A Good Day to Die Hard
A Good Day To Die Hard
The awkwardly titled A Good Day To Die Hard (what the fuck is that supposed to mean?) – the fifth film in the long-running Die Hard action series, is a good primer on the unfortunate change in the state of the art of action films in the 25 years since the classic original.
In this post-Expendibles world, a whole series of former 80s action stars are trying to prove they can kick ass and mow down assorted bad guys and innocent bystanders in record, gonzo numbers. All the biggest names in 80s action are getting their steroids and botox and trying to reclaim the action mantle from upstarts like Jason Statham, The Rock and Vin Diesel. In just the past month, comeback vehicles from Sylvester Stallone (A Bullet To the Head) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand) arrived with great fanfare and were met with audience apathy.
So, right on the heels of getting his best movie role in at least a decade with Looper, it isn’t shocking that Bruce Willis would want to again check in on the character that turned him into an action hero, NY cop and reluctant hero John McClane.
However, sadly, this isn’t the same John McClane you remember.
The worst part about John McClane in the new millennium is that the dude is completely un-killable. You can tie him to a car with an atomic bomb in the trunk, drop him off a skyscraper falling to the ground through a hail of machine gun fire and he’ll pop up barely breathing heavily, with a slight limp, a single trickle of blood on his forehead and a snarky quip. The dude is titanium.