Review of 3 Days to Kill (2014) by Nicholas M — 24 Jun 2014

"You're working aren't you!?".

With Liam Neeson's long standing love affair with the one-man action genre - and it breathing new life into this career it was inevitable that others would follow suit. And this time it's 'Kevin Costner' having a crack at it. Unfortunately I suffers teh same problems have with most of Neeson's foray's into the spy thriller - the story is mostly pants. Even though that tends not to matter so much for most, its always bothered me - 'Taken' is not a great film its story is poor. But like that film '3 Days To Kill' gets by on its action sequences.

The film starts off with an action scene showcasing some inventiveness that is seen as a promise to the rest of the film - but it never delivers a theme of the film. To its credit there's a vague attempt to inject something more into it with 'Ethan' (Kevin Costner) having several avenues to go down - as well as juggling his real life and his illness. I say vague because it doesn't do anything with other than the obligatory misunderstood renegade daughter moments. 'Ethan' is the typical disappearing dad because of work character - not bale to say what he does where he's going. After he finds out he's got a terminal illness and is let go by the CIA he decides best to spend time with his family. But he gets brought back in to find and kill a man teh CIA have been after for years and guess what he's the only one who has seen him. Something he regrets, a lot in fact it never goes more than 15 minutes without saying it. He's not a particularly interesting character and neither are any of the people around him.

And then there's 'Vivi Delay' (Amber Heard) a character so obscure, weird and eye-rolling that its hard to see why she'd be a top level CIA operative - she sticks out like a Whale in a paddling pool. Her motivations are fairly unknown seemingly wanting sex, but I guess that was meant to be showcase her manipulation talents. Nothing about that character is good - sorry to fixate but she's a terrible character and brings things down and I get that it was an attempt to create a badass female character but this is a new low. However the missions she sends him on have some excellent and well put together action scenes. Shoot-outs don't get bogged down and are always moving - likewise for the car chase. That's the one saving grace the writer 'Luc Besson' know how to put together good action sequences.

The story isn't the best even though it tries to build something by introduce more humanity in its character than the genre tends to have. Thankfully all you need is a well choreographed, fast paced fire fights and intense car chases. Ok maybe not all you need but it goes along way in redeeming the film to some degree. If only 'Vivi' wasn't so irritatingly intact and cheesily written and poorly dressed and had a terrible personalty. Mainly for those who still can't get enough of the over-used stale genre.