What would you do if you had 3 Days to Kill? If nothing else, this is a nice variation on the “what three objects would you bring to a deserted island” question to which we all have heard too many witty answers to ever come up with something remotely interesting again.
Still, it’s unfortunate that McG (Chuck, The OC) is one of those people who answers “water, food and shelter” to this question. Hence his take on 3 Days to Kill is Kevin Costner as a dangerous international spy struggling to reach a good work-life balance. Action, comedy or family drama? Sleep on it.
The words “brutal and senseless” could also apply to Heli, though in this case they’d be referring to the depicted reality (of a drug-infested and corrupted Mexico) instead of the approach to film-making.
Amat Escalante won the best director prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, though it seems that technical dexterity and social commentary somewhat buried other aspects of the film – viewer appeal being one of them. This one you’ll have to work for, provided you want to leave the screening pleased (and slightly traumatised).
So the movie with the best work-enjoyment balance definitely has a French name this week. Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur is based on a homonymous play by American playwright David Ives, and he was inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Austrian 19th century writer without whom ‘masochism’ would be called something else.
What I’m saying is, don’t go if you can’t handle a verbose middle-aged take on kinky mischievousness (that is unless you’re a masochist yourself).
Still wondering what you’d do if you had three days to kill? It’s an awkward time frame, I’ll admit. Too short for a Polanski marathon, too long to want to spend with Kevin Costner & Modern West (country rock mind you). Once they were scheduled to play in Alberta when a severe thunderstorm collapsed the stage and killed a mother of two.
Maybe the Eurovision-frenzy at KBH Huset is a safer bet.
