Movie Review - 3 Days to Kill

3 Days to Kill (2014)

Starring Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Amber Heard, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by McG

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

3 Days to Kill has no clue what it is.  Is it an action movie in which an older, grizzled CIA officer discovers he has three months to live and sets out begrudgingly on one final mission?  Is it a family drama in which the aforementioned older, grizzled CIA officer tries to reconnect with his ex-wife and now teenaged daughter whom he abandoned for his job?  Or is a quirky comedy starring an older grizzled Kevin Costner as an older, grizzled CIA officer who can't figure out why his teenage daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) finds him so repugnant?  As the film attempts to meld all three of these varied plots, it becomes a muddled mess with none of the three story lines panning out in any desirable fashion.

Although I thought the flick started out promisingly with a moderately intense opening action scene, things quickly devolve from there.  Costner is actually decent and Steinfeld is charismatic although her character is much too much of a stereotypical jerk of a teenager to give a damn about her various plights.  The less said about Amber Heard as Costner's boss, the better -- her character is just so nebulously vague and odd that I never quite understood who she was or why she was told to act like some S&M vixen throughout.  McG's direction doesn't do any of the actors any favors, failing to find any rhythm in the dramatic and comedic scenes.  (He fares a tiny bit better in the film's action moments, but they're so few and far between that it doesn't much matter.)  This one's big ole waste of time.

The RyMickey Rating:  D