Director: McG
Writers: Adi Hasak (screenplay), Luc Besson (story)
Actors: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen
Runtime: 113 min
Rating: 14A
There are times when a film aims to achieve so much that it ends up accomplishing very little at all. After watching the new film from director McG, 3 Days to Kill, I am entirely unsure what kind of movie the director was trying to present. Part overly stylized action flick, part humorous family drama, this movie seems to want to be all things at once. If the film had focused on one aspect or genre and done it well, the end result would have been an undoubtedly stronger piece. Unfortunately, the product here is a bit of a baffling amalgamation that is very strange, and not particularly good, but not wholly unenjoyable.
Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) is an international spy who has been in the dangerous business for thirty-two years. After he discovers that his days are numbered due to terminal illness, Ethan finally decides to settle down and spend some time with his estranged wife Christine (Connie Nielson) and rebellious teenage daughter Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld). When a mysterious woman from the CIA who calls herself Vivi Delay (Amber Heard) offers him an experimental drug that could buy him more time in exchange for the completion of one final assignment, Ethan is forced to juggle the dual roles of protective father and ruthless killer.
3 Days to Kill wastes no time getting down to business, immediately presenting the viewer with the conflict around which its action will revolve. After the initial excitement, however, the film meanders between scenes of family drama and what attempts to pass for spy intrigue. Ethan barely gets started on his mission when he is accosted by his other life problems, such as his troublesome sickness, his partying teenage daughter, and the family of squatters who have taken up resident in his apartment. The action almost becomes a subplot; remove it entirely, and the film could have been an interesting examination of the life of a dying family man. Some of these stories, particularly that of the squatters, had much potential to intrigue, and even here never failed to bring a smile to my face. There were even a few moments of genuine humour, although many situations intended to be funny fell flat. Unfortunately, however, so many points of conflict were presented that none were given enough time for thorough examination, and many felt rushed through before we barrelled on to the next issue.
The acting performances within this film range from quite good to wholly dreadful. Costner presents a loveable and earnest protagonist in Ethan, and he is definitely an enjoyable individual to watch on screen. Steinfeld disappointingly underwhelms as Ethan’s daughter Zooey, but that could be due to the banality of the character she portrays. It is Heard as Vivi who provides a memorably bad performance; her character is so over-the-top that she quickly becomes ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense within the film. Her exaggerated femme fatale character is purely silly, and could have been fun in another film, but here Heard takes her so seriously that it is impossible for an audience to react in any way but to roll our eyes and to wonder what she is doing here at all. A script full of cheesy lines may be delivered with sincere intentions by many, but their efforts are not enough to alleviate this flaw. Even the heavily stylized sequences, such as the strange parties from which Ethan rescues his daughter, are sloppy, cheap, and entirely nonsensical.
This film is simultaneously a very simple and very confusing work. The plot is straightforward, and all is presented in extremes. Costner’s good guy is a heroic father without any complication, while the bad guy is pure and uncensored evil. There is no nuance or subtlety, but neither are really to be expected from such a film, and their absence does not necessarily present an issue. The real problem with this film is that it appears to want to be two very different works at the same time, and by not fully focusing on either genre, neither is delivered effectively. The tone wavers from heartfelt and emotional to oddly stylized and psychedelic, but strangely enough, there is not much actual action present. 3 Days to Kill is a baffling film, and without the loveable Costner for whom to cheer, it would have been an utter disaster. Even this actor cannot save the film, but he certainly does his best.
The Breakdown
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4/10
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5/10
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4/10
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5/10
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5/10