3 Days to Kill is madcap mayhem

Neptune Theatre

3 Days to Kill

***

Stars: Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen, Amber Heard.   

Director: Joseph McGinty ‘McG’ Nichol

Rated: PG-13

Showing: Fri 7:30pm, Sat 6pm; Sun 5:30pm; Mon-Thurs 7pm.

Runtime: 85 minutes

Action, crime, drama

Kevin Costner and the director McG are plunged into the madcap mayhem of Monsieur Luc Besson in 3 Days to Kill, a serio-comic thriller about mortality, murder for hire and fatherhood. Besson, who morphed into a producer after The Professional and before The Transporter, gives Costner the full Liam Neeson in Taken treatment, cashing in on a career of cool in a movie that moves almost fast enough to keep us from noticing how scruffy, discomfiting and absurdly over-the-top the whole thing is. 

Liberty Theatre

Robocop

***

Stars: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton  

Director: Jose Padilha

Rated: PG-13

Showing: Fri 2:30pm, 6pm, 9pm; Sat 2:30pm, 6pm, 9pm; Sun 2:30pm, 5:30pm; Mon-Thurs 2:30pm, 7:30pm.

Runtime: 108 minutes

Action, crime, sci-fi.

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 Robocop — in which man was merged with machine to fight lawlessness — was a savvy slice of science fiction that not only tapped into the era’s fear of crime but also gave viewers a neat send-up of corporate connivance and media manipulation.

Almost 30 years later, hotshot Brazilian director Jose Padilha kicks the story into the 21st century and his cacophonous, pummelling remake is nothing if not current. The clever pre-title sequence, in which a loudmouth TV talk show host in 2028, Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson), takes us to a U.S.-occupied Iran to show how drones and robots control the population, feels as contemporary as a CNN news bulletin.

It’s unfortunate, then, that this Robocop reboot shrugs off the pointed satire too soon, devolving into just another big action vehicle. 

Speciality Theatre

The Lego Movie

****

Stars: Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell. 

Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller.

Rated: PG

Showing: Fri 2pm (2D), 6pm (3D), 8:30pm (2D); Sat 2:15pm (2D), 4:45pm (3D),  7:15pm (2D); Sun 1:30 (2D), 4pm (3D), 5:15pm (2D); Mon 6pm (3D); Tues-Thurs 6pm (2D).

Runtime: 100 minutes

Animation, action, comedy.

A comedy that works! An animated film with a look — a kinetic aesthetic honouring its product line’s bright, brick-like origins — that isn’t like every other clinically rounded and bland digital 3-D effort.  

A movie that works for the Lego-indebted parent as well as the Lego-crazed offspring. A movie that will work even if you don’t give a rip about Lego. 

About Last Night

***

Stars: Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Regina Hall

Directors: Steve Pink. 

Rated: R

Showing: Fri 2:30pm, 6:30pm, 9:15pm; Sat 5:30pm, 8pm, 9:30pm; Sun  2:30pm, 6:30pm, 7:30pm; Mon-Tues 2:30pm, 6:15pm, 8:30pm; Wed 3pm, 6:15pm, 8:30pm; Thurs 2:30pm,  6:15pm, 8:30pm.

Runtime: 100 minutes

Comedy, romance.

Kevin Hart brings his “A” game to About Last Night. He is paired up with Regina Hall, who gives as good as she gets in this  raunchy romantic African-American remake of the 1986 Rob Lowe / Demi Moore romance based on David Mamet’s play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. 

ALL REVIEWS BY MCT