The Next Three Days and The Shawshank Redemption

The films “The Next Three Days” and “The Shawshank Redemption” are films about prison breaks. The films have similar ideas, in different time periods, but one film is more successful than the other in portraying the story.
Both films have the same idea of escaping prison. There’s a lot of planning that important in these films; it’s all that “The Next Three Days” is about. The men are the ones who do all the planning. They both consist of the innocent persons becoming convicted felons, but later escape; one on his own accord and the other because of her husband.
The reason “The Shawshank Redemption” is more successful than “The Next Three Days” is the element of surprise. You have no idea that Andy has any intention to actually escape; the audience doesn’t find out until around the last twenty minutes of the film. The film is more interesting because it’s the story behind bars, instead of the world we already know. Also, Andy doesn’t give in and let the prison rule his life, like Elizabeth Bank’s character Lara. She lets herself become weak and even admits to her husband that she’s not innocent, when she is; Andy doesn’t let this happen to him, and he even stands up to the warden.
Both “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Next Three Days” have the same basic idea as films. The greatest difference and determining factor of success is that “The Next Three Days” is more about the planning aspect, whereas “Shawshank Redemption” has an inside look on prison-life, where the prisoner is the motivated one.