A Good Day to Die Hard Movie Review

In the fifth installment of the ‘Die Hard’ film series, ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’, Bruce Willis is back as John McClane.

This time the American cop John McClane, for the first time, finds himself on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack – unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.

Bruce Willis dominates every scene he is in and has a few funny John McClane moments, but the action superstar can’t make this 98 minute film all pleasurable. Jai Courtney certainly has the physicality that should suit the son of McClane, his performance is okay. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played his daughter in the fourth installment Live Free or Die Hard, makes a quick appearance at the beginning dropping dad off at the airport.

The Die Hard series is known for having interesting and well-acted villains who come with a twist to oppose John McClane, By far the weakest villains in the whole franchise, their screen presence is limited and they are seriously under-developed and the attempted twist also keeps you from knowing who you’re supposed to be rooting against until the climax, which dovetails with an over the top, CGI filled climax with unnecessarily slow motion explosions.

What do you get when you put a 25-year old action series, along with its ageing McClane, together with the director of “Max Payne” and “The Omen,” and the screenwriter of“X-Men Origins: Wolverine “and “The A – Team”?

If you guessed the first great action flick of 2013, you would be wrong. What you do get unfortunately are numerous gun-shots, car crashes, explosions among other novel action sequences and a weak script.

The story and screenplay were equally implausible in the fourth film and one realizes leap of faith need to be taken into consideration for such big actioners, but Die Hard 5 is just not gripping enough. Dear Franchise owners, In case planning for Die Hard 6 please make sure you don’t let Skip Woods and John Moore anywhere near it…

Movie Review: 2/5