A Good Day to Die Hard

Die Hard remains one of the best action movies ever. If you do not believe that, chances are you are not really into action movies. Bruce Willis has done some pretty great work in his career and some pretty terrible work, but his John McClaine feels like the basis for so many action heroes. I have loved this entire series, even Live Free or Die Hard, which most hated. I am not sure why because the series has gone so far away from what made the original film so great. In sequels McClaine is treated more like a superhero. In Die Hard he was human and fallible. His heart and wit led him, but he could be hurt, badly. In the more recent incarnations, he basically throw trucks at helicopters, leaps tall buildings in a single bound and might as well stop bullets with his teeth. Yet, there is something about the character that I still find totally endearing. Perhaps it is that he always does the right thing no matter how it might go him. He believes in saving his family above everything else and well, his stunts are awesome. I believe the poster for this addition to the series is brilliant. It really makes you forget that the 4th one was rated pg-13. It is not to say that I thought the movie looked brilliant, but it did look like a bullet riddled good time!

John McClaine (Willis), cranky as ever, is looking for his son Jack(Jai Courtney) and unfortunately finds out he is in a Russian prison on counts of drugs and murder. McClaine heads off to Russia to find out what went wrong without thinking about it. He just goes. John and Jack are clearly not on good terms and John probably feels it is his fault. His job took precedence in his life and he was essentially an absentee father. When McClaine reaches the courthouse where his son is about to testify that he was hired by a political prisoner, Kamorav(Sebastian Koch) who once was responsible for the Chernobyl explosion, things go crazy. The man in political power wants Kamorav dead, but first he wants these vague files that Kamorav has that could damn the entire political front. At the courthouse, a string of car bombs interrupt the trial and quickly Jack is shoveling Kamorav to safety. As it turns out Jack has been a CIA operative and his mission is to save Kamorav and provide safety in exchange for these files. Well, John gets in the way and the rescue mission goes haywire leaving John and Jack alone with Kamorav with an army chasing them.

A Good Day to Die Hard is a mix of classic Die Hard and this new Superman like Die Hard. There are things I absolutely loved about it, like when the safe house gets compromised. I loved the action of that scene. It felt very old school. McClaine with a gun shooting at bad guys. That is what I want. I love to watch Mcclaine in confined spaces. That is what made the original Die Hard so excellent. That being said, there are action sequences that are so ridiculous that it was hard to fully just let go an enjoy them. Do not get me wrong, I love watching helicopters shooting at two guys who are somehow dodging all of the bullets, only to escape by jumping through one of the chutes at construction sites. However, here it felt forced. There was too much noise and not enough logic. In fact, it felt like there were giant chunks missing from the film, things that could have better set up what exactly was going on. First off, I would have loved to know how long McClaine had been looking for Jack and why.

By the time the climax comes, it is difficult to really care about what is going on. Willis looks bored, the movie is spinning out of control and the climax has the absolute worst placement of McClaine's classic catchphrase. Inf act that might be my biggest complaint about the movie: it just felt lazy. Willis can be a super fun and engaging figure on screen, but in all honesty, it is easy to tell when he bored in a movie. Here he looks bored big time. I am not sure why they felt the need to bring in a younger guy to the franchise, but Courtney does not really offer anything of substance. McClaine can kick ass plenty fine on his own. I sort of understood in Live Free or Die Hard adding a wise cracking side kick, but why add another stoic character who says little? Why give us John McClaine Jr, if he is going to be just like McClaine senior? It just makes no sense.

I wanted to love A Good Day to Die Hard, I really did, but it is tough to give it a positive review. There are some awesome action stunts, and it is always good to see McClaine, but I would rather a John McClaine who actually looked like he wanted to be there. I know they are hard at work on crafting a sixth Die Hard movie and my hope is that it involves McClaine on his day off ending up as a hostage in a bank or some other building because I want to see that McClaine again.

Final Grade: C-