In A Good Day to Die Hard, John McClane (Bruce Willis) and his newly introduced son Jack McClane (Jai Courtney) team up to try and prevent a fictional nuclear disaster. In the process, however, they create something much worse: a cinematic disaster.
The original Die Hard (1988) still towers over the huge majority of action movies made because of the epic and complex villain in Hans Gruber, the dry yet always witty humor of a young John McClane, and simple settings that are perfect for the chase and puzzle of the plot. Most sequels in the series follow a similar trend. This fourth sequel does not.
A Good Day to Die Hard introduces a unique pair of villains: Yuri Kamarov and Viktor Chagarin. On trial for his life, Kamarov has stuff to say that Chagarin would very much prefer to be left unsaid. John McClane, warned about his son also on trial in Russia, travels to Moscow on his vacation time to attempt to rescue him. McClane Sr. is caught off-guard when his son breaks Kamarov out of the courthouse holding cell. In the ensuing chase, father and son must team up to protect the fugitive Kamarov and foil a nuclear holocaust using their talents as a New York Detective and CIA Agent.
There is a twist that may catch you off guard, but that is one of the pathetic few pros compared to the list of cons that this “masterpiece” offers. Bruce Willis’ humor and wit from prequels is non-existent. John McClane no longer cracks wise and leaves the audience chuckling and repeating the lines for weeks after viewing. In “A Good Day to Die Hard” he seems less like the satirical detective from the 1988 original and more like an angry guy with below average insults and an affinity for guns. The villains in this film would’ve been eaten alive by Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. The German-accented mastermind from the first movie is five times the caliber of the tap dancing, carrot munching villains in this hysterical disappointment.
The previous films are centralized in a single location: a thirty floor office building, an airport in the wintertime, etc. The location for this fifth installment in the series is seemingly all of Russia. With the expanded settings comes less strategy. Bruce Willis no long crawls through air ducts or shimmies up elevator shafts; he now approaches situations by driving there and shooting. This film changed the cowboy of John McClane from the lone ranger to the pyrotechnics expert. He no longer saves the day single-handedly, he just shoots for the biggest boom.
As a fan of the series, I caution any other fans to turn and walk away from this film and warn them not to spend any money to watch this film. If you’re absolutely adamant on seeing it anyways, wait until it’s on Netflix. If you’re not a fan of the series, this film might be for you, as it is very different from the others in it. If you’re a fan of movies directed by Michael Bay, you should consider this a movie for you.
Overall, I give “A Good Day to Die Hard” one and a half out of five stars solely out of respect for the series and the quality of the special effects.
