When Michael Haffner reviewed DRAFT DAY here at We Are Movie Geeks, he wrote: “DRAFT DAY still serves as a carefree way to get through a Sunday afternoon until the 2014 football season kicks off. A few late in the game twists will make audiences cheer and seeing Costner act as a capable leader for the whole team makes DRAFT DAY an easy win for football fans.” – read all of Michael’s review HERE)
I missed DRAFT DAY on the big screen but just caught up with it on Blu-ray courtesy of the folks at Lionsgate. I was less enthused than Michael. The title doesn’t lie. This film is all about the NFL draft and draft day to a mind-numbing degree. It’s a real ‘inside baseball’ look at the process but I suspect most folks who are not fans of the NFL will find their eyes just glazing over early on. They tried to hammer father/mother and relationship issues in to Kevin Costner’s Sonny Weaver character along the way but it feels tacked on, as if the producers pulled the writer aside and forced it in to the script after it was finished. Weaver’s peripheral romance with Jennifer Garner’s executive lawyer is dull and pointless, as are the conversations with his opinionated mother (Ellen Burstyn). In the lead, Costner remains in the kind of laid-back mode he’s gotten away with in the past, but now just seems lethargic, barely commanding the screen at all. It’s clear that the NFL was in full support of this movie but that spun in to an almost propaganda type cooperation. DRAFT DAY does get somewhat intriguing as the minutes tick down to the televised event the film’s named after, but on balance, DRAFT DAY is one long ESPN/NFL commercial with no depth.
However, hardcore sports fans seemed to have enjoyed it.
Paul Salfen at Fox Sports wrote:
“Kevin Costner is the king of great sports movies. DRAFT DAY is another winner!”
And Verron Haynes, an NFL Running Back said the movie is:
“Masterfully entertaining and completely electrifying. A must-see!”
DRAFT DAY comes to Blu-ray Disc from LionsGate Home Entertainment featuring 1080p AVC encoded video that is impeccably sharp and well detailed, offering sweeping panoramics of football fields and offices, delivering excellent fine detail in midrange and close-up shots (several close-ups of Costner are almost unforgiving in revealing the increasingly deep crags in the actor’s face). Colors are generally very accurate looking and frequently pop nicely aided by strong, consistent contrast.
The quality of the audio can be noticed in the scenes with newsrooms, meeting rooms, and overlapping dialog. The track proves impressive for the movie’s many smaller character-driven moments. Like the video, the audio here is quite impressive, and also earns a reference-quality score.
Bonus Features:
– (HD) On the clock: The making of Draft Day (2 segments totaling 59 minutes)
– (HD) Welcome to Prime Time – 9 minute featurette
– Filmmaker audio commentary featuring writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman
– (HD) 5 deleted scenes totaling 8 minutes
– (HD) Theatrical trailer
– Bonus DVD
– Digital HD Copy
Here’s a special clip that’s a nice summary of Costner’s many sports films:
Though I didn’t care much for DRAFT DAY, it’s a film that seems to know its audience and relishes in the details of the business of sports, and a certain type of sports junkie may find a lot to enjoy.
When Michael Haffner reviewed DRAFT DAY here at We Are Movie Geeks, he wrote: “A sign of a good sports film is if the audience enthusiastically cheers during a film like a crowd at a live sporting event. That’s exactly what happened when I went to see Ivan Reitman’s DRAFT DAY. The theater was into every second as the film counted down the minutes to the big event.” (Read the rest of Michael’s review HERE)
Leading up to the 2014 NFL Kickoff, Lionsgate will release the thrilling sports drama, Draft Day, on Digital HD beginning August 19, on Video On Demand and Pay-Per-View August 29 and on Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital HD) and DVD (plus Digital) on September 2. Starring sports movie icon and Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner (Best Picture and Best Director, Dances with Wolves, 1990; Bull Durham, Field of Dreams), written by Rajiv Joseph & Scott Rothman, and directed by legendary director Ivan Reitman, the film was made in exclusive partnership with the NFL, allowing unprecedented access to the actual 2013 NFL Draft, an event drawing higher ratings than the playoffs for baseball, basketball and hockey. Featuring an all-star cast including Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club), Denis Leary (The Amazing Spiderman), Frank Langella (Superman Returns), Sam Elliott (The Big Lebowski), Sean Combs (Monster’s Ball), Terry Crews (The Expendables franchise), Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (feature film debut), Tom Welling (TV’s “Smallville”), with Academy Award® winner Ellen Burstyn (Best Actress, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, 1974) and Chadwick Boseman (42),Draft Day goes behind-the-scenes of the high-stakes, action-packed world of the NFL Draft.
