John McClane is back! Bruce Willis returns to the fifth installment in the popular “Die Hard” film series. J.P. gives us his thoughts on “A Good Day to Die Hard.”
A Good Day to Die Hard
(20th Century Fox)
Directed by JOHN MOORE
Written by SKIP WOODS
Cast: BRUCE WILLIS, JAI COURTNEY, SEBASTIAN KOCH, YULIA SNIGIR, RASHA BUKVIC, COLE HAUSER, AMAURY NOLASCO, SERGEY KOLESNIKOV
Studio Synopsis:
Bruce Willis reprises his iconic role as police detective John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard, set against the backdrop of deadly corruption and political vendetta in Russia. McClane arrives in Moscow to track down his estranged son, Jack, (Jai Courtney), and is stunned to discover he’s working undercover to protect a government whistleblower, Komarov. With their own necks on the line, the McClanes are forced to overcome their differences in order to get Komarov to safety and thwart a potentially disastrous crime in the most desolate place on Earth – Chernobyl.
When McClane learns the truth about his son’s profession, he calls him the “007 of Plainfield, New Jersey.” But it’s a long way from Plainfield to Moscow, and John and Jack are about to have a family reunion they will never forget.
It is now 25 years since Die Hard exploded into theaters, launching a new cinematic hero, John McClane, and changing the paradigm of action movies. McClane is identifiable and relatable. An ordinary man forced by circumstances to attempt an extraordinary task. That is what separates him from the comic book heroes of most action movies, and has made McClane one of the most popular characters in film history.
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61UqRmDjwgc’]
J.P.’s Take:
Think of John McClane as the American equivalent to James Bond. He is the indestructible NYC cop who shows no sign of slowing down soon. It’s now 5 movies and 25 years into the “Die Hard” film series and — if given leeway — it could probably catch up to the 007 anthology.
“A Good Day to Die Hard” finds McClane (Bruce Willis) in Russia on vacation, until his outing is quickly interrupted by the usual show down between villains, in this case Russian extremists and himself the now (super human) CIA agent. Whereas just 6 years ago, in “Live Free Or Die Hard,” which I enjoyed thoroughly, John was reunited with his estranged daughter Lucy. In the fifth go ’round, Mr. McClane tracks down his son whom he believes may be in trouble with Russian authorities.
“Die Hard 5” makes no profound political statements nor does it present serious social injustices; it is plain and simple an action flick. The main concern here is how director John Moore (“Max Payne,” “The Omen”) and writer Skip Woods (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The A-Team”) can make maximum use of outlandish vehicle stunts, numerous explosions and a hail storm of weapons fire. it’s basically another vehicle for Bruce Willis to exclaim to his fans, he still has what it takes to stay in the action hero arena. Forget all plausibility here, because there hardly is any. What replaces that are facetious comical and violent tropes between villain and hero. There are some nutty, chuckle riddled moments between John and son Jack McClane (Jai Courtney) thrown in as well.
Even though I got a nice jolt out of this chaotic action juggernaut, I found “Live Free Or Die Hard” much more enjoyable; at least it had a better story. But what I miss the most are the vulnerabilities of John McClane. After all, he’s in a different land (Russia), he doesn’t know the territory or the laws, or the culture, customs and so on. So, with that said, you would think they’d devise some plot pieces that exploited those aspects. Sure, they added one scene when McClane arrives in Russia and he’s in a cab with the driver trying to speak the native language. It was a funny bit which should have been played up a bit more (boy, does he butcher the language.). Unfortunately, they’ve dumbed everything down to the point where the movie shouted how crazy and cocky us Americans are. But I won’t get into all of that.
My point here is there wasn’t much effort into plotting out the whole scheme. I wanted to see his wit and ingenuity put to the test once again. I wanted to see meticulous, well thought out planning for taking down the bad guys for old time sake. What we were left with were remnants of who McClane use to be. Perhaps this was done on purpose to show off what the young fresh face Jai Courtney had to offer. Not to be mean about it, it really wasn’t very much.
If they do decide to go forward with a sixth “Die Hard”film, I hope they do come up with an ingenious plotline. Otherwise, I don’t think I can take much more of this.