In some form, movies are meant to be representations of real life. They’re supposed to show the love, hate and fear that people experience outside of the theater’s four walls.
“A Good Day to Die Hard” accomplishes this feat, just not in the artistic representation of the human condition kind of way, but rather the wow-that-guy-really-needs-to-retire-or-at-least-do-something-new way, much like public opinion toward Brett Favre, Ron Paul and Jose Canseco has been in the past decade.
In his fifth turn as the tough guy New York detective John McClane, the aging Bruce Willis headlines this flimsy action flick with support from the Australian Jai Courtney (as a side note, why are all Australian actors incredibly muscular? Is there something in the water Down Under that churns out incredibly buff men who, though they can’t carry a scene, can tote a machine gun) as McClane’s estranged son Jack.
The plot is as simple as the dialogue. The elder McClane hasn’t seen his son in over three years, and when he gets wind of his incarceration in a Russian prison for murder he immediately jumps on a plane to Moscow to try and plead for his son’s freedom. From there McClane realizes that his son is not a burnout loser, but instead a “super spy” working for the CIA on a long-term undercover mission to gain the confidence of an incarcerated whistleblower who has invaluable information on a seedy Russian politician’s involvement in the Chernobyl disaster. As with any good “Die Hard” movie, a family reunion for the McClanes automatically triggers a dystopic international terrorist-driven incident which John and Jack get swept up in.
At the heart of “A Good Day to Die Hard” is the strained relationship between John and Jack, who seemingly can only express their deep-seeded emotional insecurities if they’re armed with an AK-47 and are pumping round after round into a stock bad guy character with frosted tips. Like the fourth film, which focused on John’s relationship with his daughter, this installment of what amounts to an N.R.A. pump-up video is all about a father’s attempt to right the wrongs of his past in an attempt to bridge the gap created between him and his son.
When it comes to the actual content of the film, the movie is mediocre. The only thing worse than the acting is the dialogue, which is forced, strained, stereotypical and unoriginal. As for the character development, there is none to really speak of, though it seems as if director John Moore and screenwriter Skip Woods mistook explosions, deaths and copious uses of the f-word to represent growth and emotional change. But no one goes to see “Die Hard” movies for the acting or the message; they go to see guns and fighting, and to hear an aging Willis say “Yippee-Ki-Yay” for the umpteenth time, and those viewers won’t be disappointed.
Willis, who is getting closer to being able to order off of the “Senior Menu” at IHOP, is once again indestructible as he can fall 80 stories, get shot, be in a car wreck, beaten and exposed to radiation while uttering one-liners all the way. And as for violence and action, “A Good Day to Die Hard” has ample amounts of both as the body count rises to the level of a small arms conflict within the first 25 minutes and doesn’t let up until the credits roll. In fact, the McClane family seems to have some sociopathic tendencies as not only do they kill indiscriminately, but there also seems to be some form of enjoyment in it, as near the end of the film both father and son share a laugh about having a “nice day together,” regardless of the fact that the “nice day” included the death of at least 40 Russian terrorist and an unknown number of civilians. But as the saying goes, “fathers and sons are at their best when they’re paired up in a counter-terrorism insurgency.”
For viewers who like logical story lines, “A Good Day to Die Hard” is not for you. But for those who can dismiss the dialogue, the acting and the fact that despite saving the world for the fifth time McClane is still just a regular detective, this film will provide explosions, stunts, one good car chase and a couple of unintended laughs.
As for John McClane, despite the fact that he must be more concussed than the entire Ravens Super Bowl-winning team combined and riddled with more broken bones than the “Glass Man” from “Unbreakable,” his constant quest to rid the world of bad guys continues in style in Mother Russia. Maybe now he can finally retire, or at least take a safer vacation.