It’s NFL Draft Day. A day that can change the lives of athletes and the fortunes of football teams forever. After pulling off a blockbuster trade, General Manager Sonny Weaver Jr. (Costner) controls the #1 pick. Up against fan pressure, an ambitious owner (Langella) and a hard-nosed coach (Leary), Sonny faces the biggest decision of his life. Should he go with the consensus #1 pick or trust his instincts and risk losing it all?
The Draft Day Blu-ray Combo Pack bonus materials include an exclusive 58-minute “making of” featurette titled “On The Clock: The Making of Draft Day,” and “Welcome to Primetime,” an inside look behind-the-scenes of the NFL Draft. Both the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD special features include audio commentary with writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman plus deleted scenes. The Draft Day Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES*
“On The Clock: The Making of Draft Day” featurette
“Welcome to Primetime” featurette
Audio Commentary with Writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman
Deleted Scenes
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*
Audio Commentary with Writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman
In anticipation of the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Relativity’s 3 DAYS TO KILL on May 20th, WAMG is giving away copies of 3 DAYS TO KILL on Blu-Ray. Hooray! The new McG thriller stars Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Nielsen.
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In this heart pounding action-thriller, Kevin Costner is a dangerous international spy, who is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he’s previously kept at arm’s length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission- even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.
In Draft Day, on the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL. Recently, WAMG sat down with Kevin Costner in a press conference where he spoke to members of the media about his new role in DRAFT DAY, FIELD OF DREAMS, and how affected he was by Rock Hudson in GIANT. Check it out below!
There’s a line in the movie where you say, “What do you want?!” Is this a direct reference to FIELD OF DREAMS where you at one point said, “What do you want?” – the same inflection.
KEVIN COSTNER: (Laughs) I tell ya, it’s a thing you have to say to women once in a while. It’s really a line that – I think I’m probably speaking for every guy in the world, and maybe that’s why these movies have worked – sometimes it’s like, ‘What…just tell me. Jesus Christ. What is it you want?’ And maybe somebody should ask [men] that, too –
‘What is it you want?’ It’s such a cool thing in life to get what it is you want. Most of the time we don’t, but occasionally we do. Sometimes it takes a partner to say, ‘What is it you want?’ I think we operate in life [and] sometimes we don’t know. We’re all in some kind of maze going after the cheese at the end and [ask], ‘What is it we want?’ I think I just wanted to work when I finally came to Hollywood. I wanted to get a job, and then I wanted to get the second one. What was it I wanted? Maybe I didn’t want to have to go to work on Monday, or the repetition of the same type of job – not that there’s anything wrong with that. But what is it that I wanted? I knew I didn’t want that. I didn’t mind working 100 Mondays in a row, but I wanted to be done at some point, and I wanted to move on to something fresh. I wanted to move on to something different. It’s never bothered me to work hard. I’ve probably worked on some of the longest schedules in movie history – DANCES WITH WOLVES was 108 days, I think THE POSTMAN was 113, WYATT EARP was 120, and WATERWORLD was 157 days. Six day weeks. And I was directing a couple of those movies. Working hard has never been the problem. What is it you want? That’s a question we all get posed sometimes internally, and sometimes externally, somebody just asks us. Do you have the answer? It’s been a pleasure to say those lines in movies.
The movie is as much about instinct and passion as it is about brawn and money? Have you trusted your instinct from the beginning? Have they shifted? Has your perspective on who you are and what you bring to this game been based in any part on your instincts?
