A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (2013) ***
Well, the reviews on this thing has been so resoundingly negative that I decided to give myself a week or two before seeing it. I figured it would take that long for me to forget about all of those venomous reviews. And I’m glad I went into the flick with a fresh mind and lowered expectations because even though A Good Day to Die Hard is my least favorite in the series so far, there are still a number of rewarding moments here to qualify it as an entertaining action flick.
This time John McClane (Bruce Willis) goes to Russia to see his incarcerated son (Jack Reacher’s Jai Courtney). As it turns out, he’s actually a CIA agent trying to smuggle a political prisoner out of the country. McClane gets in his son’s way and botches his mission, but when their VIP is kidnapped, the two team up to get him back.
The first act of A Good Day to Die Hard did not inspire confidence. The long chase that occurs early in the film, while filled with plenty of carnage and decent stunt work was plagued with a lot of annoying shaky-cam camerawork and ADHD editing. Plus, I’m pretty sure McClane killed about a hundred or so innocent pedestrians during the chase. What’s more, this entire sequence just didn’t feel very... Die Hardy to me. Whether it was the camerawork, the editing, or McClane’s lame quips, I don’t know. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It just didn’t work.
However, the film quickly finds its footing shortly thereafter and once it settles down, it becomes a decent enough Die Hard film. There’s a pretty good shootout inside a ballroom and the dynamic between father and son slowly began to grow on me. Once they were side by side battling bad guys in Chernobyl (yes, Chernobyl) I had to admit all of this was pretty damned fun.
I was on the fence about the film for a good chunk of its running time. The helicopter scene at the end bumped my ass off the fence real quick. Not only is it a rather awesome action sequence, McClane’s actions during this scene (I wouldn’t dream of spoiling how he fucks the bad guys’ shit up) is pure McClane. This scene ranks right up there with the ejector seat scene in Part 2 as one of the best moments of the series. I particularly liked the Hans Gruber callback on the villain’s demise (and the way they one-upped it).
Bruce Willis did a fine job yet again as McClane. I only take issue with the fact that his character has sorta become like the Energizer Bunny. In the first couple of films, he was an action hero, but he was also a very real, very human character; which is why we fell in love with him. We saw him hurt, we saw him bleed, we saw him dig down deep and come out on top against the odds. Here, he’s just a Grumpy Old Action Star. I’m not complaining because Bruce still delivers the goods after all these years. I just fear that the McClane of Die Hard 1 no longer exists. I really hope they continue making these things. I’d really like to see the final chapter have John aged and beat up by life a bit more. I’m not saying they have to make Die Hard in a Nursing Home, but if they gave the character more vulnerability he could retain that spark that made his character so special in the summer of 1988.