A dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.
Director: McG
Writers : Adi Hasak (screenplay), Luc Besson (screenplay)
Stars : Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen
A dangerous international spy is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he's previously kept at arm's length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission - even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world's most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.
Reviews
"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.
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