A Good Day To Die Hard - AKA Die Hard 5

Yippee-Ki-Yay! Sorry, couldn't resist. But it is that time again, as Sky Movies recently reminded us, for Bruce Willis to get well and truly back into John McClane mode once more in A Good Day To Die Hard. Die Hard 5 to you and me. You'd think, after five films spanning over 20 years, we'd grow rather tired of Willis saving the world and killing bad guys in ridiculously-action packed, tongue-in-cheek, uncouth, bloody, and unabashed fashion. Yet no, there was clearly call for it, and the Die Hard franchise delivered yet again.

Though a core premise, and selling point, of this film is that Bruce Willis is now teamed up with his young son, leading to twice the McClane action, there is never any doubt at all that Bruce Willis is the star of the show. He may be getting slightly long in the tooth. but he can still shoot, kick ass and quip with the best of them. Indeed, not only an action hero, Willis comes out with a few choice lines that are properly funny, in displaying John McClane's dry and acerbic wit. Regardless of whatever complaints you might have about lack of originality, thin story, and drawn out franchises (all of which could be perfectly valid) it is pretty much an established fact that Bruce Willis makes any Die Hard film, as he does this one. And it's a good thing too, because without him, you'd have a clear pass to pick as many holes out of Die Hard 5 as you liked, which wouldn't really be difficult.

McClane's counterpart, and other half of his action flick double act, in this one is his son John, played by Jai Courtney. If Jai Courtney was hoping to live up to the McClane/Die Hard legacy (maybe even secretly hoping to take over from Willis and inherit the franchise) then I think he'd be severely dissapointed given his performance in this film. Yes, he held is own action wise but mostly that's about it for the positives. By and large it was a case of no, no and no again. From the off, John McClane is portrayed as a rebellious son, who is scarred by daddy issues, who is also a career-driven CIA man trying to prove himself on a mission in Russia, who also has a heart and sense of honour, and who is also missing his family and father secretly. Quite a lot to weave into a character, and not at any point did I believe in it at all. I think either Jai Courtney may possibly have been too concerned with trying to look impressive and matching Willis on screen (a poor move in my view) or else might have been trying to compress too much drama into scenes that didn't call for it. So much so that inevitably his attempt at being a "hard ass" left me completely lacking in faith, and at times left me in states of frustration at this young upstart they had paired with Bruce Willis.

I mentioned Russia there, as that is another important facet to Die Hard - as the action is moved Soviet side, and the madness ensues. Whist an intriguing concept, I don't really feel this worked either. Not that location is massively important with a film of this type, but it does present a problem when various Russian clichés start crawling out of the woodwork and into the plot. Not only that but we have various Russian villain archetypes that, whilst perhaps being more of a staple, are as believable and attention-grabbing as Courtney (including "Russian gangster" and "Russian nuclear physicist").

One character to emerge out of the Russian set up however, was Irina Komarov, played by actress/model Yuliya Snigir. Her character provided enough twists to warrant her time on screen, otherwise we'd be lumbered with an attractive woman who would apparently be there just for the sake of aesthetics. Another character who made a welcome return was Lucy McClane, an established part of Die Hard mythology, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She was a popular success previously in Die Hard 4, so I was surprised her scenes were cut down to a minimum of basically one at the end and one at the beginning.

Other points to make? Well the action was fairly spectacular (despite some several laugh out loud moments, a rare occurrence for me, at how ridiculous it did seem) the music was good, and there were some well shot slow-mo sequences. But really, a broadly and poorly conceived cast lacking in watch-ability and believable moments (save Bruce Willis) plus a story and concept that was pushing it even for Die Hard standards, in my view renders Die Hard 5 a distracting hour or so into escapism at best. This was another film of 2013 I regretted not seeing in cinemas, but now I am thoroughly glad I didn't, as I think I'd be a bit miffed if I had.