A Good Day to Die Hard
Ah jeez. I actually wanted this one to be good. Or at least decent. Or at least a reminder of what got us all fired up about the first Die Hard in 1988. But A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth in a creatively exhausted series, is total crap. Bruce Willis is back as the NYPD’s John McClane. But now he’s in Russia to free his son, Jack (Jai Courtney), from the clutches of baddies. Call it Die Hard Does ‘Taken’. Of course, Sonny Boy (nicely played by Courtney) is a good guy. But why give away the plot when there’s precious little of it. The script by Skip Woods (Swordfish) is incoherent. The direction by John Moore (Max Payne) is a jumble. The digitally amplified clatter of guns, choppers, fireballs and crashing cars never stops, but it’s impossible to know where you are at any given time or why you should give a damn. The Willis smirk is always a welcome sight. But his one-liners are cringe-inducing, especially when he ties to show his love. “Let’s go kill some motherfuckers” is as close as McClane comes to bonding. This series needs to die here. That would be something to “Yippee Ki-Yay” about.