THAT many stars for an action fantasy? Why?

After the opening production house logos, two words supplied me with the antidote to the media puffery preceding the film’s release. Producer and co-writer (with Adi Husak) – Luc Besson.

In the biz since 1981, Besson is a fun guy by any measure, writing, producing, even acting, vesting his creativity with a delightfully quirky style, with a passion for stylish violence.

Hovering just above zero, the credibility score for “3 Days To Kill” is to our benefit. It is as comical an actioner as you might hope to find, offering a motley of subtle humour arriving unheralded to elicit laughter from me, who seldom finds reason to do more than faintly smile.

CIA operative Ethan (Kevin Costner) has come home after five years’ field work to see his daughter Zoey (Haillie Steinfield) before succumbing to a rare medical condition in three months’ time.

What Ethan does best is kill bad guys at the behest of his handler Vivi (Amber Heard), as mean a chick as you might wish to avoid despite looking aggressively lovely. The deal is that if Ethan kills the Albino (Tómas Lemarquis), Vivi will provide Ethan with a drug under development that will cure what ails him.

The film is at best tenuous when trying to decide which way to take Ethan’s relationship with Zoey’s mother (Connie Nielsen), thereby leavening its other main themes of vigorous action, ballistic bravado and automotive mayhem along Parisian streets.

Vigorous escapism. Comedy for the thinking person to enjoy. What else do you want?

At Hoyts and Limelight