![]() ![]() ![]() There are scenes between Ethan and his daughter that are laugh out loud funny, while there's at least one scene that is mawkishly stereotyped involving dancing and Bread's "Make It With You," which is just about enough to give anyone a nightmare or two. The agent in charge of dispensing the medication, Vivi Delay (Amber Heard), is a vibrantly funny and flirty woman with a flair for costumes, wigs, and matter-of-factness.Īs much as 3 Days to Kill is a more emotionally resonant film than Taken, it's also a funnier film that works quite a bit more than you expect it to on the strength of Costner's performance. Unfortunately, his plans go awry when he's drawn into a final mission and offered access to an experimental medication that will, in all likelihood, extend his life. On the other hand, 3 Days to Kill features a more even-keeled and emotionally compelling action figure in Kevin Costner's Ethan Renner, a terminally ill international spy determined to spend his final days trying to build some semblance of a relationship with his estranged wife (Connie Nielsen) and even more estranged daughter (Hailee Steinfeld). While Neeson is certainly capable of tremendous gravitas, he seems to have embraced the whole late life "action star" thing with a vigor one would have never expected. It actually IS unfair, because 3 Days to Kill is a vastly different film, a film with more emotional resonance and less pure bombasticity (Did I make that word up?). While Besson’s brand of international actioners may be disposable entertainment, they should be fun this one ends up wearing out its welcome.It may be unfair, but it's almost inevitable that while watching 3 Days to Kill you will ponder Liam Neeson's Taken, a film also penned by Luc Besson, whose name seems to be somewhere in the credits of virtually every action film coming out of Hollywood these days. After 90 minutes, I really wanted out.ĭirector McG previously made the two Charlie’s Angels films, Terminator Salvation, and This Means War while 3 Days to Kill is better than that last bomb, it’s equally tone deaf, wavering uneasily between comedy and violent action, and half an hour too long. Now there’s something different! Slightly, at least I was reminded of the 1968 western A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, in which the hero suffered uncontrollable epileptic fits at the least opportune moments.īut forget all that CIA spy business: Ethan has to teach his daughter how to dance! And ride a bike! And save her from lecherous French boys! Now you can yawn: the family junk completely engulfs 3 Days to Kill, bloating it to an intolerable 117-minute running time. But wait: because of the brain cancer – and the unlicensed drug he takes to cure it – Ethan suffers hallucinogenic fits whenever his heart rate is raised, which is whenever he’s close to taking out the baddie. But things go wrong when Ethan slips away to make a quick phone call to his daughter on her birthday (heavy-handed foreshadowing ahoy!) Enter 3 Days to Kill.Ī debris-filled pre-credits sequence in Belgrade promises more action than the rest of the film delivers, as Ethan and his team attempt to capture an arms trafficker selling a dirty bomb. ![]() ![]() The concept is simple – Hollywood star, international intrigue – but (first Taken excluded) these films rarely end up as more than a light diversion. Producer and co-writer Besson, by the way, has been churning these things out like clockwork since the Transporter and Taken films turned a nifty profit (also see: From Paris with Love, Colombiana, and The Family). But not when it’s shoe-horned into a faux-actioner scripted by Luc Besson and directed by McG ( Charlie’s Angels). Both stars are empathetic, and a feature devoted to their strained relationship probably could have worked. And that’s despite warm performances from both Costner, as CIA agent Ethan Renner, and Hailee Steinfeld (Oscar-nominated for her role in True Grit) as his daughter Zooey. ![]()
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