SYNOPSIS: In this heart pounding action-thriller, Kevin Costner is a dangerous international spy, who is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he's previously kept at arm's length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission- even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world's most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.

REVIEW: Producer Luc Besson (Taken – 2008), whom is also credited with co-writing here, brings us this latest international spy flick about an aging CIA agent situated in Paris. This veteran agent has an estranged wife and a teenage daughter, giving a similar family resemblance between this and the Liam Neeson "Taken" series (which was also written by Besson). However, in this latest effort, Costner is a different kind of action star than Neeson. The whole idea of Neeson’s character seemed to be that he has the capacity to snap, lose his cool, and be that mild-mannered calm guy that can get angry and become a cold-blooded maniac. However, here, Costner never snaps… he is always reasonable, always acting from some inner core, some place of moral consistency even in his angriest state. His steadiness allows us to see the entire mess of "3 Days to Kill" in sharper light, leading to an understanding of his motives; otherwise we would be left with loads of questions as well.

Nevertheless, most will find that the plot here sounds extremely familiar if you’ve seen your share of action flicks about international spies. There’s the guy taking one last mission, being the only man for the job and trying to keep it all from his loved ones. That, I can imagine, will not necessarily bring people out to the theaters, but there are actually several twists that I wouldn’t share here to avoid spoilers. They do throw a few curves balls into this plot and storyline. One can safely assume that these features were included to add more to the conventional narrative, though most of it doesn’t really do much in actuality. It’s there, but we all know how most of it is going to end with or without the extra fluff.

As far as the quality of this flick goes, “3 Days to Kill” is not such a terrible movie: it does have notables, such as Kevin Costner (Man of Steel, 2013) and “eye-candy” Amber Heard (The Rum Diary, 2011). It comes with a bunch of stuff we’ve all seen before, but it’s does have a few little interesting twists and turns that include some comic relief. Mostly everything that you think you know about how flicks like this play out will be correct, with the exception of a few added features. This is the kind of movie that is somewhat predictable, but does include some legitimate and honest entertainment value, for the most part.

With all that being said, this latest Besson effort could have been a whole lot worse. And as I mentioned, there isn’t very much new and interesting to see here, but for a few new twists that I alluded to earlier. It is somewhat tolerable if one is in the mood to watch a spy-flick for some inexplicable reason, but I wouldn’t recommend wasting time and money on the theater visit. Save your money and watch it when it comes on DVD or pay-per-view. There’s a good chance one will be entertained just as well in the comforts of home rather than the expense of the theaters. Hence, three stars out of five is a reasonable rating for this one. 

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