A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is More Bond than Bruce

Bruce Willis and his most famous character, John McClane, are back and this time they are in the wrong movie. They must have taken a bad turn somewhere. With CIA agents, Russian criminals on the run and blaring brass instruments littered throughout the music score Bruce seems to have stumbled into a James Bond knockoff. And while the explosions are big enough this never feels like a “Die Hard” film. They should have just called it “Live and Let Die Hard” and embraced the charade.

Instead for this 5^th install of the series they went with “A Good Day to Die Hard” as the clever title that interjects the word “Hard” after the word “Die”. Even this device seems old. I can’t wait one when Bruce takes down a wicked ring of Role-Playing geniuses in “20-sided Die Hard”. Then maybe he can slaughter a gang of Ukrainian hippies in “Tie Dyed Hard”? Okay. That’s enough “Die Hard” title humor. Sorry.

Here the angle is John gets reunited with his estranged son, Jack (Jai Courtney), who has found himself in some deep trouble in Moscow. His pretty and formerly estranged daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), with whom John reconciled with in the 4^th film, barely makes an appearance as she is relegated to waiting at airports this time around.

So Jack has gotten himself mixed up in some unfortunate situations and has landed in jail after a botched hit job. John flies to Russia to help him. Trouble follows, of course, as Jack breaks out of jail with a Russian criminal in tow named Komarov (Sebastian Koch). Turns out many foul folks want Komarov to die….hard and now John and Jack are in the middle of some serious bullet-whizzing action that allows from some massive cartoon-level violence. As the poster reads: “Yippee Ki Yay Mother Russia”! See that they did there? They used the word Russia instead of Fucker. Fun stuff.

Bruce is Bruce (profound critiquing) as he bleeds and winces through the film like a professional. He is not the issue here; he is just out of place. As young Jack, Jai Courtney does not come close to touching the Willis charisma and is miscast. The two do share the same head shape but that’s about it. As far as Far -Out Baddies go, Radivoje Bukvic does his best to be a twisted villain but does not compare to Mr. Alan Rickman from the first “Die Hard”. In fact nothing here does and we are given only a sub-standard action film.

I think the mistake made in these latter “Die Hard” movies is that they have got to get back to the single location formula established in the first two films. When McClane is trapped in a skyscraper or an airport, these movies are special and different. (I’m not saying “Die Hard 2” was very good but at least it was better than this. And it had the best title of all: “Die Harder”. I still think part 3 should have been called “Die More Harder”. Sorry. That’s the last one. Promise.) But once you place McClane out in the world, there is nothing unique going on.

I could also go on a mini-diatribe about director John Moore’s decision to never let the camera stop swaying and twitching in an attempt to make the film seem modern but I won’t bother. Nearly all is mishandled and they should let this franchise die. Softly or hard. I really don’t care.
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