I've been a big fan of Bruce Willis since the days of
MOONLIGHTING. When he headed for the big screen I remained a fan. That being
the case each time I've heard that a new DIE HARD movie was coming out I found
myself excited to see what would happen next. I even enjoyed LIVE FREE OR DIE
HARD which many critics savaged. Unfortunately I'll have to join them this time
around with A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD.
This time around John McClane (Willis) heads for Russia when
his son Jack (Jai Courtney) is on trial for murder there. The film opens with
us learning about two political rivals, ex-business partners Komarov (Sebastian
Koch) and Chagarin. Komarov is imprisoned by his former partner who will
release him if he would only provide him with a file he hid years ago. Instead,
Komarov intends to try and speak his peace before a court, if Chagarin will
allow it to happen.
As John heads to the courthouse to help his son, his son
sits in an enclosed cell in the courtroom next to Komarov after telling the
police that he will implicate Komarov if they will lighten his sentence. That
all changes when a set of vehicles parked outside the courthouse explode and a
team intent on extricating Komarov enters guns blazing. Jack rescues Komarov
and they head to a waiting vehicle only to be stopped by John delaying Jack's
rescue.
It turns out that Jack is working for the CIA and was there
to help Komarov all along. But John has no idea and instead screws things up. A
chase through the highways of Moscow between Jack's van and the armored vehicle
in pursuit follows with John trying to catch up in a vehicle he commandeers. This
leads to a far too long chase sequence that involves more vehicles than one
would think are even available in Moscow.
In the end they escape through John's intervention, head for
a safe house and John learns what his son's job is all about. Before the happy
reunion can go any further, another team sweeps in to catch Komarov and both
McClanes must do their best to rescue him and keep him out of harms way while
trying to devise an escape plan.
More twists and turns in the plot follow with an over
abundant amount of destruction. Buildings are blown apart by high caliber
ammunition sprayed by a helicopter as well as machine gun fire aplenty. This
movie must have had a tie in with some window manufacturer as the deadly duo
either shoots out or jumps through more windows by the end of the film than are
seen in most films.
It all ends up in a final shoot out that involves the same
helicopter, hand grenades, machine guns, hand guns and more. And for some
reason the police and Russian army have no idea what is going on or any way of
even finding the criminals involved to capture them or the McClane boys. I'm
not sure but the moment that much fire power is involved or a fireball lights
up the sky you would think that would be a clue as to what is going on.
The biggest problem with the film and after the rest I know
this will sound strange, but it doesn't have enough plot. With the exception of
John going to save his son we don't get anything else until nearly 50 minutes
into the movie. And the plot line we do get feels forced and shoved together,
the final twist not even something that comes as a surprise or takes up much
story time. The movie is well made but hard to appreciate since most of it is
spent either running, driving or flying somewhere in pursuit.
I'm still a Willis fan. I'll still go back and watch the
previous films in this series. I was glad that I watched this one as a rental
because if I had paid for the DVD I would have been disappointed. As a rental
this one can be a good night's entertainment but not one that I'd want to watch
over again. If the idea was to spin off of the elder McClane to a new series of
films involving his son then they've failed. As a stand alone action flick it's
not bad but no better than a number of direct to DVD films that have come out
this year. So in the end, worth watching = yes, worth owning = no.
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