A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) review

John McClane has fought terrorists in a high-rise office building in Los Angeles. He's fought terrorists in a Washington airport. He's fought a terrorist's vengeful brother in the city of New York, and he's even fought cyber-terrorists who shut down every computer in America. So what's next for the no-nonsense cop from New York who was once called a 'cowboy' by terrorist Hans Gruber? Well, in 'A Good Day to Die Hard', the fifth entry in this long-running series, McClane heads out of the United States and joins up with his son Jack in Russia for another fight with a group of terrorists. But, I hate to break it to you people, but this movie... really sucks. Why? Because it's not a Die Hard movie. Sure, it may bear the name 'Die Hard' but in reality, this is nothing more than just a generic action movie starring Bruce Willis.

In 'A Good Day to Die Hard', NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) heads to Russia when he learns that his son John Jr. AKA Jack (Jai Courtney) has gotten into some trouble and has been arrested. When he gets there, however, he learns that Jack is actually working for the CIA. For the last three years, he has been on a mission to acquire 'political prisoner' Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch), who is believed to have incriminating evidence against a high-ranking Russian official, who has now sent henchmen in order to find Komarov and to kill anyone who tries to oppose him, namely Jack. Now caught up in the whole ordeal as well, John joins forces with his son in order to take down these terrorists before they get their hands on Komarov and this alleged file.

So what's wrong with this movie? Well, there's a lot to talk about in regards to that question, but easily the biggest problem with the film is that there is absolutely no tension. One of the greatest strengths of the last four films was that there was great tension and you got the sense that McClane was in mortal danger. Well, okay, in 'Live Free or Die Hard' he started to live through some outrageous stunts but in this movie, there's no denying it; John McClane has pretty much become superhuman. There are multiple instances where he survives through death-defying stunts with barely any scratches, like in one scene where's he driving a truck and it flips over at least 10 times but he manages to get out without much difficulty. The only real part of the film that has any tension is at the end. Why? Because the final action sequence takes place at Chernobyl and neither John, Jack, or the villains wear any protective gear and there's no indication that any of them get affected by radiation whatsoever (so you can add 'defying logic' to this film's list of many problems).

But that's not the only thing wrong with this film. The plot is so convoluted that the plot outline I just wrote for the film was my best effort of doing so. The plots of the other four films were simple; terrorists attack and John McClane has to stop them. There are somewhere around four villains in this film, and they are all terrible. Jack and John have absolutely no camaraderie at all and Jack spends most of the film yelling at John. At one point, he even threatens to shoot his own father. It's not really Jai Courtney's fault, it's the writing. You can't really blame Bruce Willis, either, but at this point he's not playing John McClane. He's just Bruce Willis in a generic action film that feels more like a video game (which is ironic considering that this director's last film was a video game adaptation (2008's 'Max Payne')) than an actual Die Hard film.

This is a sad day. The legacy of a great franchise is tarnished by what is undoubtedly its worst film ever. It's a film so bad that after I saw it, I bought the first Die Hard film simply out of pity. It's a film that in no way resembles its four predecessors and the end result is just a generic action film starring Bruce Willis, who certainly isn't playing John McClane anymore. I know a lot of people weren't huge fans of the PG-13 rated 'Live Free or Die Hard' but believe me when I say that that film actually felt like a Die Hard film while this film is far from it. Before this film came out, Willis said that he wanted to do at least one more movie after this one before retiring the character. But now, after this film, I recommend that they end the series here because unless this 'Die Hard 6' can be as good as the first four films in the series, this series is pretty much dead.

 

Rating: 0.5/5