3 Days to Kill (2014) Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen Movie Review

3 Days to Kill (2014)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Kevin Costner and Hailee Steinfeld in 3 Days to Kill (2014)

The Good, The Bad and The Doesn't Really Gel

Veteran CIA agent Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) collapses whilst chasing a terrorist known as The Albino (Tómas Lemarquis) and after ending up in hospital is given the bad news that he has a brain tumour which has spread to his lungs. With no hope Ethan decides with only a few months to live he will try and reconnect with his wife Christine (Connie Nielsen) and teen daughter Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld) who he has kept away from to keep them out of danger. But it is whilst looking after his daughter for a few days that the mysterious Vivi Delay (Amber Heard) shows up and in return for an experimental drug which may give Ethan more time he must finish the job he was doing when he fell ill.

Well as a way to fill 2 hours on a Saturday night "3 Days to Kill" did the job. It has action with some gun play, car chases and a sadistic bald bad guy. It has some humour as Ethan finds being a father to a teenager more difficult than killing bad guys, some of whom he asks for parenting advice. And it also has some romance and father/daughter bonding. Yes "3 Days to Kill" certainly ticks the boxes when it comes to delivering entertainment, except for the fact that once it was over not only did I feel a lack of desire to watch it again but I knew that give it a few days and I will have forgotten the movie.

In truth there is some thing I might remember about "3 Days to Kill" and that is an almost awkwardness to some of the scenes. The scenes in question feature Ethan usually about to torture someone to discover where his target is only to then find himself interrupted by needing to be a dad, which often sees him asking the guy he is about to torture some parenting advice. It never really delivers the black humour which it should do and just doesn't quite click as it almost feels matter of fact.

Despite this "3 Days to Kill" is still fun and there is something quite nice about the way Ethan and Zooey end up bonding. It isn't that what happens between them is anything new, there is even a daughter dancing on her father's feet scene, but there is a really nice vibe to it. As such Kevin Costner and Hailee Steinfeld work well together. But then there is Amber Heard as the mysterious Vivi and her character feels like it belongs in an entirely different movie.

What this all boils down to is that "3 Days to Kill" entertains, simple as that and if you want a 2 hour distraction one evening which mixes action with father daughter bonding it should entertain. But for me there was some thing a little awkward about its attempt to be amusing and ends up the sort of movie you find yourself struggling to remember a few days after watching.


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