of the person being tortured stuff that is frequently found in action films now, and which infuriates me.
It turns out that not only are scenes of Pittsburgh all over the movie, Pittsburgh is written in everywhere. And the city looks gorgeous (ofcourse).Since it is not actually a travelogue for Pittsburgh, yes, there are a lot of things missing if a person really wanted to "see" Pittsburgh. No time in this thriller to shoot details of our wonderful period architecture, or ramble through our big beautiful city parks.
However, I notice I don't know that I'll ever look at even mundane things, such as the I79 sign, in quite the same way again.
This movie will end up being seen by millions of people, and it will be really good PR for our city.
Several big Hollywood films have been made here recently (I am sure this is not news to anyone who lives in Pgh!).
A Pittsburgh Post Gazette interview with Paul Haggis(warning some plot spoilers)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09348/1020716-60.stm
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