Extra Cinema: 3 Days to Kill (12A)

Director: McG

Starring: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Neilsen

The online database IMDb describes this as an action/drama/thriller: but they forgot comedy as aspects of this film are hilarious.

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Set in Paris, Costner plays a CIA hitman Ethan Renner, who is dying, desperate to retire and wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld).

But the company want one last hit and to entice him they send Vivi Delay — a woman who is as cold-hearted as she is beautiful.

Vivi’s trump card during negotiations with Ethan is access to an experimental drug that can save the killer’s life.

Ethan is seperated from his wife, Christine, but determined to show he is a changed man.

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He lies to his wife that he is finished with the murderous aspect of his life, and has turned over a new leaf: he tells Vivi he won’t kill any more than six people in return for the life-saving drug.

With his wife, he says he is more than capable of looking after their teenage daughter while she is on a business trip to London for three days.

A barely-confined chaos ensues, and much of the comedy, as Ethan tries to be the loving father while tracking down ‘The Wolf’; his last kill.

He even asks for parenting advice from one poor slob he is torturing.

Much the best film Costner has done, in my opinion, since Mr Brooks: and that was seven years ago.

Rating: 9/10

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