filmthug movies, reviews & rants: A Good Day To Die Hard

A Good Day To Die Hard

Yippee-ki-yay Mother Russia!

After 25 years and an estimated combined body count of 341 people (58 of ‘em killed by McClane himself) over four action-packed and increasingly ridiculous installments (c’mon, the only thing dumber about the last one than the truck jumping the fighter jet was casting Kevin Smith as a genius) indestructible hero John McClane (Bruce Willis) finally goes global with A Good Day To Die Hard as he heads to Russia to help his estranged son and finds himself tangled up in yet another terrorist plot. The biggest unanswered question though is how does the same Shostakovich happen to the same guy five, count ‘em FIVE, times?

When his son Jack (Jai Courtney) is arrested in Moscow after the murder of a corrupt official, police officer (and modern cinema’s answer to Job) John McClane heads East to try and help him. But Jack’s actually an undercover CIA agent working with political prisoner and government whistleblower Komarov (Sebastian Koch) to expose a conspiracy that reaches to the upper echelons of the Russian authorities implicating the corrupt Putin-esque gangster and Defence Minister Chagarin (Sergei Kolesnikov) in a plot to sell uranium. Pursued by Chagarin’s henchman Alik (Radivoje Bukvić), John, Jack and Komarov escape to a CIA safe house. But with fortunes to be made and lost and a deadly consignment of weapons-grade uranium at stake, it’s up to McClane and son to put aside their differences and do what they do best; kick some terrorist ass Nakatomi-style.

First things first, let’s get this out of the way now: A Good Day To Die Hard is dumb. Really dumb. Maybe not as dumb as its title but still…it’s pretty damn dumb. But, honestly, who cares? This is a Die Hard movie you’re watching not An Inconvenient Truth. You’re here to be entertained not enlightened. And, against all the odds, that’s exactly what A Good Day To Die Hard does; it entertains. It’s a big dumb, loud, funny throwback to the action movies of the eighties (you know, when the first Die Hard was made) that thankfully doesn’t take itself too seriously and, despite what you may hear to the contrary, A Good Day To Die Hard marks a real return to form for the series after the idiocy of the last installment Live Free Or Die Hard.

The story is ludicrous; McClane heads to Russia to bail out his estranged son who’s in a strop with him, in the process tangling with the dastardly Russkies who caused the Chernobyl meltdown (seriously, that’s how evil they are). But thankfully the film is self-aware enough to know and celebrate how ludicrous it is. So yes, as you’d expect, McClane’s senior and junior bicker, battle and work through their father and son issues right through to that clichéd “I love you Dad,” moment, all the while swapping one-liners, killing scumbags, destroying cars and demolishing buildings.

And that’s what’s really enjoyable about this film. Despite its flaws and its overblown action scenes, A Good Day To Die Hard actually feels closer to the original than the last two sequel. The first half hour builds the tension beautifully and while Courtney’s Jack is a bit of a miserable plank, a Sam Worthington look-a-like whose major defining characteristic seems to be the ability to hold a grudge against a father who saved L.A., Washington, New York and the entire Eastern Seaboard over the last 25 years, Willis is back to his wisecracking best, sailing through the film effortlessly, ably supported by German actor Sebastian Koch as Kamarov and the sparky Yuliya Snigir as Kamarov’s daughter Irina. Journeyman director Moore stages his action scenes with a no-nonsense, competent eye for mayhem and while A Good Day To Die Hard’s last half hour is completely unbelievable, by then you don't care. You're having way too much fun to be thinking about unravelling the film’s plot.

While the film’s running gag that McClane is just trying to have a quiet vacation grows tiresome almost immediately, A Good Day To Die Hard is fast, nimble fun that never slows down long enough to let you stop and realise just how little sense it makes.

David Watson

Directed by:

John Moore

Written by:

Skip Woods

Produced by:

Alex Young

Starring: