Movie Information

Release Date: February 21, 2014
Director: McG
Writer: Adi Hasak, Luc Besson
Cast: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen, Tomas Lemarquis, Richard Sammel, Marc Andreoni
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 117 mins
Studio: Relativity Media
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Language: English
Country: USA

It feels like in the past few weeks I’ve experienced a good number of films that have come across as a mixed bag. In some cases some may consider those guilty pleasures, but I never could relate to that term for its true definition. In this case it is a mix bag, that’s so bad that it can actually be considered good to some. While the main character (Kevin Costner) is great with everything he does, can pull off a decent amount of action, and play the stealth assassin while attempting to be a father/husband, some may have the expectation of a fun ride. In fact, it actually is a fun ride with the plot starting out to be decent, but then descending down rapidly into a giant hot steaming pile of ridiculousness. Though it’s still a waste of time, I wish I could have back. I think it’s honest to say that no matter how talented someone is, everyone has a bad day at the office. That about sums it up for 3 Days To Kill easily.  I’m not a diehard fan of Costner’s, but I do respect and appreciate his work. I’m more of a fan of director McG’s past work, and look forward to anything he’s attached to. So I don’t want to point to blame at the latter. I also don’t want to point the blame at the writers, because they’ve written a few titles I’m proud to have on home video. Though the blame has to be pointed somewhere. I’d say it’s with the writing and in my opinion it’s just not a bad day at the office, but a horrible one. The plot of this movie is the clone of a written paper that wasn’t proof read. Some of the plot holes throughout could’ve been easily patched up, but it honestly feels that no one cares.  In it’s intro we meet someone who appears to be a humble female CIA agent.  We find out later she’s just the opposite. Her white wig was horrible and acting as well. She definitely stood out like a sore thumb.  I honestly hated her character considering it to be a laughing joke. She’s then given an assignment to carry out but never cares to do so herself. Instead she’s goes after Costner’s character to complete missions but they never seem to be anything that she can’t do herself. At times it seems that instead of carrying out her missions she’s trying to train Costner’s characters for the big show down that’s to come. Well first that doesn’t make any sense because there isn’t any grand showdown and why would you be attempting to train an already stealth assassin. She literally drive’s him around (b/c apparently he can’t) explaining to him briefly that there’s a bad guy over there so go learn about them. That’s another huge problem I have. The plot tries to paint the picture of Costner’s character to be some grand assassin, that can accomplish all these amazing that feats no other agent can, but his skills at times seems like the simple A, B, C’s of a basic special task force. Why is he so special? You’re not telling me writers! I guess I’m supposed to believe it b/c you say so. At one point his character subdued another character IN BROAD DAY light shoving him into his trunk. Then starts to torture him while everyone can see. But the writers don’t care they just feel it looks cool. The form of torture is the embarrassing part. Let’s look at who we’re dealing with here. A group of terrorists, buying and selling dirty bombs for millions of dollars but the form of torture to those involved is duck taping them to shower curtain rods and getting recipes for spaghetti. Really?!?! I do this from time to time when I may not feel like watching a film in it’s entirety, I sometime flip scene to scene to my favorite moments. I can say you can do this a lot with this pic. The action is decent, well shot, but nothing special. You can’t appreciate it as a whole because of the sloppy story/plot it’s connected with. While I don’t want to spoil anything, one of the most frustrating aspects is the decision not to use common sense, especially when your life is in danger. If I know when I get thirsty a sip or two of water will save my life, I think it’s smart to carry a container of water around with me. Even if it’s just a few ounces. If you see the film you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And again this is completely overlooked. Through all the action and chaos the story tries to mesh two films together by adding a family element. It’s cute and some of the scenes may be heartwarming, but the plot still doesn’t take advantages of the tools it’s given. We have to raise the stakes people and make it interesting. If nothing is at risk then it can be a great bore. When Costner’s character is basically letting everyone bad guy know where he lives and the fact that he has a family close by, the henchman never decide rally up, kick his door down, round of some hostages, or do anything really that makes sense. Instead the villains give half ass attempts of capture. I did speak on some levels one how I did enjoy some of the action, but it can’t hold any praising weight when it’s unrealistic.  I’m glad my expectations were low walking into this. Viewing it’s trailers and TV spots it did look a little shady with the chance to surprise. It did surprise on how shallow the plot was and the laughable villains running amuck. It had potential to be a decent popcorn flick and it’s sad I can’t even write it off as that. Unfortunately it’s just a missed opportunity that will easily be forgotten, and that’s well deserved. As I stated before this is in my opinion just a bad day at the office where nothing meshed together. We all have those and this is a perfect example of that. I know just look forward to Costner’s next pic Draft Day, and I think all can agree that looks far more promising than this ever attempted to be.