THE SUM OF US (1994)

"Our children are only the sum of us.  What we add up to.  Us and our parents and our grandparents and theirs.  All generations."

Set in Sydney, Australia, THE SUM OF US is about a dad (Jack Thompson) and his grown up son (Russell Crowe). They both have full-time jobs and live together almost like roommates instead of father and son. Jack loves his son dearly...even though he's gay!!!  Gasp!  It's sad that that was noteworthy in 1994 and even sadder that it's was still noteworthy in 2016.

Anyway, Jack and Russell are very close.  Both are single (Jack is a widower) and THE SUM OF US is the simple slice of life story about the two of them trying to find a successful relationship.  Russell has his eyes set on a cute local guy, but when the young man sees how relaxed Russell is with his father, it really messes with his head (since his home life is the opposite) and for whatever reason this causes him to quit seeing Russell.  Russell is heartbroken.  At the same time, Jack meets a woman and they are very happy...for awhile.

I really enjoyed THE SUM OF US.  The performances by the entire cast are great, the Sydney locations are beautiful and the two main characters are a joy to watch.  I've seen THE SUM OF US a number of times over the years and always enjoyed it, but if I had things my way: the story would have been lighter; the flashbacks about the grandmother would have been dropped completely and replaced with more stuff about both Russell and Jack's dating adventures; the medical thing would have never happened and the runtime increased to accommodate the extra dating stories.  But that's just my two cents.

As it is, THE SUM OF US is still a very enjoyable film.  Highly recommended.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS (2010)

[Update 03/09/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Simple everyday man Russell Crowe has his world rocked when his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is suddenly arrested and thrown in jail for murder. He cries and whimpers some, but when the last legal effort has been denied Russell puts on his biggest, baddest big girl panties and decides he's going to break her out of jail himself!

That's an interesting idea for a movie and for the most part it works, I was entertained, but I wish it had just been darker! There was a short moment (when he was getting money for his plan) that was dark and it was easily the best part of the movie. Another thing that bothered me is there were multiple rock montages. What is this a ROCKY movie? Also, the escape was way too easy. There wasn't any traffic on the roads. I'll run into more difficulty returning this DVD to the fucking video store than he did escaping the city with the police hot on his tail.

Those things aside, I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't anything special and a month from now I will have forgotten most of it, but it was a good lazy afternoon time-waster.