“This is what you’ve been doing, 007?” asks John McClane (Bruce Willis) who’s just discovered that his son Jack (Jai Courtney) is a CIA agent who’s deep cover has been blown while on assignment in Russia in the action film A Good Day to Die Hard.
Believing his wayward son is mixed up in all kinds of serious trouble, McClane travels to Russia to see if he can help. He quickly gets mixed up in a high-speed car chase on the freeways of Moscow while his son breaks a political prisoner out and heads to a CIA safe house. Once there, John discovers the truth about his son and the real reason for his being in Russia.
Both McClanes also discover the safe house isn’t so safe after all when the Russian mob attack, sending them back on the run without an exit strategy out of the country. So father and son have to team up and work together to take on the Russian mob and find a way back home.
Loud, ridiculous, and at times boring, A Good Day to Die Hard is without a doubt the weakest and worst addition to the film franchise. The dry humor, great stunts, smart and cunning villains, jaw-dropping action scenes, and engaging performances by Bruce Willis as New York Detective John McClane – who always happens to be at the right place at the wrong time and in way over his head – is all gone. Not even a glimmer remains in this shallow, terrible excuse for an action sequel.
The plot is uninteresting and near the end before the big showdown between the bad guys and the McClanes it becomes laughable. Bruce Willis is doing nothing more than a walk and shout-through here while occasionally trying to be funny with lines like, ‘I’m supposed to be on vacation,’ said while he’s being shot at or is in the act of jumping from an explosion. There’s zero character development with all the other characters being one-dimensional. The one attempt to make one of the supportive characters be more than they seem is both obvious and silly.
The original Die Hard film is one of the top ten best action movies ever made (yes, you can expect a top ten countdown of the best action films this summer) and this latest addition to the franchise is so awful it’s unworthy and undeserving of being a part of the Die Hard series.
GRADE: D-
A Good Day to Die Hard hits theaters on February 14, 2013 and is rated R for violence and language.
