Movie review: Time to put old John down in 'A Good Day to Die Hard' 

“A Good Day to Die Hard” is the fifth entry in the ongoing adventures of perhaps the world’s unluckiest law-enforcement official not named Jack Bauer. 

 

After a remarkable 2012 that saw him take on sci-fi (“Looper”) and dramatic comedy (“Moonrise Kingdom”), Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, the role that elevated him from TV funnyman (on “Moonlighting”) to international action superstar. Joining him here in a none-too-subtle passing of the torch is Jai Courtney (TV’s “Spartacus”) as his estranged son, John McClane, Jr. 

 

With more than his share of blockbusters under Willis’ belt, it’s easy to forget how risky a proposition the first “Die Hard” was upon its release 25 years ago.

 

'Moonlighting' to McClane

 

In the mid-to-late 80s, Bruce Willis was nothing more than the male lead on TV’s “Moonlighting”, a humorous detective show where the romantic tension between him and co-star Cybil Shepherd’s characters was the main attraction. The announcement that Willis had been cast as the protagonist in a film based on a sequel to a book (that Frank Sinatra had previously starred in the film version of) was met with derision, to say the least. This was, after all, a time when Schwarzenegger, Stallone and their steroid-enhanced ilk ruled the box office, and Willis could hardly be counted among their testosterone-heavy ranks.   

   

In “Die Hard”, director John McTiernan (“Predator”, the “Thomas Crown Affair” remake) changed all the rules with a taut, intelligent thriller that saw Willis in the role he would prove seemingly born to play, the everyman in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

 

Rather than mowing down the bad guys with impunity, McClane relied on his wits, skill and dumb luck to win the day against erudite bad guy Hans Gruber (the then-unknown Alan Rickman, “Harry Potter”, “Dogma”). To this day, the script for “Die Hard” remains a master class on plant and payoff.

 

The sequels that followed, (the unfortunately-named) “Die Harder”, “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” and “Live Free or Die Hard” (known as “Die Hard 4.0” in most non-US territories) would up the ante, both in terms of action and the punishment they piled on the lead character, who ended each adventure with enough wounds and injuries to put a battalion out of commission. 

 

All throughout, it was Willis’ charm as the put-upon hero with the ever-present smirk that kept audiences coming back for more.

 

Having already saved a skyscraper, an airport, New York City and the entire United States (in that order) from money-grubbing terrorists, “A Good Day to Die Hard” sees McClane heading off to Russia to save his son from a possible death sentence. . .and money-grubbing terrorists. 

 

Son of supercop

 

Willis seems tired and distracted for the film’s running time, most of which he spends playing second fiddle to his onscreen son, portrayed by Courtney as being so lacking in personality or expression that it comes as little surprise that the younger McClane was able to hide his career as a CIA superspy from his supercop dad. 

 

From the moment they are reunited, McClane's senior and junior bicker humorlessly about nothing in particular while going from one incoherent bullet-riddled set piece to the next.

 

Speaking of the action, the sequences here are poorly shot, staged and edited, with quick cuts, a truly-thunderous sound mix (that does everything in its power to bludgeon the viewer’s aural faculties – listen for one of Ben Burtt’s distinctive “Indiana Jones” punches!) and strangely-placed moments of slow motion standing in for anything approaching coherence or (common) sense. So devoid is the action in “A Good Day. . .” of internal logic, geography and – worst of all – physics, that whatever real-world grounding McTiernan strove for in the first and third “Die Hards” is thrown out the proverbial, now-CGI, window.   

Of attempts to pander to longtime fans, the most blatant is a reference to Hans Gruber’s famous wide-eyed dénouement, here given a blatantly foreshadowed “twist”, care of a daughter scorned. 

 

On the soundtrack front, an excerpt of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (used to great effect in McClane’s first adventure), with police sirens and gunfire as accompaniment, opens the film, while portions of late composer Michael Kamen’s (“Lethal Weapon”, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”) themes from the first three installments are also referenced, easily distinguishable from Marco Beltrami’s generic orchestral tracks.

 

Flipping SUVs

 

Sadder than “A Good Day. . .” director John Moore’s inability to stage and/or shoot an action sequence is the state of our erstwhile hero. Gone is the relatable everyman of yore, in his place is a generic, virtual superman backed up by an endless supply of digital clones to take his lumps. 

 

Where audiences once winced when McClane sliced up his feet by running on broken glass 25 years ago, the older version is apparently an indestructible superhuman capable of nonchalantly flipping an SUV and falling umpteen stories with nary a scratch.

 

Where fellow action star Sylvester Stallone was able to parley his increasing age to great success with the final installments of his “Rocky” and “Rambo” franchises, Willis’ McClane shows no such character growth, to say nothing of maturity. While Stallone and Schwarzenegger have displayed a willingness to poke fun at themselves in over-the-top CGI-laden action fests “The Expendables” and “The Last Stand”, respectively, Willis here is content to coast along, acting (badly) for all the world like two and a half decades haven’t passed.

 

Perhaps the film’s greatest sin lines in its mishandling of the trademark Willis charm, appearing here in fits and spurts that feel shoehorned in as though to remind people that this is, ostensibly, a “Die Hard” movie; don’t even get me started on how his signature one-liner is wasted during the preposterous finale. 

 

In fact, the entire movie feels as though Bruce is going through the motions while working out how to spend whatever exorbitant paycheck Fox threw his way to make this film.

 

Whatever amount he was paid, one can only hope that the man thought it was worth it, because the cost of the ticket to see this disaster sure as hell isn’t. – KDM, GMA News 

 

"A Good Day to Die Hard" is currently screening in cinemas. 

 

All photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox