Film: “A Good Day to Die Hard”
2 Stars
If you thought Bruce Willis was done fighting bad guys, you can think again. He’s back yet again as John McClane in the new Die Hard movie, “A Good Day to Die Hard.”
Being the fifth movie in the series, Willis is now sent to Russia to help and protect his only son Jack McClane (Jai Courtney). But upon arriving, he finds out that instead of helping he’s only causing more problems for his son, who turns out to be a CIA operative. With that in mind, the two set out to stop a nuclear weapons heist and catch up from where they left off before they ignored one another.
Ever since the first Die Hard was made back in the late 80s, Willis has fought more criminals alone than anyone can imagine. Whether that be jumping from a building, fighting on the wing of an airplane, or pushing a car with an evil girl inside down an elevator shaft, he really does it all.
Unfortunately, this film takes a slightly different approach. From beginning to end, you will encounter many memorable action scenes that can all be associated with the Die Hard franchise. The only problem is, is that’s the only thing that is similar.
Like the other movies, you’re going to want to keep asking questions and trying to figure out where the movie is going to go next. All this is, however, is a father and son charging forward into battle guns a blazing, with no turning back. And even though the director is trying to show the dangerous and outrageous stunts that are so death defying, he clearly has not understood the true Die Hard feeling.
As far as technical aspects go, don’t even get me started.
In the beginning, there’s a wild chase scene with overly frivolous camera work. I don’t understand why one must use over 15 different camera views to show two cars chasing each other. Back and forth, left and right, every shot is like a few seconds long unless there’s a scene with the actors.
But, the good thing is that once this is over, the camera stays in just a few places for the rest of the movie so you can better understand exactly what is trying to be showed.
Another criticism I had was the likelihood of the stunts. I’m very clear that this is a Die Hard film and that Bruce Willis is one tough cookie, but if you’re going to fall from the top of a building and hit every piece of side plywood on your way down, the least you could do is make injury look possible. The human mind can only believe so many things.
Lastly, this film was only a little over an hour and a half long. The four films before this stretched pass the two-hour mark.
Like any movie franchise, one should really put in as much film as they can, especially for what seems to be the final completion of the franchise.
On a good note, Willis, whether he did his own stunts or not, completed the task of being just as tenacious as always. The primary villain, Komarov (Sebastian Koch) – who adds kind of a twist to the story, makes everything feel as if nothing is wrong at all. And that kind of relates to the past villain, Hans (Alan Rickman aka Severus Snape).
Unless you really need to see what happens with the McClain family, I’d wait until its released on DVD/BluRay some time this summer.
Until then, just pray someone has the guts to rebirth the franchise with a better storyline and far more advanced feeling for what its like to “Die Hard.”
