by Joe Frias
Audience Age/Rating: Rated R for violence and language
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: John Moore
A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth movie in the beloved Die Hard series. Bruce Willis once again takes the role of John McClane, the main protagonist. However, this movie seems to fall short of expectations compared to the previous four movies.
In this movie, John McClane (Willis) learns that his son Jack (Courtney), whom he hasn’t spoken to in years, has been arrested for killing someone. McClane also learns that his son is a highly trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapon heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.
For starters, the movie has no big stars, other than Bruce Willis, which is unlike all the other movies. The Die Hard series has featured the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, among others. Also, this is the first Die Hard movie not to take place in the US. This one takes place in Russia.
One of the bigger problems I have had with this movie is major plot holes. In one scene, McClane and his son survive a gas explosion, unscathed, merely by ducking behind some stone pillars. Also, the enemies had all this high tech equipment and armor while John and Jack McClane were in just everyday clothes.
At one point, the father-son duo go to Chernobyl. The director could have used this famous setting to create a sense of eeriness. Chernobyl is home to the worst nuclear disaster in history. When I was watching this movie, to me it didn’t feel like that was Chernobyl. Chernobyl today is still largely off-limits, not to mention extremely dangerous, and I didn’t get that dangerous feeling in the film. The characters could have gotten radiation poisoning, and I feel that they really missed out on a great opportunity by not putting something of that nature into the film, especially since the protagonists are just walking around in shirt and pants while the antagonists have high tech equipment and armor, as I said above.
With that being said, this movie has great action scenes. With explosions, shots being fired, and high speed car chases, this movie will not keep you bored. And for a little trivia about the movie, this is the fourth of the five movies to feature an exploding helicopter. All five, however, have an exploding aircraft.
If you are a fan of the series, or if you like a good action movie, I do recommend going to see this movie. However, do not expect to see a great Die Hard film.