A Good Day To Die Hard

A Good Day to Die Hard – John McClane travels to Russia to find his seemingly wayward son. They soon find themselves having to feed off of each other’s strengths as their situation gets more and more dangerous whilst they try to protect a Russian prisoner who holds valuable information.

A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) – Director: John Moore

Rating: 12

Running Length: 97 mins

Starring: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch

Genre: Action

REVIEW: A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

We are big fans of action movies and greatly enjoyed the first three movie in the Die Hard franchise (the first, in particular, we hold in very high regard indeed). We admit we were disappointed with Die Hard 4.0 (released under the much snazzier title of ‘Live Free And Die Hard’ in the U.S.). However, it was a masterpiece compared to ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’, the fifth movie of the ‘Die Hard’ series which has come crashing into cinemas with all the grace and elegance of an elephant with arthritic knees.

The ‘normal guy action hero’ angle certainly can’t apply to McClain any more – but at least in each of the previous instalments you could argue he wanted no part of what happens but finds himself caught up in events he has to react to. The inevitable ‘protect a daughter’ take was added in Die Hard 4.0 and this is doubled down here with a hitherto unmentioned son thrown into the mix. But in ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’ it is McClain being a bull in a china shop throughout with no sense of weakness or fear or even really fatherly protection. We just lurch from one action sequence to the next and when McClain is fighting to protect a son who, portrayed by Jai Courtney, is equally square jawed, emotionless and humourless, any attempt at charm flies out the window. In the original Die Hard McClain is nearly pulled out a window by a heavy weight tied around his leg, and when he yanks his leg free he is left panting with wide and fear stoked eyes, choked at how close he just came to death. In ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’ he just brushes off the hail of bullets as if they didn’t exist.

Unfortunately the action in this movie is at least unbelievable and at most incredibly boring. The characters have no personality or charm and the ingredients that made the previous four films watchable have been completely lost. Sebastian Koch (best known for his superb performance in the German language film ‘The Lives Of Others’) added a little gravitas in his role as Kamarov, but there was little else to redeem this movie – even for action lovers.

CONTENT: IS ‘A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The first thing we feel that needs to be mentioned is the amount of bad language originating from the main characters. This movie is absolutely littered with moderate and strong language which would be more suited to a movie with a ‘15’ certificate. Strange then that, after 85 minutes of constant cursing, ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’ is oddly coy with McClane’s iconic swear laden catchphrase. Perhaps they had reached their alloted quota of swears.

The violence is rather unrealistic, however there are a few moments that children may find distressing. Towards the beginning of the movie, a courthouse is bombed. The survivors are then shot while they are groaning in pain. This is very quick but it happens twice on camera. Similarly, much later, as the movie slumps to its inevitable conclusion, a character is shot in the head at close range with no warning. Shortly after this another character is strangled at a pivotal moment, and so the strangulation is quite sustained and the character concerned is seen to be struggling against their attacker. Although the prolonged part of the choking is shown in the background and out of focus, the sound of the desperate character trying to breathe is clearly heard.

There are a few gratuitous shots of scantily clad women in one scene for no reason whatsoever other than the fact that the scene is set in a nightclub but these are brief moments which are not repeated throughout the rest of the movie.

Not long after arriving in Russia, lead character John McClane finds himself in control of (several) large vehicles whilst pursuing another very large vehicle for a drawn out chase sequence. During this sequence there are a large amount of ‘civilian’ cars that are crushed, smashed, run over, rammed into walls, and launched into the air. Although we do not see the drivers or passengers of these vehicles at all, the obvious conclusion to draw is that they are either killed or badly injured. Whilst this is going on, McClane is gleefully delivering every action movie wisecrack he can cram in as possible making the carnage rather flippantly dealt with. Ordinarily we would say ‘this is no worse than a normal action movie car chase’ which technically is true in that no gory detail is shown, but the sheer scale of the destruction and amount of time dedicated to it means we feel we should point it out for the sake of any children who tend to make the connections between car destruction and the suffering of occupants. Whether or not the booming sound effects, or sight of having crash after crash shown on-screen for so long, will be contributory factors will be down the individual child.

Throughout ‘baddies’ are shot and killed with minimal blood but a very casually high body count.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD’ FOR KIDS?

This movie has a similar level of violence to the previous four Die Hard films although the arbitrary explosions have been exponentially increased. During one such event our heroes are completely engulfed in flames, as indeed is the entire building. Fortunately for them fire appears to hold no fear and they are inexplicably able to walk away unscathed.

We are unsure what the target audience was for this movie as we feel it is too adult for younger audiences but too childishly obsessed with endless action sequences for adult audiences; it is therefore difficult to recommend an age range for it. It is likely that the bad language will be the deciding factor for most parents and we would therefore advise caution for any under 12s. Please be aware that if you do decide to watch this movie, that will be 97 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

• Violence: 4/5
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (unseen innocent bystanders who would have been killed by the carnage)
• Fear Factor: 1/5
• Sexual Content: 1/5
• Bad Language: 5/5
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other notes: Deals with themes of estranged families, explosions and more explosions.

Words by Laura Record

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