I vote for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursday’s. Wait is that not what the title means?
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“3 Days to Kill” stars Kevin Costner as a man hoping to retire from the life of a spy so that he can spend more time with his estranged family, but instead ends up having to balance both. The movie is directed by “McG” who also gave us Charlie’s Angel’s and most recently “This Means War” and 3 days falls right in line with his pattern of making movies that have moments of fun but then don’t quite hold together. Costner is joined by Amber Heard who plays some sort of mysterious sultry spy that shows up to lure him back into the espionage game, and Hailee Steinfeld, who you may know from Ender’s Game, plays the teenage daughter he’s trying desperately to reconnect with.
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And if the movie works at all for me I guess it’s in those daddy daughter moments. Even though I didn’t feel the emotion of some of the scenes were completely earned, Costner’s shines when playing that befuddled straight man. There a genuine earnestness and sensitivity to his persona that works perfectly in making us want to root for him to mend those relationships. Sure it’s overly sentimental, but I’m nothing if not a sucker for a bit of the family ties schtick. I also thought Steinfeld was good in her role, even if she was stuck with some pretty run of the mill plot points to walk through.
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And yet as much as I was willing to buy Costner as the flustered father, it was much harder for me to buy him as the action hero. I think McG wanted to sell this character as an older Jason Bourne type, using much of the same handheld close up violence those movies were known for. But it just didn’t work for me. Whereas with Bourne it feels raw, gritty, and real, here it felt slow, choreographed and fake. Oh and also really brutal at times. In fact, I’m almost sure this movie was originally shot to be rated R. Not only was the violence a bit amped but there were some obvious post filming audio dubs, apparently to eliminate profanity, and even some obviously computer generated fog that strategically covered up some strippers. But the worst thing for me was that the movie was over edited in general and ends up feeling like an incohesive mess. It’s like that puzzle where you can’t finish because there are several pieces missing. Why am I rooting against this villain again? What’s so personal about this? Wait did he just get shot by a shotgun in the chest and then get back up? And then there is a plot contrivance so forced in the final act that when it happens I literally exhaled a “pffft”. Which I’m actually really proud of, cause I really just wanted to yell at the screen “Come on!” but I’ve made it almost two months into 2014 without getting thrown out of a movie yet, so, steady as she goes.
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Overall, “3 Days to Kill” is a run of the mill action vehicle with a bit of fun and heart. But some missing pieces and strange editing choices make it hard to invest in. I retire it with a C+
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