3 Days to Kill makes a point of flashing Luc Besson’s name across the screen, even though he’s not the director. That distinction goes to McG, whose name really feels like it should inspire some kind of good joke, but if it’s out there, I haven’t heard it. Just like the Luc Besson connection is going to inspire a lot of cinephiles to tell their friends, between exasperations of pretension, that he’s the guy who directed The Fifth Element – and then they immediately follow up with a recommendation of Leon or, The Professional. And well they might, because Leon is an excellent film.

But it’s also the film that 3 Days to Kill is going to be compared to, negatively. And while Leon is a better film, 3 Days is not a bad one – or, at least, it shouldn’t be considered bad because it’s not another film.

Kevin Costner is Ethan, a semi-retired hitman, working for the U.S. Government and doing his last or next-to-last job. His task is to prevent the sale of a dirty bomb by an ominously, though accurately named terrorist called “The Albino.” The deal goes sour, and people die, but Ethan catches a glimpse of “The Albino”’s boss, “The Wolf.” Now Ethan’s alone in Paris, living in a flat that has been taken over by a sweet tribe of Parisian homeless. He can’t evict them because of Paris law. And Ethan is sick.

Kevin Costner is one of those actors you like to watch no matetr what movie he happens to be in. Sure, he doesn’t always make the best choices and some of his movies bomb, but that doesn’t seem to make him any less interesting or appealing.

His next one is called 3 Days to Kill and we’ve got a trailer for the movie for you today. In the movie: “a dangerous international spy (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.”

Yes, there’s a catch. “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.”

Man, we know how that can be. Look for 3 Days to Kill, which in addition to Costner stars Amber Heard, Connie Nielsen and Hailee Steinfeld, to arrive in 2014. Check out the trailer after the break.

Machete Kills plays like a late Roger-Moore era Bond film — and not just because there’s a lot of visual cues and ideas taken from Moonraker — the action and the humor are constantly fighting for dominance, and the humor, regardless of whether it’s appropriate or not, makes sense within the context of the scene or not, hell, is funny or not, usually wins out. Though, to be fair, the plot of Machete Kills is a lot easier to follow than the plot of Octopussy.

Machete (Danny Trejo), in case you didn’t see the first film…or the trailer on which it was based, is an ex-Federale-turned-spy-or-something-like-that-but-all-around-badass, seemingly indestructible and legendary throughout Mexico. His latest “case” has him busting up a gun-running ring, apparently sponsored by the U.S. Army, and distributed to the Mexican cartel. Gun fights, explosions, dramatic standoff music, and hell ensues. Machete is somehow the only survivor when the cops show up, and by the next scene we’re in the local sheriff’s office and Machete is swinging from the ceiling with a noose around his neck. And then the President calls.

And the President is…Charlie Sheen. Naturally. He needs Machete to hunt down and kill Mendez (Damian Bichir), a nutty terrorist with a vendetta against the cartel who’s moved on to threatening the U.S. with a nuclear device. The catch is that once Machete finds him, Mendez reveals that the trigger for the bomb is tied to his heartbeat, so once he dies, boom. And he’s also put a hit out on himself that everyone in Mexico is trying to cash in on.

Yes, Machete Kills is pretty much what you expect. Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun and worth a look. In fact, that’s just what we can give you with the new trailer for Machete Kills.

Here’s some info about the movie:

“In MACHETE KILLS, Danny Trejo returns as ex-Federale agent MACHETE, who is recruited by the President of the United States for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man – he must take down a madman revolutionary and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war and anarchy.”

Machete Kills will be in theaters everywhere September 13th. Check out the new trailer after the break.

With a full year of mediocre shows hitting this fall, it was a race to the finish line to see which would be the first to make it to the chopping block. While our money was on Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing, it turns out NBC was the first to buckle with their controversial new show The Playboy Club.

After making tons of waves with the PTC, it turns out the ratings just weren’t enough to sustain the potential legal and PR issues, as NBC has given it the axe after three lackluster episodes. From EW:

NBC’s biggest primetime gamble just became the first cancelled show of the season: The Playboy Club has been pulled from the network’s schedule.

Welcome to another edition of  On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Just when you thought women were finally being portrayed equal to men in films, a supercut that shows just the opposite comes along.

• Will Ferrell’s new dramatic comedy Everything Must Go gets a trailer. We’re still trying to figure out what’s so funny about it.

• Amber Heard recently posted a picture of her on set of the new series The Playboy Club. That sound? That’s the sound of a million teenage boys’ heads exploding.

• Monsters Inc. is officially getting a prequel, titled Monsters Universtiy. Pixar has even hired a director.

