I have been avoiding A Good Day to Die Hard just to preserve the memory I already had of the Die Hard series. I know I should have had a little faith … but I had a feeling it was going to be complete drivel.
It wasn’t as bad as I expected and I laughed and smiled throughout but it’s not much of a movie either.
It’s a series of beautiful luxury cars being smashed into one another with hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths while Brucey boy, who is way past his expiry date for an action movie, is back playing the no-frills New York police officer John McClane.
Don’t get me wrong – the role still fits him like a glove, but he needs that long ‘vacation’ he talks about throughout the film after starring in the fifth movie of a worn out and tired series.
Of course, there’s the necessary jokes about Willis’ age, Americans v Russians and about its stars beating death every time (even though they seem to jump out of a number of tall buildings) and just in case anyone needs a reminder, this action movie is, well, kind of ridiculous.
I think when any franchise reaches the point of self-parody that’s when you know it’s trying too hard … but I still enjoyed it.
And, being the true girlie I am, the 98-minutes were more than half bearable with Courtney, who plays Willis’s son, on-screen.
The movie begins with John McClane (Willis) finding out his son, Jack (Courtney), is in prison due to criminal activities involving a Russian mob.
John decides to head to Moscow to finally rekindle his relationship with his estranged son and get to the bottom of his predicament.
While he’s there he finds out that Jack is, in fact, a CIA operative who is trying to sneak a convict, Komarov, out of harm’s way from Chagarin (Sergei Kolesnikov), a political leader with the power to blow up a courthouse and destroy the city of Moscow.
As you might expect, John gets in the way of Jack’s operation with a very long chase scene with bullets flying and bad guys laughing.
The father-son duo has to put differences aside to evade Chagarin’s entourage and uncover the evidence.
Things spiral out of control when Komarov’s daughter gets involved and the McClanes end up doing what they do best … kicking butt!
There’s no secret to the plot. It’s exactly what you expect. In fact even the ‘twist’ at the end punches viewers in the face half way through and didn’t leave any gasps in the male-oriented theatre ... it’s just a plain old action movie with Die Hard slapped across the title.
There’s not much to say about Willis. Without him the movie would have probably flopped, but then again, he did a reasonable job given a weak plot.
I like Brucey, he’s a good actor but his corny one-liners, his attempt at being funny and his age were major drawbacks this time around. Where the previous series showed an old Willis looking younger A Good Day to Die Hard made an old Willis feel ancient.
In addition, the role of being a concerned father came across as an annoying friend that Jack didn’t want there.
Courtney, however, was great. No, not just because of his huge muscles and deep blue eyes, but as a fresh face with plenty of attitude to put Willis in his place, he did the best any actor could have done.
His character was extremely two-dimensional but Courtney was excellent at expressing through his facial expressions, unlike Brucey, who was not believable as a loving father at all.
Although I was struggling with the name of the movie at first, I finally get it … it is a good day for the franchise to finally die after 25 years.
l Showing in Cineco, Seef II, Dana Cinema
