3 Days to Kill

Filmmaker Luc Besson is obsessed with various permutations of the father-daughter relationship, serving here as co-writer for vanity-plate-named director McG's 3 Days to Kill, a contrived action thriller that can't decide whether it's telling a story of explosive espionage or madcap parental mayhem. Punctuated by careening car chases and senseless shoot-outs, the convoluted drama commences with rumpled, world-weary, veteran CIA agent Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) resigning after a terminal cancer diagnosis and attempting to reconnect with his long-estranged, Paris-based wife (Connie Nielsen), and teenage daughter, Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld). But a vampy new control agent (Amber Heard) is determined to recruit Renner for one last assignment (the target is a nuclear arms dealer with an albino accountant), offering him an experimental drug that could extend his life. All of this takes place during the three-day period when Renner is supposed to be home with his rebellious daughter whom his wife has left in his care (a running gag has calls from Zoey's cell-phone interrupting each of Renner's interrogations and/or assassinations). And there's an overtly sentimental subplot involving an immigrant African family squatting in Renner's decrepit apartment. Still-charismatic Costner is a believably bewildered hero, using his deadpan demeanor to farcical advantage, but this is a mishmash of a film. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Covert Operation” production featurette (5 min.) and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is an extended cut of the film, a “making-of” featurette (10 min.), a “McG's Method” director segment (5 min.), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven thriller.] (S. Granger)