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Rating: 6.5 stars

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Russia uranium double cross explosions car chase

All movies seen on 02/15/2013

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A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

Directed by John Moore

Action

Most recently watched by CaptainBigTime, PeterMartin, noahphex, seanCduregger, sleestakk, squeegull, schofizzy, danielt

Overview

Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, finds himself for the first time 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.

Rated R | Length 98 minutes

Actors

Bruce Willis | Jai Courtney | Sebastian Koch | Yuliya Snigir | Sergey Kolesnikov | Radivoje Bukvić | Mary Elizabeth Winstead | Cole Hauser | Martin Hindy | Roman Luknár | Pavel Lychnikoff | Amaury Nolasco | Melissa Tang | Aldis Hodge | April Grace | Péter Takátsy | Megalyn Echikunwoke | Rico Simonini | Zolee Ganxsta | Attila Árpa | Norbert Növényi | Anne Vyalitsyna

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

Not the best of the Die Hard movies by a stretch (the original still holds that place of honor) but it’s serviceable, especially if you enjoy pure action. A Good Day is really just a series of action set pieces knitted together with only the barest whisperings of a plot. That’s both it’s strength and weakness.

Let’s face it, none of the Die Hard movies are high art. The first one however, manages to combine great action, a villain you love to hate, and an everyman hero who is a combination of fallible (both physically and mentally) and indestructible. Pepper that with humor and you have a franchise.

Other incontrovertible elements of the franchise are a villain whose pretensions at loftier motives serve as cover for the baser reasons for all the chaos: namely to get rich. And these plans are always so over the top that credulity isn’t even on the table. Instead they play out as pure escapist fantasy.

So where does that leave A Good Day To Die Hard in the pantheon? To be sure, it doesn’t meet all of the above laid out criteria. For me, this places it as the second weakest of the series (it’ll take more than this movie to dislodge my dislike for Die Hard 2). It lacks a lot of the humor that has always served as a counterpoint to all the crazy violence.

John McClane’s everyman vulnerability is essentially dispensed with during the first half of the movie (he survives some spectacular, and I mean spectacular, car chase/crashes in the first half of the movie with nary a scratch).

Finally, the villain, Komarov, is never really given room to be the sort of expansively evil personality whom we enjoy hating with relish.

The lack of any one of those things would be excusable, maybe good for some grumbling from the franchise fans, but the lack of three essential elements really opens this movie up to heavy criticism. And it has been heavily criticized, I’d say even vilified, by critics and fans. I don’t think it’d be so hated if it weren’t tasked with living up to the Die Hard name, but I suppose if you’re going to attempt to capitalize on the franchise, you’ve got to take the hits when you fail to live up to the expectations of said franchise.

All of that said, I still found plenty to enjoy. As I mentioned earlier, the action set pieces are perhaps some of the best in the franchise (at least on par with Live Free or Die Hard), particularly the aforementioned car (truck? military vehicle?) chase scenes in the first half. If you disengage your brain and just enjoy the destruction for destruction’s sake, you’ll be OK with it. Just don’t try to think too much about the film after leaving the theater.

In the final analysis, probably one of the more forgettable Die Hards in the franchise, but as far as mindless entertainment goes, it does the trick. Just don’t scratch the surface or you’ll be left wanting.

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