A Good Day To Die Hared review: It's time to retire John McClane, Bruce!

Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney and Sebastian Koch in Die Hard 5

Before I begin, let me just voice that I am a huge fan of the Die Hard franchise. John McClane is one of my favourite action heroes, purely because he isn't one. So different to that of Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he always used to find himself stumble across the trouble rather than swaggering in blazing a machine-gun.

He's funny, old school and sometimes made mistakes, he ran out of bullets, he said the wrong thing, but that's what made him real and likeable. A hero for the everyday man.



This instalment unfortunately loses all of those qualities that made Die Hard such a brilliant set of movies. Seeing McClane travel to Russia to check up on his son, Jack only to discover that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree and Jack is actually working undercover as a CIA operative. The plot makes sense so no qualms there, but it is completely predictable from beginning-to-end. The script seemed sloppily written with the only real dialogue being snappy one-liners between father and son.

There are plenty of emotional confessions and slow-mo family montages but it all seems fake and on the surface because there is absolutely no character development. Yes, I know we all know John from the previous four movies, but we know absolute nothing of his relationship with his son, Jack and in this film it just comes across a little forced.

Moore's direction saw many of the scenes recorded on handheld shaky-cam, which ends up being very unfocussed and almost nauseating. It is evident why Moore employed this technique, to make it seem more personal and real (as at the heart of the movie, it is about family and reconnection) but what results is something that looks rushed and unprofessional.

Another thing wrong with A Good Day To Die Hard is there no real sense of a villain. I wouldn't want to spoil the plot but there is a lot of double-crossing so it is hard to keep up with who's on who's side for most of the movie. Far from Alan Rickman's believably menacing Hans Gruber, the overall umbrella villain's are teams of Russians, seemingly with their own vendettas to carry out. It can all get quite hard to keep up with!

One thing to comment on positively is the special effects and CGI. There is an awful lot of it in this film, and despite all the problems with the plot and style, the action is what keeps me from giving it a lower score. They are executed well and all the effects look very realistic.

Without a doubt the biggest downfall however is the character of John McClane. This is no detriment to Willis' portrayal. He, as ever, plays his part with humour and like-ability but there is just something missing from the usual character we have all come to love over 30 years.  It feels like you're watching The Expendables rather than the more smart, more real style expected from a Die Hard, and that is a real shame. It seems like a caricature of the movies and McClane himself shows more signs of a cliché, tough guy rather than the normal man in the unusually white vest.