I wish I could say that work is slowing down, and I'll have more time to write more blogs, but alas...
I hope that ya'll can hang with me learn to exist in a world where you only get to read my stuff once a week. :-)
Here we go...
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) R (Action/Adventure)
Starring Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, and Sebastian Koch
Overview - John McClean is back again! This time he finds out his son might be involved with the Russian underground. He goes to confront him and finds out that he's been keeping a big secret. Now father and son must embark on the adventure of their lives.
Review - Anyone else getting a little tired of seeing Bruce Willis in shoot outs and firing off witty one-liners? Me neither. I love watching Willis just be Willis. An unknowing adrenaline junkie who seems to be a beacon that every crook and henchman is drawn to like flies to poop. Tell me that every time you watch Die Hard you don't get filled with joy when he says "Yippie kai yay mother f***er!" People go on about how the second installment (the one at the airport) was the worst one, but that means they haven't seen this addition. I will state for the record that this is indeed the worst film in the series. Though I did not hate it as much as everyone else who's seen it. Though when the film winds up being a significant amount shorter than any of the others, that says something (it's only 97 minutes long). This is also the first installment that was not based on a previously written novel. Maybe it's showing us that a little plagiarism goes a long way.
Bruce Willis basically "phones it in" in this one. He is not the focal point, which bummed me out. I wanted to see more of Bruce doing his thing. But there are some serious moments of lack. There's a car chase that actually drags quite a bit. I can't say I have ever seen a car chase where I wound up checking Facebook because the chase was going too long. Oh well, can't win em all. One thing I very much did not like is that you get the feeling throughout the movie that there is a sort of "pass the torch" element. McClean is kind of handing the proverbial keys to the car to his son (Jai Courtney). I really hope that is not the case. When "The Price is Right" lost beloved host Bob Barker, I stated that I wished the show would have ended with his departure. The same goes for this. If Bruce has reached the end of his witty one-liners and his high-flying antics, then please Hollywood......retire it. If Jai Courtney wants to star in his own series, fine. Just don't fly it under the Die Hard banner.
Jai Courtney. Here's a guy who was only in a few B-roll TV shows until Christpoher McQuarrie decided to give him a shot at fame when he had him star opposite Tom Cruise in last year's "Jack Reacher". He played a mercenary who was willing to get his hands dirty for the cause of cash. In this movie he's not much different. So far we are seeing the making of a typecast. Someone whom we can count on to deliver some straight-faced action with little else. He doesn't strike me as a man who you would want to see as a Duke in the days of King Arthur, or as a loving boyfriend or husband to a distressed wife. Rather, this is a man who was bred to bring gun fights and big booms. I hope he proves me wrong. He's got the looks and the charisma to make a decent action star, but he needs to find his niche. Playing second fiddle to big actors is fine in the beginning, but he needs to try and make a name for himself, or he'll end up like Sam Worthingon ("Avatar") who pretty much burst onto the scene and then evaporated. The rest of the cast of "Die Hard Cinco" isn't even worth mentioning. The main villain is over-the-top, the villainess is barely acting, and the big twist is so predictable that they might as well have put it in the title.
Now we must cover content. My oh my. First off, let's address the fact that every Die Hard film has taken place in the good ol' USA. This time they travel to Russia. 1st mistake. Then they have a car chase that could not have possibly played out how it did. At one point a van goes off a bridge and slams into a semi and some of the guys get out of the van and run away. #2. There's a scene where Willis and Courtney jump out of a 10th story window and fall through 9 layers of scaffolding and land in a dumpster and walk away. 3rd issue. A team of villains goes to Chernobal and says the radiation is too high and bring in a tanker truck and wave a big light saber and then....it's cool. 4th! The list goes on and on. I could bore you to tears with the details, but I'll let the film do that for me. :-) They couldn't even find real Russians to be in the movie. The villains were comprised of Slovakian, Hungarian, Serbian, and Mongolian actors. The one thumbs-up I will give the director (John Moore) insisted on shooting the scene where a MI-24 helicopter is firing on the McClean boys at Szolnok Helicopter Base with live ammunition, so the scene could appear as realistic as possible. That is pretty cool.
Overall I'm giving this a 2 out of 5. I bought it for $4 at a Pawn Shop, and I do not believe it is worth more than that. I would recommend a RedBox rent, but don't go spending hard earned money on it. It's not worth $15-$20. And if you buy it in a Blueray/3D combo pack, I will punch your gramma in the nose.
Suggestions, comments, or just about anything. Email me at entertaindave@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @entertaindave.
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