3 Days to Kill (2014) Reviews

• One Of The Most Action Packed Movies Of Costner's Career

  slightlymad222016-11-02

  Continuing my plan to watch every movie in Kevin Costner's filmography in order I come to 2014's three days to kill. Plot In A Paragraph: Ethan Renner (KC) an estranged father, with limited time to live, desperately tries to reconnect with his estranged wife and daughter before his death. Oh and he is a C.I.A. field agent, that is promised an experimental drug if he agrees to one last job. 3 Days To Kill was marketed as an action film like Taken. I guess, that is a fair description. But there is more to it than that!! It is also an melodrama mixed in with foreign intrigue, assassination plots, kidnappings, and murders. There is plenty going on. Maybe it would have been better in Luc Besson's directed his own script, as it seems uneven at times. Ridiculously implausible, but that doesn't take away from its entertainment value at times. There is a silly sub-plot about a squatting family of immigrants who have taken shelter in KC's flat, but the distraction is minimal. The annoying daughters bratty attitude grows tiresome early on (I actually wanted several horrible fates to befall her) but she is worth protection by the ended the movie. With the exception of 3000 Miles To Graceland, 3 Days To Kill is without doubt the most action packed/violent movie in KC's filmography.

• Don't take it seriously!

  bodnarhd2014-02-21

  It is a lot like " True Lies" in that a lot of the movie is played for laughs. Amber Heard fits her role very well. Kevin Costner is great as a man who has spent too much time on work and not enough time on his personal life. That is something most of us can relate too. I see people complain about the subplots but they are what make the movie fun. The character actors are great. Not a miss among them. The chase scenes are good with out going over the top. There were only a couple of times where the movie goes to big explosive special effects that take away from the story. The Daughter, played by Hailee Steinfeld, is excellent. Haiee played Mattie Ross in "True Grit". It will be a great loss to the screen if she goes into directing like she wants. Get some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the fun.

• Take your chances. You have a 50/50 shot.

  Nanosecond2014-05-10

  Maybe I should have seen it coming with the 50/50 poster. Maybe I should have seen it with the 50/50 writing credits. This movie has 50/50 written all over it and, no, I'm not talking about the 2011 film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen but 3 Days To Kill could have learned a thing or two from that film considering the dark subject matter and light- hearted jokes. --Spoilers past this point-- Kevin Costner stars as an over-the-hill but still bad-to-the-bone CIA operative with a stuffy nose and light cough that lands him on his back nearly the entire film (wow, after a certain age Hollywood really kicks you when you're down). He is told by his doctor he is suffering from brain cancer which has now spread to his lungs and he only has 3 months to live. To pile it on even more, a CIA representative passes along the news that they no longer need his services. What else can a sick and retired Jack Bauer-esque type man do at such a low point in his life? Ah, yes! Reconnect with your ex-wife and estranged teenage daughter before you kick the bucket. When his ex leaves town for work for 3 days, Costner's character has time to spend, or kill, with his daughter hence the movie title's pun. So far, so good, right? Well, it would have been had the film focused on picking its tone instead of Amber Heard's next crotch shot. (tangent alert) Yes, I am a red-blooded male and this film made even me roll my eyes at the over-the-top sultriness of Heard's character. She is supposed to be a covert CIA operative in Paris but stands out like a sore thumb...a thumb with Victoria Secret catwalk-ready hair, fire truck red lipstick, and tight, black leather (sometimes latex) dresses. We're never informed why she dresses this way, or why she talks and walks like Jessica Rabbit with a cigarette in hand, especially when the first scene of her in the movie has her looking like Clarice Starling's younger sister. Is she a double agent working with the bad guys? Does she have an incurable shopping addiction? Is she moonlighting at the Red Light District? Your guess is as good as mine. (tangent ended) We're never quite sure how to feel about this film since the mood is all over the place. Is the film supposed to be a raucous comedy where the bumbling action hero dad goes through every tired cliché of bonding with his hormone-raging teenage daughter? Or is it an action thriller where the aging Rambo goes after the not-so-mysterious-after-all generic terrorists named The Albino and The Wolf? The writers never seem to mesh the two ideas/genres together cleanly and it shows. Did they work separately and then staple their two different scripts together? Something clearly got lost in the shuffle because we shouldn't be laughing during what are meant to be tense, action sequences nor should we be scratching our heads after a joke is uttered unless we know from the start what type of movie this is...which we don't and, clearly, neither do the filmmakers. At least the main cast knew what time it was and brought their A game. Costner was in fine form as an American cowboy (the reference is thrown around numerous times throughout the film) but he is completely upstaged by the young Hailee Steinfeld who, given her age, is easily able to tap into an honest teenager's feelings of insecurity and resentment. Watching her grow as an actress will be an amazing thing to see in the next couple of years. Connie Nielsen was great but her character was lost in the background. What place can a character who is a mother over 40 have in a quasi action/comedy/thriller piece? Absolutely none so off the screen she goes and she doesn't come back until the climax. Typical. Bottom line, you're either going to love this movie or hate it. The vague ending sort of leaves room (just a small ray of light) for a sequel so I guess if enough people love it the writers can get to work and start stapling up the next script.