KEVIN COSTNER: Yeah. My whole life has been instinctual for me. I wouldn’t do well in the computer world. My children look at me for a question, then they quickly look away because they know that I’m not going to know how to make Super Mario do anything. I wanted what everybody wants, which was a sense of direction. Right about the time you’re 18, 19, 20 years old in college, everybody that you run into that knows your parents [asks], ‘Well what’s he going to do?’ I finally want to say, ‘Who gives a fuck? It’s not up to you what I do!’ And I don’t know what I’m going to be and I don’t know that I’m going to be a doctor and I don’t know that I’m going to be a lawyer – the convention of knowing that you want to do. I have instinctually thought I could do things in my life, and I’ve followed that up by sometimes putting everything I have at risk – my money, my house – to make a movie. I just did it again with Black and White, a little film that I made about the notion of racism in this country and how we have such a difficult time talking about it. The movie reminds me a lot of FIELD OF DREAMS in that there’s a speech in the end that gives us a window to all finally step through. We’re not going anywhere in this world; we’re all in this together. We have to learn how to talk with each other. So my instincts were wildly at play, late in my career, a rock I have to push uphill just to make it – nobody really wanted to make it. It’s my hope that you’ll all see it. It’s my hope that it becomes as important as FIELD OF DREAMS or DANCES WITH WOLVES. I think it will be. It’s about people, it’s funny, it’s poignant, it’s sad. And in the end, it gives you hope. So I do live off my intuition. I do live off my passion. I realize that I’m not in battle; I’m not in combat. [Some might say,] ‘Ooh, that’s very brave to do.’ Well, I’m not exactly in Vietnam. I’m not in Iraq. And if I want to make a little movie about racism, I should do it. And maybe the studios should, too. ‘Ooh, it’s dangerous to make a movie about that now. I’m not sure about that.’ Even this little movie didn’t have a lot of homes. Lionsgate was the one that say the potential and protected it. ‘Mmmm, I don’t know. It’s just about that one day at a draft?’ But it’s not. It’s really about the human element; it’s about boy and girl. It’s about, ‘Could we not talk about this on my most important day of the year?’ She says, ‘No. We’re going to talk about it now.’ That is such a woman. Jesus Christ. It’s like, ‘Wow, could we pick a better day?’ ‘No. We’re talking about it now.’ And then what does she do? She drives off in a huff. I still have my day to go through. I see her in the hall; she acts like everything is all right. And we laugh. And that’s what the movies, when they’re working at their very best, are about – moments like that where we see ourselves and we chuckle. When we’re in the middle of our own life, it’s not very funny and we’re confused. This movie, it’s not about football. It is about that age-old thing of people who love each other who just can’t seem to get it together for a while, and then finally do. And we adore that; we want that. And we make amends with my mom, and we want that, too. And I tell that guy, ‘You pancake-eating motherfucker,’ who’s been mean to me. And you know what, we kind of wish we were (Costner’s character) Sonny [Weaver, Jr.] right then, and we are kind of glad what he says to that guy, vulgarity aside. It almost needed the vulgarity because the guy was such a bad winner. Don’t you hate bad winners? That guy was a bad winner all day, and I had to nail him right there at the end. And I’m glad that single line didn’t spin this movie into an R [rating] because we see what Rs really are out there. But this was a moment that needed all the salt and pepper, needed everything to let this guy know that – I basically said it for everybody in the audience – that’s what needed to be said to this prick at that moment. Movies can do that, and the difference between movies and our own life is that sometimes in these heated moments we don’t know what to say, and we wish somebody wrote our own script for us. It doesn’t always work that way. We fumble.
Having played so many iconic roles who has been defined by his sense of integrity, heroism, calm under pressure – how did your roots and growing up in Lynwood, California define you as an actor and person?
