The CIA assigns agent Vivi Delay (Amber Heard) to hunt down The Wolf. They have an assassin Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) on the ground. They are after Wolf associate Albino who is trying to sell a dirty bomb. The operation goes poorly, Ethan is sick and is released from the CIA. He returns to Paris to find Jules and his family squatting in his apartment. He tries to re-engage with his estranged wife Christine (Connie Nielsen) and daughter Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld). Vivi thinks Ethan may have seen The Wolf during the gun fight and lures him back with an experimental cure for his sickness. Christine has a trip to London and Ethan has three days to kill with Zooey.

This movie struggles between two tones. It tries to make Costner as the next Liam Neeson in a tough no non-sense cleaner with special skills. Then it also tries to make a silly cartoon spy thriller. I prefer if McG stayed with the Liam Neeson clone idea. I think Costner is capable and ready for that type of movie. That's not to say a silly cartoon wouldn't work. However McG should let Costner in on the style he's going for. Luc Besson would probably do a better job. McG can't make the light comedic touches work. Then there is the story itself. The big bad is suppose to be The Wolf and yet most of the movie isn't really about him. They may as well just make the Albino the big bad.

Once again we go to the old well: Dad who has not been there for child because of what he does/Child rejects him at first/he has a terminal illness/wife still loves him but can't accept what he does/still loves wife/and on and on and on. Throw in some really bad guys who have no redeeming qualities. Throw in a mysterious twenty-something knockout blond who is made of ice, orchestrating things for the CIA, and on and on and on. Also the terrible shooting by the bad guys. This is just a plain old, unbelievable (even in its own setting) malarkey. Costner reminded me of Greg House (Hugh Laurie) from the popular TV show. All disheveled and looking like he is going to drop any minute, which he does frequently (unless he can get a few shots of vodka). Here is Kevin Costner whom I think is a respected actor doing this kind of stuff. For me, it was a waste of time. I saw it as I was traveling on a plane from Istanbul and had trouble keeping awake.

McG and Luc Besson join forces and bring us 3 Days to Kill. Its Kevin Costner's attempt to do a Liam Neeson playing a tough, veteran action man, here a CIA operative who finds that he has not long to live.

The film opens with CIA operative Vivi (Amber Heard) given an assignment to hunt down a terrorist known as The Wolf. Costner plays the veteran agent Ethan who suffers a blackout while trying to capture some of Wolf's men including the Albino and wakes up in a hospital to be told he has terminal cancer. He wants to spend his final months with his ex-wife and teenage daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) in Paris, not before he finds that his apartment has been taken over by some African squatters.

However Vivi turns up with an experimental drug that could extend Ethan's life with the condition that he hunts down the Wolf and the Albino. He accepts the assignment but he then has to balance living a normal family life and be an agent on a mission.

The story is a bit of a stinker, especially when it enters True Lies territory. Costner has blackouts every time he tries to get his prey. Heard is a strange agent whose job is to enter the film provocatively dressed, nice eye candy but she is no agent. Then we have the sub plot of Costner spending time with his daughter which detracts us from the film, we even have some comedy with some of the bad guys and Luc Besson gives us another instalment of Taken outtakes. In fact his daughter nearly gets raped in a nightclub but luckily daddy arrives in time to kick ass. The film is half baked and dull.