A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

February, 2013

I did not expect much from this movie, the fifth in the Die Hard Series, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I went because I like Bruce Willis.  I like him as an actor and I like him as a person, at least as the person we get to see when he is interviewed on talk shows.

So it was like visiting with an old friend.  Not at his best, but still a friend.

As for the movie, this is not a Die Hard movie.  The franchise has gone the way of James Bond films which are no longer James Bond films.  Since Sean Connery and Roger Moore played 007 there has been a list of transitory actors in the role who come and go.  None has any connection to the real 007. 

Barbara Broccoli inherited the production business and Bond properties from her father Albert “Cubbie” Broccoli, but James Bond no longer exists.

But this is a Die Hard review.  The difference is that Bruce Willis still plays John McClane.  But this film for some reason, perhaps economic, is set and shot overseas, in Russia, Hungary and wherever.  Very unlikely that John McClane would go to Russia even to visit his son, which is the setup. 

Too much mayhem, too loud, nothing resembling a plot.  The first two - maybe four - had plots and were consistent with the character.  This one doesn’t and isn’t.

I could go into the acting and directing and trouble-shoot the story line, but why bother.  If you like Bruce, you will probably want to see A Good Day to Die Hard.  If you don’t really, really, really like Bruce, save your twelve bucks or give them to a homeless guy in the street. 

I just hope he doesn’t make any more.