KEVIN COSTNER: I thought I had the greatest upbringing. I thought I had the biggest yard; I didn’t realize we didn’t have any money hardly, until I went and saw a kid’s backyard and it had a pool in it. And I began to understand there were things…but the way I was treated, my parents came to every one of my games because it was important to them, and every time I sang, they came. I built the church in Paramount, [California], and the guy snapped the little red line down, he said, ‘You nail all day long,’ and so that’s what I did. So as four-year-old, I thought I had helped build the church. I don’t know how that defines you, but it was part of my upbringing, which was family. Also, the movies helped define how I should be as a person. That may sound funny, but there’s a lot for us to learn at the movies. I remember watching GIANT as a boy, and I saw Rock Hudson and James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. Rock Hudson starts out a bit of a bigot, a bit of a racist. His boy is going to marry ‘that little Chicano girl,’ and in Texas, that just ain’t going to happen because of the Alamo, because of everything. It just ain’t going to happen. So he starts off as a racist. And I also like the movie because it’s over three hours long – duh! So you have this big three-hour movie, and I saw this man was very disappointed in his son’s choice; somehow his son let him down. And the movie has this arc…well in the end, a lot of time has passed, and this family – this wealthy, wealthy family that had nothing that’s now unbelievably wealthy – is dysfunctional, rags; it’s a wreck. This man, this giant of a Texas man, finds himself in this diner with Elizabeth Taylor and his daughter-in-law and this little Chicano baby. They’re going to have a hamburger because they’re on a road trip or something, and it’s dusty West Texas, and the man won’t serve them. Rock Hudson doesn’t get it at first – ‘Won’t serve me? What do you mean, won’t serve me?’ Rock Hudson’s a pillar of Texas. And [the server] kind of nods at the little Chicano baby and this Mexican woman. And Rock Hudson is suddenly affronted and says, ‘You will serve [us],’ and he gets into a fist fight, an old-fashioned fist fight. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is playing – you don’t think I watch these things carefully, you’re missing [out] (sings a few notes of the song). It’s a knock-down-drag-out, and the guy defeats Rock Hudson, which, number one, doesn’t happen in the movies all the time – the leading man doesn’t lose; the leading man wins. But not in this fight. He takes a terrible beating by a Korean vet, a guy who is a tough guy. Classic movie is tough, too – two tough guys; not a tough guy and a weak guy. Two tough guys fighting. And Rock Hudson loses. Elizabeth Taylor is in tears, his daughter-in-law is in tears, the baby is crying, glass is breaking. And at the end, Rock Hudson is laying in a pile over there, and the guy just looks at him realizes, I don’t want to fight Rock Hudson anymore, and he just puts a sign on him, a sign that said people can still eat there. Rock Hudson loses, but Elizabeth Taylor goes over to him and says, ‘You’ve never stood taller.’ And I thought to myself, that’s who I want to be…the guy on the floor, and he lost. So, a long story to say, I’ve never been afraid of things not working. I think it’s an underrated experience in life. I’ve had some wild, wild successes, I try to clean up the oceans and I try to do things – I am not afraid to be on the floor. As long as I got my girl to come say, I saw what you were trying to do. We can learn a lot from the movies.
What do you find creatively exciting and satisfying about story-telling within the sports framework?
KEVIN COSTNER: I think if you want to make a good sports movie, you have to cut down on the sports. You have to make it about people. You can’t try to impress people with your knowledge and the x-and-o’s and all the details and all the technicalities. See, we know about the sport. You’ve got to know that people are going to sit down, they’re going to have gotten babysitters and in certain instances they’re going, ‘Why are you dragging me to this movie?’ And then, what happens is, you have to conduct scenes that can speak to that person who said, ‘Why did you drag me to this movie? It’s draft day. It’s about one silly day. Don’t we watch football enough all year ‘round? We have to go see it now on the big screen?’ ‘Just come with me to the movie…please, Kevin, make this movie fucking good. Please, please, please.’ So the lights go out and the movie starts, and women start to see themselves, and men start to see themselves. Yes, there’s this backdrop of the NFL, but he wants to tell his mom they’re going to have a baby, there’s a lot going on in the movie, and that’s when movies are always going to be at their best, when they are about moments – I’ve said before, the smallest gesture that maybe you never, ever forget. There’s too many movies that we see that you can never remember one thing from them, and there are sometimes that then you remember the wink. If you can orchestrate a movie that we remember wanting to have a catch – FIELD OF DREAMS, the big moment was, ‘Dad, do you want to have a catch?’ – it’s not even close to a car wreck or a fist fight or a gigantic battle – ‘Do you want to have a catch?’ – and at that moment, we all broke over a single line, not because we all wanted to play baseball, but we’ve all had a life where things have gone unsaid to somebody we actually really love. That moment just opened the ball on that. So movies can do that, and I felt that DRAFT DAY had a chance to be an American classic if we stuck with it. Period. I don’t know if it’ll be a box office hit, but I think it can be a classic movie, which by definition means it’ll be shared from generation to generation. To me, that’s the mark of a great movie.
Your character faces too much pressure. How do you, personally, deal with pressure?
(He couldn’t hear…explained to him)
KEVIN COSTNER: It’s not your fault. It’s me and rock-n-roll. You were perfect. In the old days, they’d say, ‘You’re not listening, Kevin. Go to the back of the class.’ Oh, that really helps. Wow, I can’t hear and now I’m in the back. A really sensitive teacher [laughs].
I deal with pressure. I have a tendency to probably be at my best under pressure. I have said before – somebody asked me this – and I said I actually play sports better when I’m mad. Some players don’t play better when they’re mad. They lose their sense of where they’re at. I have a tendency to do better when I’m under pressure. I’ve had moments in my life where it was all out on the table, everything I had, because I had a strong believe that what I was doing, other people could believe in it, too, if I can get it just right. So, I have a tremendous belief in people – not that people don’t let me down, and not that I haven’t maybe let people down – but I have a tremendous belief in people and in the common experience. I feel like I’ve have been able to live a dream life, but my view of things is absolutely inside behavior, about how I behave and how I count on other people behaving.
Ivan Reitman said he could hear a voice when he was reading the script, and a few days later could place your face with it and the character. So when a director comes to you…
KEVIN COSTNER: He didn’t tell you about the bong, did he? The bong hit he had. See, it wasn’t coming to him, and then he bonged up.
He was also mentioning your characters in various sports movies, that you bring a certain amount of baggage with you and in this case it’s important. When someone wants you to be in a movie because of who you are and what people will see you on-screen as, does that present an extra challenge?
KEVIN COSTNER: Well, some people come to you because if you’re in their movie it’ll help them raise money. And some people come to you because they think you’re the person to play the part. I’ve always been distracted when somebody is coming after me and saying, ‘You’re the only person that can play this part. You’re the only person that can play this part.’ And then if you say you can’t play the part and then he casts Jeff Goldblum in the part. And Jeff Goldblum is a very, very good actor, but we’re different; we’re really different. So if I’m the only person who can play this part, you would think that maybe…and I’ve been in a place if I couldn’t get somebody to play a part, I wasn’t going to make the movie, so I mean what I’m saying. I like being around people who mean what they say. For Ivan, I think it was about the part, and if there was baggage, he cast it aside. For him, I think it was, Kevin should play the part. Let’s be honest, it’s nice to be wanted, in almost any capacity. I’ve come to this restaurant, the girl walks by me for 30 minutes – I wish she’d want to serve me. It’s nice to be wanted. That’s a good feeling. I’m not immune to it.
Do you see your own “draft day” in your career?
KEVIN COSTNER: I think getting in THE BIG CHILL. I think that was the moment.
Even though you weren’t in it much?
KEVIN COSTNER: Yeah, but that’s instinctual, too, because somebody wants to say, ‘Well, it’s not good if it wasn’t fulfilled and it wasn’t a hit.’ But there are athletes you pick sometimes not based on their statistics, but what you actually intuitively know they can actually do. So for me, the box office, I didn’t need to appear in a movie to know that that was a pivotal moment for me. Other people maybe [say,] ‘Oh, man…’ but for me, I knew that it was happening, so I looked at it differently.
Did you have any input in Sonny after you got this script?
KEVIN COSTNER: Yeah! But it was a really good document. “Pancake-eating motherfucker” was my contribution.
