3 Days to Kill
Starring: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Haliee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen, Richard Sammel, Tomas Lemarquis
Directed by: McG
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A CIA Agent (Kevin Costner) reluctantly takes one more assignment in order to get an experimental drug that may save his life and give him more time to reconnect with his daughter (Haliee Steinfeld).

Review:

Tim: I really wanted to like 3 Days to Kill. I'm a big fan of Kevin Costner and it's fun to see him in these action thrillers. I had certain hopes for this film, but it didn't live up to any of them. This is yet another generic, forgettable action thriller. It's not a terrible movie, but there's so very little to get excited about here.

Almost everything about this movie has been done numerous times before. Costner is a dying CIA Agent, and he takes one last mission to receive an experimental drug. What was his mission, you ask? Ah, it was something about killing people? Or retrieving something? Or killing people to get information to retrieve something? Honestly, it's all so convoluted and unmemorable that I can't even pinpoint the point of it all. It wasn't engaging in the least. Costner wants the drug to stay alive so he can spend more time with his estranged family, especially his daughter. We get a ton of scenes with Costner and his daughter, none of which are particularly interesting or exciting. The whole bad-father-because-he's-a-spy thing has been done numerous times before, and this movie has nothing new to say on the matter. Those scenes were average throughout the film. The movie also tries to give us these lighthearted humorous moments that just seem to fall flat. There's a scene where Costner is about to torture a guy and pauses to have him give his daughter a sauce recipe on the phone. It was supposed to be a lighthearted, knee-slapping moment, but it just came across as forced and not especially funny. It was interesting to see everyone involved with this film trying so hard to do certain things and just failing miserably. I blame a lot of it on McG, who totally blows the direction of the film.

Given the fact that the movie doesn't do nearly enough to hold our attention, the 117 minute run time is a bit of a slog to get through. Yes, there are certainly compelling moments sprinkled throughout the film, but there's also long stretches of lackluster scenes that just pile up on one another. The film was okay, but I didn't have a lot of fun watching it and I shudder to think about having to sit through it again.

Kevin Costner was decent in the lead role. I thought he made the best of a bad script. I enjoyed him in the role, even though he had very little to work with. Amber Heard continued to show she has nothing of any substance to offer. I think she's a terrible actress and I never believed her performance for a minute here. She really hurt the movie with her poor acting. Hailee Steinfeld was fine, but again, her character was kind of annoying, so she didn't come across in the best light. I will say her performance did nothing to overcome this issue- she didn't connect with me in the slightest. The supporting cast was fine.

In the end, 3 Days to Kill is a pretty big disappointment. It offers nothing new. It's a generic action thriller that treads the same ground as dozens of other movies and doesn't contribute a new verse to the same old story. You can do worse than this movie, but don't go into it expecting very much at all.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Contraband, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit