3 Days to Kill Review

Title: 3 Days to KillMPAA Rating: PG-13Director: McG

Starring: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

What It Is?: Ethan Renner (Costner) is a dying man with a rare unusual type of brain cancer. Cancer has spread to his lungs. As such he has been forcibly retired by the government agency he worked for. However, the mysterious Vivi (Heard) has propositioned Ethan for one last job finding and killing a specter-like arms dealer known only as “The Wolf”. Along the way, Ethan will reconnect with his teenage daughter Zooey (Steinfeld). Vivi leverages an experimental medicine to give Ethan more time with his family as a way to get his assistance with exterminating “The Wolf” and his operative known only as “The Albino”. Now Ethan must fight his own body, and these gun runners all the while trying to reconnect with his daughter.

What We Think: HackG as I call him has never been a director with a subtle hand. His use of excessive everything killed the Charlie’s Angels films, and We Are Marshall was an emotionless shell sadly. It seems as though he can’t ever get the emotional aspects of the narrative right, and that tradition continues here. While some of the elements between Ethan and Zooey pack some punch this has more to do with Costner’s acting, and the Adi Hasak, and Luc Beeson's script. When dealing with the more action-packed scenes Mc gets it mostly right, and they’re enthralling enough set pieces to truly make the film pack a punch. The unique nature of some of the scenes makes for a nice change of piece. One scene, in particular, involving an Italian lawyer seemed to really pop. Overall it’s a pretty good thrill-ride void in very important spots.

Our Grade!:B-, average drama coupled with above average action makes for a good, not great thriller that is at times uneven but has enough to fill its bloated runtime. Costner shines here, and this coupled with April’s release of “Draft Day” seems to signal Costner’s return to the limelight. Steinfeld is good enough in her role even though her character isn’t exactly three dimensional. They attempt to make her as such but were left instead with an odd scene towards the end that ties up Ethan’s story but not Zooey’s. Amber Heard’s Vivi was an annoyance that in my opinion felt forced and out of place. Nonetheless, the film is a good way to blow two hours. The film opens February 21st and is worth a watch to see the 58-year-old Costner kick some serious ass.