Details
Starring: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney,
Certificate: 12A
Runtime: 98 mins
Budget: $92,000,000 (estimated)
Review
After refusing to watch this latest instalment in the Die Hard franchise at the cinema I reluctantly decided to sit down and give it a go. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed.
This time, the film involves (the very aged) John McClane
going on “vacation” to Russia to give his son Jack (Jai Courtney) a kick up the
ass for going off the rails. McClane soon finds out that his son is in fact an
undercover CIA operative looking to get hold of a very important and well
sought after file (how original!). Naturally the McClanes team up and kill some
bad guys, whilst discovering not all is as it seems.
The overall plot is pretty dire, and is nothing we haven’t seen
before. McClane’s son Jack has clearly been thrown in to help inject some life
into an ageing series, but instead just tops it with even more cheese. The film plays
too much on the father-son bonding between the pair, which frankly could be
something taken straight from a soap opera. The twist at the end is also very
clunky and poorly written, offering little explanation and making you think “Well how the hell did that happen then?!”.
After seeing McClane taking down a helicopter with a car and
having a one-on-one with a jet plane in Die Hard 4.0, I knew I had to take A
Good Day to Die Hard with a pinch of salt. I handled everything quite well,
including the 20 minute car chase at the beginning that changed camera shots so
quickly I started to feel dizzy. But when it came to the helicopter scene, I
just couldn’t hold back the laughter. Not because of the absurdity of the whole
situation, but because of the kamikaze actions of the helicopter pilot. The
helicopter runs out of bullets shooting the McClanes, so the only logical thing
is to try and fly into them? Yeah right…
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LEFT: Courtney stars as Jack McClane
RIGHT: Courtney stars as Varro in the Spartacus series
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The acting isn’t bad, but it’s not exactly great either.
Willis is a one-trick pony, and the 58-year old is now well past his prime.
Nevertheless he still puts in a reasonable effort and saves this film from
being a complete disaster. The script also doesn’t allow Willis to make McClane
live up to his true potential, and the famous “yippee-ki-yay” line seems to be overshadowed
with “I’m on vay-cation”. I
personally didn’t like the idea of McClane having a son, regardless of who plays
him. I don’t actually mind Jai Courtney as an actor, and I quite liked him as
Varro in the TV series Spartacus: War of
the Damned (yes, it really is him!). But Die Hard is all about John McClane
vs. the bad guys, and having a sidekick takes away some of John’s badass hero status.
I‘ve got a feeling Jack may become a franchise regular should a sequel be made –
which now looks likely.
Verdict
This film should never have been made, and is simply another
example of film-makers milking a franchise until every last drop of cash is
squeezed out of it. The worst part is that there are already plans for a Die
Hard 6, which will hopefully be the last in the series.
My advice to most is give this one a miss if you want a film
to be the highlight of your evening. But now you know what to expect, there’s
no harm in sitting down and giving it a go if you’re after non-stop action and
cheap thrills. After all, it is John McClane…
Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you think of A Good Day to Die Hard!
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