A Good Day to Die Hard

A masterful funeral of the best action series of all time that can only be accepted at this symbolic level. Putting this material, which for three decades reflected and pushed the possibilities and the nature of Hollywood action films in an original way, into the hands of an average B-movie director like John Moore, with a script that suppresses, if not downright ruins everything that made McClean fun was an idea worthy of immediate defenestration. I can’t be bothered to describe everything that irritated me and I don’t even know why it shouldn’t end at 1*. Maybe out of respect for Willis’s best role and for a couple of solid action scenes, but it’s better to quickly forget about it. (01/18/2020)

A crazy day to die hard. When writing this script, Skip Woods occasionally forgot that he was writing another installment of an established series and often broke its established rules – unfortunately, including the traditional showdown with the villain. However, even so, I mostly enjoyed it in spite of myself. Because right from his first glance, Bruce Willis proves that he has missed his iconic role and relishes every shot or argument with the senator. Besides, John Moore, no matter how many flaws he has, simply knows how to handle action; he just needed a little push. I understand that McClane's adventure shouldn't focus on family values, but currently, the universal reactionism really disappoints me. That's why I will add an almost invisible plus to the solid 70 percent. But I want the sixth installment to be more personal in a completely different way. (05/31/2013)

One awaits another instalment with excited anticipation, but in the end, the Die Hard saga only gets disappointing. Bruce Willis is getting old, he’s basically an old geezer now and at the beginning, he couldn’t have looked more like an old geezer. The action is interesting at first and relatively decent, but as time goes on, the movie becomes a load of hogwash. But the stupidest thing of all is the story’s shift to Chernobyl. I mean, that’s simply unreal. The worst thing about it is the fact that the movie looks good in the beginning thanks to the action, but the cameraman gets high on mushrooms after a while and the other cameraman gets all high on dopamine, because they couldn’t have messed up the end result more. The truck just flies across the bridge over to the road and everything explodes insanely. One would think that there’s nothing easier than filming a moving car and letting it all flow without editing, but the scene begins and everything crumbles into twenty thousand sequences, shots and explosions. And what puts the cherry on top is the stressed-out assistant camera operator who probably held the camera for the first time in their life and they shook the devil out of it within the first nanosecond. Awful. Die Hard used to be about humility, a story that used to be realistic, honest and – on the other hand – random since John McClane has always been able to find himself in the world’s greatest mess. But this was just an action flick with special effects and it was downright awful. It has basically nothing to do with the Die Hard saga apart from Bruce Willis. (06/18/2013)

McClane's back, say and write what you want. It's still him. Yes, the reconciliation between father and son is hellish and we've seen it many times and better (Indiana Jones IV), but is that what A Good Day to Die Hard is all about? Don't be discouraged by the generally low rating and go see for yourself. What I saw was a pretty honest action movie that I perhaps enjoyed more than the second Expendables (but less than The Last Stand). Imaginative action scenes (the car chase, the helicopter ending, which is better than the fighter jet ending from the last film and is a typical McClane yippee-ki-yay improvisational moment), Beltrami's music, the visual effects, the jokes, of which there were more than I would have expected ("Need a hug"), the charismatic Sebastian Koch, references to the first film in the series (Beethoven, the villain's slow motion fall)... No problems at all. However, Jai Courtney really got on my nerves, and it seems that somebody also hurt the film badly in the editing room, as many scenes from the trailer didn't make it in (especially the taxi dialogue with the cop/lawyer makes me sad). I wish there was a longer version on DVD. Three and a half red stars.__P.S. The longer version was only released on BD, so I'll probably never see it. (03/23/2013)

The fact that Skip Woods suffers from screenwriting elephantiasis, and that anyone with a heightened sensitivity to moronic dialogue and story in general will probably get cancer while watching the new McLane escapades is unfortunately pretty much covered up by the fact that, from a directorial standpoint, this bullshit is surprisingly innovative and masterful. In fact, the alpha and omega of AGDtDH is that 20 or so minute car chase in downtown Moscow, where all the trump cards are laid out and, in fact, justify the entire existence of this film. The authenticity of the clashes here is aided by the multiple shots of the same situations from different angles, as well as the editing, which cuts away from the collision that the next shot records from somewhere else. Imho, it was purely deliberate that one of the shots ends at an angle where we see a crew member in a helmet along the right edge, controlling the vehicle on which the camera is placed. Combined with the senseless (but impressive) destructiveness of the entire scene, this makes every impact doubly felt and almost brings back that good old feeling of crossing your fingers for the stuntman, wishing him a speedy recovery. Moreover, the armored transport starring in this scene is actually the link between the chase scenes in Terminator 3 (a slow, multi-ton, virtually indestructible crane) with those in The Bourne Supremacy (fast, punchy, unconcerned with consequences), thanks to its destructive potential and not inconsiderable speed. In fact, everything before and partly after – the camera, for example, hiding fearfully behind a car during a gunfight, the shooting of situations from inside passing cars, the escape on the roof that we see from an aerial shot and hear only the echoes of gunfire – are the viewer's preparation for this scene. ________ Yeah, but otherwise it's really terrible crap, which in places defies the very basic creative precepts ("The whole room is contaminated with radiation" "Don't worry, luckily we have a secret substance with us 24/7 that will get rid of the radiation" – no kidding!) and the characters work about the same as in the snuff videos. McLane isn't in this movie, but I think he'd like it on TV. (06/19/2013)