Did you pass on projects in Mexico?
KEVIN COSTNER: I’m confident of working in New Mexico; I’m a little less confident working in Mexico right now just because of everything we hear. I’m just trying to be honest with you. I’ve worked in Mexico many times and now I’m not certain about how I could do it or if I would do it.
Why?
KEVIN COSTNER: Because of the obvious problems that are going on. I like my family to be with me, and I don’t anyone to be at risk. Not that they would be, but I’m like anybody else, I just have a feeling. I wouldn’t want them at risk.
Favorite sports movie?
KEVIN COSTNER: I always liked The Pride of the Yankees. I just did. I’m a Walter Brennan, Gary Cooper fan.
Draft Day stars Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary and Ellen Burstyn; is directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, from a script by Rajiv Joseph & Scott Rothman. The film also features Frank Langella, Sean Combs, Terry Crews, Chadwick Boseman, Rosanna Arquette, W. Earl Brown, Kevin Dunn, Arian Foster, Brad William Henke, Chi McBride, Griffin Newman, Josh Pence, David Ramsey, Patrick St. Esprit, Timothy Simons, Tom Welling, and Wade Williams.
A sign of a good sports film is if the audience enthusiastically cheers during a film like a crowd at a live sporting event. That’s exactly what happened when I went to see Ivan Reitman’s DRAFT DAY. The theater was into every second as the film counted down the minutes to the big event. For football fans, the NFL draft signals the start of the new season as predictions and expectations are quickly assigned to each team after the new recruits are signed on. Depending on your love of the game, you may be able to look past some of the more predictable elements of the script and view DRAFT DAY as an acceptable entry into the sports film genre.
Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) is on a mission to get the best pick for his club the Cleveland Browns. If only it was so simple. In the hours leading up to the big night he has his boss and team owner (Frank Langella), the head coach (Denis Leary), and his co-worker and secret lover (Jennifer Garner) all telling him what to do. Does he go with the much-hyped college quarterback that is expected to be the #1 draft pick? Does he go with a passionate defenseman who is hoping to financially support his young boy? Or what about the player who is trying to make his proud father happy by also playing for the Browns? This is only the beginning of Sonny’s day as new problems and issues continue to mount as the deadline for the NFL draft inches closer.
It doesn’t take long for the film to remind you of the 2011 film MONEYBALL. That film was elevated to more than just another sports film due to Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin’s nuanced script. Baseball almost takes a backseat to a world that is more akin to that of a political arena. On the surface, DRAFT DAY could be described as the football version of the same scenario as Kevin Costner sits in as the Brad Pitt character. But DRAFT DAY is much more interested in aiming for the heart than the head. Metaphors and symbolism are traded in for humor and relationship drama. The film as a whole feels light and easygoing, almost to the point of hindering everything that is at stake by the end of the film. Fans of the sport will no doubt love watching the off-the-field interactions and seeing there favorite teams mentioned in jokes – especially since the NFL are quite strict with approving the use of their name and teams. Even if you’re not a die-hard football junkie, DRAFT DAY still serves as a nice film that is able to breeze by and hold your interest.
Ivan Reitman (GHOSTBUSTERS, STRIPES) utilizes his own play clock counting down from 12 hours to the draft ceremony. This visual cue is a great way to keep the audience along for the ride with Costner. However, the same cannot be said for Reitman’s constant use of split screens and other visual tricks like having actors cross in front of the split screen. It gives the film a television series feel right from the onset. At first it just feels contrived, but after watching it another half a dozen times you begin to feel this is a crutch to make the film feel more exciting.
Kevin Costner seems made to play this role. I often forget about him as an actor due to his lack of recent work but his presence adds some much needed weight to the film. He guides the film along in such a natural way that you even look past some of the story elements that don’t work as well. His love story with Garner feels half-baked and his mother’s mournful rage for a loved one is tacked on towards the end and never gels with the rest of the plot. That being said, DRAFT DAY still serves as a carefree way to get through a Sunday afternoon until the 2014 football season kicks off. A few late in the game twists will make audiences cheer and seeing Costner act as a capable leader for the whole team makes DRAFT DAY an easy win for football fans.
