Social Icons

Die Hard 5: A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)



Die Hard 5: A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)



4/10



Starring
Bruce Willis
Jai Courtney
Sebastian Koch
Yuliya Snigir


Directed by John Moore

A Good Day to Die Hard must have seemed like a great idea to the producers. After all, who wouldn’t think: what’s better than McClane, our lone hero, going after bad guys? Well, the producers thought, “Two McClanes going after bad guys.” The sad part is that the movie’s plot is so lame, stupid, and out of place. The two didn’t look like heroes going through hell and doing the impossible (McClane-style) to take down the bad guys. Instead, it ended up looking like two Looney Tunes characters surviving impossible incidents—like falling off a skyscraper, surviving truck crashes and chases, and gas explosions. I couldn’t help but wonder what the director was thinking.

John Moore, the director, and Skip Woods, the screenplay writer, placed our favorite hero in an unfamiliar environment: Russia, where he’s a complete stranger. Bruce Willis reprises the lead role of John McClane, who travels to Russia to help his estranged son, Jack (Jai Courtney), out of prison. Once there, McClane discovers there’s more to his son’s imprisonment than he was led to believe, and soon he’s caught in the crossfire of a terrorist plot.

So, he went all “Yippee ki-yay,” Looney Tunes-style, in Russia.

The cinematography is below average, and the action and directing scenes are so far-fetched that they barely pass as an A-movie production. As a viewer, you’re forced into an uncomfortable position, enduring it all just to hear McClane say, “Yippee ki-yay, motherfu@#er.”

The movie did have a twist that I didn’t see coming, but it wasn’t enough to save the film. This movie is the shortest of all the Die Hard films, and if, like me, you remember our lone cowboy-like hero running around barefoot and single-handedly taking down the formidable Hans Gruber and his crew in the first movie—or landing planes in the second, facing Simon Gruber in the third, or battling Timothy Olyphant in the fourth—then you’ll hate this weak, cowardly villain and probably the movie itself.

After Expendables 2 (2012), our old heroes decided to make a comeback. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in The Last Stand (2013), and Sylvester Stallone in Bullet to the Head (2013). Many, like me, looked forward to seeing these films. Now that I have, only Schwarzenegger’s movie is worth applauding.

This latest Die Hard addition is poor and doesn’t hold a candle to the others. Only die-hard John McClane fans can survive watching it. It’s a disappointing entry in a franchise that once set the standard for action films.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome review. Just avoid this movie. I mean, your money can go towards far better things, like say the original Die Hard films on Blu Ray? Sounds like a neat-o idea to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said Sir, avoid this movie if you love John McClane

    ReplyDelete

Disclaimer

All images featured on this site are the property of their respective copyright owners. They are used solely for illustrative and commentary purposes under fair use principles. This site is a personal blog, unaffiliated with or endorsed by any copyright holders. If you are the copyright owner of an image featured here and wish to have it removed, please contact me directly, and I will address your request promptly.