3 Days to Kill

Co-producer Luc Besson turns the direction over to the TV-oriented producer/director known as McG (Terminator Salvation, We Are Marshall), who keeps the action-movie assembly line moving along efficiently and blithely even as the screenplay (by Besson and Adi Hasak) stumbles and lurches through the usual improbabilities. The basic story premise has aging CIA assassin Ethan Renner (Costner) finding himself fatally ill and longing to reconnect with the teenage daughter Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld), whom he’s neglected, and maybe with his ex-wife (Connie Nielsen), too. An absurdly attractive CIA operative named Vivi (Amber Heard) offers him a possible life-saving drug, but only if he will track down and kill a couple of supervillains. The preposterousness of it all seems more or less deliberate. This, after all, is a movie that jams gonzo Asian-style shootouts up against the sitcom antics of its father-daughter scenes while assuming a nonchalance that neither winks nor blinks. This is a mildly energetic time killer (117 minutes, to be exact), and little else. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13