On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has the opportunity to save football in Cleveland when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what he’s willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with dreams of playing in the NFL.
DRAFT DAY also features Jennifer Garner, Dennis Leary, Ellen Burstyn, Terry Crews, Frank Langella, Chadwick Boseman, Chi McBride and Sean Combs, as well as NFL & ESPN on-air talent Jon Gruden, Mike Mayock, Deion Sanders, Rich Eisen, Mel Kiper and Chris Berman.
Costner shows us that he’s still got what it takes as a leading man in 3 DAYS TO KILL.
Ethan Renner (Kevin Costner) has finally decided to bow out of the CIA after finding out that he has a terminal illness until Vivi Delay (Amber Heard), an agent offers him an experimental life-saving cure in exchange for his participation in one last mission. Now, Ethan is balancing his time in case it does run out by getting to know his estranged daughter Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld) and hunting down a threat he knows only by name… The Wolf.
Kevin Costner still has it. Not only is he in the action scenes of this film, but his comedic timing is incredible. Going into this film, I didn’t expect much on the side of humor but I was pleasantly surprised. This film also offers a bit of heart, which I also did not expect. If you are expecting a cut-throat, hardcore CIA movie, then this is not the film for you. It’s filled with action, and has some pretty violent scenes, but all of that is balanced with a story about family, and making sure that you don’t miss out on the important things in life. Hailee Steinfeld, known best for her role in TRUE GRIT, does a wonderful job as the angsty teenager Zoey. She plays both sides, the side that is acting out because of the pain her father caused by leaving, and the side begging for his love and approval, beautifully. The only character that I wasn’t completely sold on was Vivi Delay, played by Amber Heard. Her character was more cute than charismatic. To be honest, I found her performance rather dull, and flat. Her character did sport some amazing wigs though.
Director McG manages to take a relatively implausible story, and make it interesting and fun. Ethan has two different lives, one as a CIA assassin, and the other as a man trying to make amends with his family, and they are balanced quite well. I think as critics, we tend to forget that movies are about entertainment. Sure, I’m guilty of ripping films apart when they throw things like common sense out the window, but why go to a movie, or review it if you aren’t going to give it a chance to entertain you. Having said that, this film is in no way a truthful tale, nor is it trying to boast its accuracy. You can tell that from the scenes where Vivi is driving Ethan around, whipping her expensive car in and out of traffic without even looking at the road. That part did bug me quite a bit.
If you are looking for a fun time at the movies, this is a great film to see. Kevin Costner proves that he is back and ready to kick cinematic ass!
3 DAYS TO KILL hits theaters this Friday, and in promotion of the film, held a small press conference last week where Director McG and stars Kevin Costner and Amber Heard talked about the physicality of their roles in the film with WAMG and other members of the press. Check it out below.
In this heart pounding action-thriller, Kevin Costner is a dangerous international spy, who is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he’s previously kept at arm’s length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission – even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out-of-town.
How was your experience shooting the stunts, and how did working with a whole new French stunt crew impact your design and execution?
McG: Kevin’s the kind of guy… he’s never seen base camp. He loves to be on the set and be active in the filmmaking process and that goes for the stunts as well. Every once in a while, you’ve got to grab him by the back of his pants and say, “Kevin, this one’s not all that safe for you to be in the car as it rams the other car off the bridge and down into the river.” He’s just very focused in that respect. It was fun just shooting things practically in the spirit of Frankenheimer, and those films that I grew up on and were real seminal. We wanted to do it in camera and shutting down the streets of Paris was fun in that respect. But I think it’s clear to everyone who’s seen the picture that the action is decorative. It’s ultimately a character-driven piece that we’re hoping the defining characteristic of this film is the balance of certainly action and comedy but most particularly a dramatic investment in this Ethan character who’s played by Kevin.
How challenging was the physicality of this film for you?
