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.

Before seeing the film, I had a study group session, and one of my buddies in our group mentioned that he had read several of the book’s in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game series. He said the theme was empathy, and, outside of that and the hubbub surrounding Card’s controversial comments on same-sex marriage, was about the only thing I knew going into the film.

And now, having seen it, I can see bits of that theme peeking through, but ultimately director Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) appears to have traded depth for spectacle.

In the semi-distant future, following an attack by an alien species known as the Formics, the countries of Earth have placed their best and brightest in the International Fleet academy, a military training ground that’s preparing for the next potential invasion.  A. E. Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) a precocious youngster with a talent for strategy, is put through a series of tests administered by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford), a tough commander who nonetheless sees Ender as the one to ultimately lead the fleet to victory. Overcoming loneliness and antagonism from his peers, Ender continually proves himself through a gauntlet of war games, all throughout questioning the true intentions of his leaders.

Entertainment wise, Ender’s Game delivers. The various war games provide a fun parade of sequences for Hood to show how Ender outsmarts nigh-impossible odds (though, for all his apparent brilliance, Ender’s solutions do seem to rack up the casualties), particularly with one scene involving a weightless battle sphere. The cadets compete against each other to make it through the other team’s gate without getting shot by the opposing players’ tag-guns.

Of all the military sci-fi novels out there yet to be made into movies, I’ve always wanted to see an adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. I would also like to see John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War made into a movie or heck, even another try at taking Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers to the big screen.

That said, in spite of Orson Scott Card’s ridiculous personal opinions, his Ender’s Game is also a pretty great sci-fi novel it its own right, so a big screen adaptation of it is still a welcome development. That’s just what Summit Entertainment has done and to kick things off they’ve released the first trailer for the movie.

In it we get our first real look at Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, complex and conflicted boy who turns out to be a military genius, and the rest of the supporting cast including Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff and Ben Kinsley as Mazer Rackham. Truth be told, this looks pretty good and I look forward to seeing more.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Look for Ender’s Game in theaters on November 1.

Good news for all you Ender’s Game fans out there as there is finally some forward motion on the film. Ender’s Game has had a long journey getting from a novel to the big screen and finally has a production blog. Even though there is only a single image posted so far, producer Roberto Orci promises to have exclusives from the film over the next year. This would include guest appearances by well known cast members.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Orson Scott Card book series, here is a synopsis. Set in Earth’s future, the plot presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics, an insect like alien species that are usually called “Buggers”. These aliens act much like gigantic super smart Earth ants and are very protective of their queen. In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders.