Tag Archives: 3 Days to Kill (2014)

3 Days to Kill (2014) a (right on time!) review

It’s rare to get the chance to actually go to the theater and see a film, and when the opportunity arises, often the films available aren’t terribly appealing.  In the case of 3 Days to Kill, I can’t say I was dying to see it, but of the films currently screening, it was the one that most appealed, if I can use such a strong word.

OK, so I went into this expecting at best a mediocre and at worse a terrible film.  In that respect, I was pleasantly surprised.

3 Days to Kill’s story goes like this: Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner, exuding cool charisma and graceful ageing) is a CIA hitman who, after his most recent job and a collapse at its end, goes to a doctor who informs him he is dying of cancer and has at best three months left to live.

Renner decides to spend the short time he has left in the company of his estranged daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) and wife (Connie Nielsen), but a CIA handler (Amber Heard) has other plans and needs him to finish the job he started at the beginning of the movie and take out a dangerous terrorist.  Her incentive to get him to do the job despite his grim prognosis?  An experimental drug that may allow him to live a longer life.

3 Days to Kill is a hybrid action/comedy with a surprisingly big heart.  When we first meet Renner, he’s presented as a hard-ass killer but during the course of the film not only does he have to deal with a teenage daughter -and issues relating to being a teen- but also with a large family of squatters who have taken over his apartment along with his target’s aids…two of whom he handles in surprisingly funny ways.

While 3 Days to Kill is not a “superb” film and may well be forgotten as soon as it leaves the theaters, I found it enjoyable and liked the way it transitioned from action to comedy and back again.  The film’s success lies for the most part on the shoulders of Mr. Costner who, after seemingly disappearing from films, delivers a warm and weathered turn.

Recommended.