Kevin Costner: Well, you’re cold. And any time you’re cold, things are harder. I’ve been involved in my stunt career. It used to be that my stunt guy, we would talk about it and about when it was time for him to take over. And the way you know you’re getting older, with my stunt guy, we look at the thing and he goes, “You could make it.” I can tell he starts getting scared. “You could make that.” So, it was an evolving thing. Fortunately, I didn’t have that over there because I had a new stunt guy, a new stunt coordinator. You have to measure things. I wanted to ride with the buffalo. I wanted to do those things. Whenever you can put the audience in the car, on the horse, carrying your daughter, they’re now in the movie. But stunts have always had their place and I have to measure them right now. I’ve done things that if I make a mistake, you could die, and you really need to look at something. That usually is mechanical. I wouldn’t jump this, right there to there. I’d go, “You know what? You could really die straight down there,” because weird things happen. So I’ve gone from doing everything to listening to say, “Maybe you shouldn’t do this.”
On screen Ethan struggles with the balance between work and home life. Did that ring true for you in real life?
Kevin Costner: When dealing with women, my boss in this instance, my hellish relationship with her… But he gets frustrated by women, and my house is the same. There’s a level of humor that we tried to bring into the movie without winking at the camera. I think it’s funnier if you don’t wink and say, “I’m really frustrated by you, by her, by my wife, by my daughter.” So there’s a part of the world where he’s very efficient in his life and he’s not that great in this particular aspect. He can be shut down.
Amber Heard: I agree. For my part in it, our relationship is an interesting one. And the power struggle of these two strong characters constantly going against each other was interesting. He’s very accomplished. He’s very good at his job. He’s tried and true. He’s a veteran of the trade that they’re in. She’s a whole other school. It’s a new school. It’s completely opposite people in some ways and we’re the adversaries, which is what I liked. It’s rare that you see that dynamic between a man and a woman in a film. And I liked that it didn’t bother or hinder McG’s imagination or his desire to see that come to fruition. It’s like he didn’t care. It’s like, “Yeah, why couldn’t I be his boss? Just because I wear high heels?” But you don’t see that often, which is why I liked it.
McG: For me, what you talk about is the central theme of the picture. I think you guys as journalists — everybody can understand — sometimes you get so caught up in your work life that there’s atrophy on the home front. And I think that’s one of the primary stories of the film. You have a guy in Ethan who’s so focused on duty that he’s spent a lot of time in the field and then he gets a piece of information and gets deeply in touch with what matters the most in his life, which is clearly his daughter and his wife. And that’s not going to be an easy road to win his way back into their hearts.
In anticipation of Relativity’s upcoming film 3 DAYS TO KILL on February 21st, WAMG is hosting a 3 DAYS TO KILL giveaway. The new McG thriller stars Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Nielsen.
One lucky winner with receive a 3 DAYS TO KILL prize pack including the following items:
Branded sunglasses
Branded tin of mints
Branded t-shirt
$25 Fandango gift card
TO ENTER:
1. YOU MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT WITH A U.S. SHIPPING ADDRESS. NO P.O. BOXES.
2. PLACE YOUR NAME, A VALID EMAIL, AND ANSWER TO THE QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF THIS POST.
3. What is your favorite Kevin Costner film?
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
In this heart pounding action-thriller, Kevin Costner is a dangerous international spy, who is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he’s previously kept at arm’s length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission- even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.
Kevin Costner takes on the role of international spy Ethan Runner in Relativity Media’s upcoming film 3 DAYS TO KILL.
In this heart pounding action-thriller, Runner (Costner)is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he’s previously kept at arm’s length to keep out of danger.
But first, he must complete one last mission- even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.
Directed by McG and written by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak, 3 DAYS TO KILL also stars Amber Heard and Connie Nielsen
Check out this clip from the film. In theaters February 21st.
WAMG invites you to enter for your chance to receive a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of 3 DAYS TO KILL – Wednesday, February 19 at 7PM in St. Louis.
Answer the following:
Kevin Costner played a “mole” in this 1987 movie co-starring Gene Hackman and Sean Young. Name the film and the character that Costner played.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. ENTER YOUR NAME AND ANSWER IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.
3. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
This film has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence. Some sensuality and language.
