26 February 2013
Directed By: John Moore
Starring: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Yuliya Snigir and Radivoje Bukvic
What It’s About: John Mclane travels to Russia to reconnect with his undercover CIA agent son and aids a battle against nuclear weapon thieves.
Rated R (for violence and language)
Runtime: 97 minutes
By Aaron Sanders, Diversions Editor
About thirty minutes into A Good Day to Die Hard, I realized that the vein of John McClane had dissipated and transformed into some Jason Bourne/James Bond knockoff. It seems Hollywood has forgotten what makes Die Hard, Die Hard. Gone is the witty banter and semi-original plot and in their place is banal dialogue and polished cliché. As one of the seven people who thought Live Free Or Die Hard was the bee’s knees, I expected more of the same: sleek, new-age cinematography, a mean-spiritedly charismatic villain and some of that John McClane charm we all know and love. With the latest installment of the Die Hard franchise, we are instead given a shaky Paul Greengrass look-a-like that tries its absolute hardest to not be a Die Hard movie.
The film begins in Russia as, you know what, I already forgot because it’s that forgettable. We find John McClane (Bruce Willis) at the airport in America as his daughter (Mary-Elizabeth Winstead) is seeing him off on his trip to Russia to visit his estranged son (Jai Courtney), who has allegedly been incarcerated by Russian authorities – but later in the movie swears he’s simply on vacation. McClane soon discovers that his son is not a convict but is in fact a CIA agent on a high-value mission to recover a “file” from some bad guys. Putting their bad beef aside, McClane and his son battle a small army to keep weapons-grade uranium out of the hands of greedy Russians.
A Good Day to Die Hard is a not a good movie. That being said, I was legitimately entertained while watching it. That’s just it. I was entertained only while watching it. As soon as the credits began to roll, I had already forgotten what I just saw. Director John Moore (Max Payne) did the best he could with the weak script, which skimmed the surface of what could have otherwise been a worthy Die Hard adventure. Much like last year’s Taken 2, the fifth Die Hard film feels superficial. It refrains from delving into itself, thus failing to invite the viewer into the realm of the film and facilitate suspension of disbelief. Instead, the viewer is constantly aware that he or she is watching a movie.
A Good Day to Die Hard suffers from “too little, too much” syndrome. There is not enough action. There is too much CGI. There are not enough McClane-isms. There are too many lame jokes. There is not enough character development. There is too much son-hates-dad-because-he-wasn’t-there banter. The film has an R-rating, yet constrains McClane’s foul mouth unlike in the first three films. The filmmakers seem to have tried as hard as they could to not make a Die Hard film. Sure, Bruce Willis is still playing the John McClane we all know and love, but if this film is any indication of where Die Hard is heading, it may be time for John McClane to be laid to rest.
Courtesy of www.therackedfocus.com