• Timur Bekmambetov is working on a brand new spec zombie film about a little girl that slowly becomes a member of the living dead after over 6 months. We’re rooting for Rebecca Black to play the lead.

• Kevin Smith is auctioning off a bunch of his old props from several films in order to fun his newest film, Red State. Who’s got dibs on Shannon Elizabeth’s career?

Welcome to another edition of  On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• In case you were under a rock and missed the Super Bowl on Sunday, Apple has all of your favorite trailers from the telecast in glorious HD.

• Russell Brand is back in action, this time with a remake of the classic film Arthur. We can buy Luis Guzman as Robin, but Jennifer Garner being seductive? No way.

• Detroit is taking a page from their fictional history and trying to raise money to put a RoboCop statue in the center of town. That should stop all the crime.

• Amber Heard is in talks to play Ren Sonja in the upcoming remake. She already has the red hair and Amazonian body down, so she sounds like a fit!

• Now that he has that political mid-life crisis out of the way, Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to get back into acting. Do we smell a sequel to Jingle All The Way?

• Alex Borstein has returned to play Ms. Swan to bring us a Black Swan spoof. Totally topical, right?

• For the diehard film fanatic: 100 of the greatest Noir posters ever created.

• Supercut of the Week: Because Valentines’ Day is coming up, we bring you the Epic TV Kisses Supercut.

You know you can judge the merit of a film by the fact that it has 3D in it’s title. As if that gimmick alone is enough to draw an audience. Well that’s exactly what they’re doing over at Lionsgate with their newest schlocky film, Drive Angry 3D, starring the ever-talented Nic Cage.

The premise of the film is so original, it made the suits at Marvel’s heads spin. Get this: Nic Cage is a badass who escapes from hell to punish the gangsters that killed his wife and baby. Along the way, the Devil’s right hand man (played by William Fichtner) heads to Earth as well to find and bring back this escaped soul. So far the only major difference we can see between this film and Ghost Rider is that this flick replaces a motorcycle with a muscle car. Big change.

Cage is joined by Hollywood’s next big thing, Amber Heard, as they take down a ganglord and his army of thugs. The script comes from the guys who brought us Jason X (the one in space) and Dracula 2000. The new trailer is slightly redeeming, because it gives the film a bit of a Grindhouse look, which could make it all worthwhile in the end.

Check it out after the jump, and catch Drive Angry 3D in theaters February 25th.

With X-men: First Class scheduled to start filming next week, 20th Century Fox has turned their focus to the their next Marvel film. That film? A reboot of Fantastic Four.

Rumors about the films casting have started with news that The Thing will be completely CGI and Sue Storm being played by Alice Eve or Amber Heard, and it seems the film’s star power will be stemming from the group leader Mr. Fantastic. The two actors in the running for Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards are Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Adrien Brody.

While Jonathan Rhys Meyers is probably best known for his starring role in the Showtime series The Tudors, he also has From Paris With Love in which he starred opposite John Travolta under his belt. He’s also been seen in film such as Mission Impossible III, Match Point and Bend It Like Beckham.

The bigger get would obviously be Adrien Brody, who is quietly growing into an action film with the recent releases of Predators and Splice. Brody is also the forerunner for Edgar Wright’s Ant-man for Marvel Studios. Having the Oscar winning actor attached to the film would add some credibility to the project.

The title of the film will not be Fantastic Four Reborn as previously report, but the actual title has not been released. Now that Chiklis is moving on to No Ordinary Family on ABC and Evans is headed over to work on that other Marvel movie, who would YOU cast as The Thing and Human Torch in the upcoming reboot?

It’s no surprise that director Matthew Vaughn likes to work with people he’s established a relationship with. He used actor Jason Flemyng in Layer Cake, Stardust and even Kick-Ass. Vaughn brought writer Jane Goldman onto Kick-Ass and now X-Men: First Class after they worked together on Stardust. Now he’s doing it again as Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson has just been cast to play Cyclops in First Class.

It’s really not much of a surprise, given Vaugn’s casting decisions with previous roles. According to a tip received by Aint it Cool, the part is pretty much 100% locked down for the Kick-Ass star.

This would be the second comic book role for Johnson, even though he put down critics who were asking him about doing another film in the genre, saying that “just because I’m doing one, doesn’t mean I’ll do others.” It seems that the right amount on a check made him eat those words.

Johnson will be joining an already star-studded cast of James McAvoy as Professor X, Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) as Emma Frost, and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Magneto. Other rumored casting names Amber Heard as Mystique, and Benjamin Walker as Hank McCoy aka Beast.

With the film expected to hit theaters in less than a year — June 3, 2011 — you can be sure we’ll hear plenty of casting news in the days leading up to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Of course, we’ll be sure to bring them to you.