3 Days to Kill (2014)

This movie tries to be many things; its mostly an action film but also plays heavily into the family drama while throwing in some dark comedy too, all with mixed results.The somewhat recycled story follows Kevin Costner as a gruff ex secret service agent who after being told has just 3 months to live sets out on that infamous "one last mission" in exchange for an experimental drug that will save his life. This last job just happens to take place with he also tasked with looking after his estranged teenage daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) after his ex wife (conveniently) has to leave town.The action storyline is quite good though thanks to Luc Besson; decent stunts, tons of broken glass and bullet riddled bodies, and Costner gets the job done -Liam Neeson style-. The ending sequence was also refreshing as all along I had been assuming a cliché kidnapping, so nice twist there.I did find the amount of perfect English being spoken and understood in France and especially Serbia a little convenient but whatever, this was mindless but still worth a watch.

Am I saving the world today? I don't think so.But I try ;) I notice I feel compelled to write a review on IMDb for only 2 kind of movies : those that are so awful I need to warn other fellow humans about and those that are so amazing that I want to expand my gratitude through here.You've guessed well : "3 Days to Kill" is not one of my favorite movies. I do think the director has done some choices that did hurt the movie. And the screenplay is a Luc Besson's actual screenplay. Very thin story, very simplified reality, actually the word 'reality' does not suit this movie. You can not believe the Luc Besson who writes this is the same that did the amazing "Nikita" or even better "Le Grand Bleu".OK, so, first, the name of the movie. If I was not in love with Costner, I would not have watched this movie, just from the title. I don't like violence, I don't like promoting violence to all the teenagers who don't really know what it is to kill (here comes my trying-to-save-the-world preaching). I see this kind of movie responsible for the banalization of violence, and responsible for the false connection it shows between strength and guns. I find the message of this movie utterly confusing : here's a good guy who lets squatters in his place and yet kills people for a living. You see, killing here becomes just another thing a good guy does in life.That's in general.In the details, there is so much to say. I must say the way the movie began I gasped because I heard : "CIA", and I thought : no! again? but I love Costner too much... Basically it's the lack of reality that just pushed me out of the movie more than once. The baby birth was ridiculous. Or was it the editing. I understand we can't go through the 15 hours of a labor. But to show a woman push her baby out and the next second to see the baby in the family's arms WITHOUT a cord, that's just hilarious!!! Not to mention the squatters ready to leave because they found a place out of Paris, all smiley and all. I ask : where is Mickey and the balloons? I mean, is Luc Besson aware of the actual real life in Paris for people who don't have much money? You think people say with a smile : "Oh we think we'll just move out of Paris..."?Also Paris is so fukking beautiful. I regret they did not take more advantage of the city. Showing us only the Eiffel Tower in like so many plans, even giving us a Kevin Costner alone moment next to the Eiffel Tower, I mean, that was sad, he really seemed alone and I thought : they must have guarded him very well alone so that he's not troubled by all the crazy fans. I even thought the scene where he bikes through Paris maybe has been chosen for it was one of the only ways to shoot him (pun intended) in the city without him being bothered or even in any kind of risk (there are insurances in movie business...)But the bike episode with the daughter. Hello. Too fake. Too long. It was supposed to touch us but it didn't because it looked too much like a commercial. Because we jumped too fast from the girl in her nightdress to the girl in her pants. Because it was different scenes put together. Because why would Costner mimic as if he was strong when people cheer about his girl having learned to bike? Why was it so fake? It was not the actors. The actors actually managed to act quite well, most of them (I found that Hugh was very fake too).No, it's really the direction. Where's the camera and what does she give importance to and for how long? The camera should never give a viewer the feeling : oh, here comes the love scene, right; oh, here comes the sweetness scene, right, et cetera.You don't feel like you're watching a real story. You feel like you're watching very expected scenes that don't glue together and not even to themselves.Pffffff. Makes me want to go back to Paris and see it fortunately without guns and without crashes, although there are probably many gunned police and army officers because these days there are young people who do just like Kevin Costner in this movie. I guess someone told them it's hot.Oh, one thing I did love very much and found was very creative was the presentation of the movie, with the windows and all, and you see many Kevin Costners at once (mmmm). It was so beautiful, from a taxi, with the sunlight. But it did not fit with the title of the movie that appeared right after, title that got filled with a red color just afterwards (so gross).Anyway, I'm a girl and I'm telling you guys, I so don't find guns hot!

It seems a fair amount of viewers didn't like this movie all that much. No superheros in it-well there was really if you consider the way Kevin Kostner's character moved through bad guys like a knife through warm butter. The fact it had more than its share of kick ass action should have garnered it more action movie fan attention. KK isn't around much these days and I think he knows he has to truly excel if he wants the public's attention-its that kind of a public-but he does excel in this movie. It is funny & it also sheds plenty of led. It deserved a better overall score than the 6 something IMDb reviewers gave it. Its an eight. Maybe more...its worth checking out if you have never seen it.

I found the movie multi layered and quite poignant. It was more than just a simple western one theme and tone movie and I really enjoyed how it was put together. Kevin Costner was suitably craggy. The movie didn't insult my intelligence even if it didn't quite hang together as well as it could. That flaw was a result of the choices made to tell the story the way it was told and came off in other ways. The spy sections were clever and original while the dad arc was exceptionally well done. It's interesting it rated so highly on Netflix yet so poorly here. I'm over ridiculous action movies that take themselves too seriously. This was a beautiful combination that I thoroughly enjoyed and had me guessing minute by minute where it was headed. Refreshing and interesting.