• Solid cast, but a ridiculous storyline

  estebangonzalez102014-05-12

  "The wolf is the most dangerous terrorist this world has ever faced. Only you can stop him." Despite not having a great tracking record, there have been a few of McG's movies that I shamelessly found slightly entertaining. 3 Days to Kill began with some promise and I was enjoying Kevin Costner's lead action role, but that feeling didn't last too long once the action scenes and comedy became repetitive. Luc Besson has directed some of my favorite films, but as a screenwriter he hasn't had much success with his latest films. I do have to admit he is trying something different by mixing genres, which partially worked for me in The Family, but it fell flat in 3 Days to Kill. The screenplay was weak, Costner's character kept on having ridiculous blackouts during every climactic scene, the father daughter relationship problems that tried to play out as a comedy were repetitive, and the villains never felt menacing. The only positive thing about 3 Days to Kill were the action scenes and Kevin Costner's star power. It's what he have come to expect from Luc Besson over the past years, some strong actions scenes but poorly written dialogues. 3 Days to Kill feels might have been directed by McG, but it feels much more like a lesser Besson film. 3 Days to Kill opens with a scene at the CIA headquarters where Agent Vivi (Amber Heard) is given an assignment to hunt down a terrorist known as The Wolf (Richard Sammel). No one has actually seen him before, but his associate, The Albino (Tomas Lemarquis) is supposedly going to meet up with him at an international hotel. They also mention to Vivi that they have an agent on the ground named Ethan (Kevin Costner) whose only mission is to take down The Albino. The film then focuses on Ethan as he is getting the job done, but all of a sudden one of the agents is compromised and things get out of control. Ethan saves the day but just as he is about to capture his target he suffers a blackout and wakes up in a hospital where he is told that he has cancer and only a few months to live. He decides to spend his last months in Paris where his ex-wife, Tina (Connie Nielsen), and his teenage daughter, Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld) live. He always had trouble balancing work with family and that eventually led to him losing them, but with only a few months to live he wants to make amends. Right after he arrives in Paris, Vivi shows up with an experimental drug that could save his life with the only condition that he finish the job by hunting down The Wolf and The Albino. In order to spend more time with his family, he accepts, but balancing out work and family proves to be a very difficult task. I was glad that Kevin Costner got a lead action role and I thought he was pretty solid despite the weak character he was given. He might not be as menacing as Liam Neeson, but he is very charismatic. He had a smaller action role at the beginning of the year in Jack Ryan where he was also solid. Amber Heard gave a strange performance, but she looked great nonetheless. The cast was quite solid with Hailee Steinfeld also delivering, but my major issue had to do with the repetitive storyline and the way the final third of the film played out.

• Excellent entertainment

  rdm51122014-02-23

  People, movies are entertainment. They are about the willing suspension of disbelief. Three days to kill is an excellent movie if you are not looking for something deadly serious. Do I believe there are CIA guys out there who kill a dozen people in a week, and leave that kind of mess? Hell no. This is more like a James Bond movie mixed with regular guy. Sometimes we just want to get out of the house during a long winter and be taken away from all this. I think the movie was well worth the money, and I will buy either the DVD later, or Amazon Prime. I am not a big Kevin Costner fan, but I think this is one of his best performances.