'A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD'

'A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD' (R) (1 STAR)

Written by Skip Woods
Directed by John Moore
Actors: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Cole Hauser, Yuliya Snigir

It takes skill, patience, character development and great acting to make a classic action movie. "Die Hard" is one of the best action movies I have ever seen because I cared about the characters, the action took place in an unique location and the hero was an everyman. Bruce Willis gave a star making peformance that was electric, cool and charasmatic and we rooted for him. It also had a wonderful villian, one of the best ever in Hans Gruber played by Alan Rickman. The second "Die Hard", with characters already developed, went head on with pure wall to wall action. It was like a James Bond movie that at that time was better than any Bond movie in the past decade. That was one of the best sequels ever made.

Now the third "Die Hard" I did not like for the movie was a mess and a dissapointing, overlong chore to watch wasting the great Jeremy Irons as a weakly written bad guy. The fourth "Die Hard" was a little better than the third and you see where I am going here. I don't expect the "Die Hard" sequels to be as great as the first one but at least I want to have fun as an old friend comes back to kick ass. The fifth in the series "A Good Day To Die Hard" sadly was a depressing movie going experience for me because the movie is lazy, dull, badly acted and the action is so hard to follow and the special effects so cheesy. This is one of my least favorite action movies I have ever seen and you can probably guess how many I Have seen. I never smiled, had a confused look on my face that the turned into a snarl. This is bottom feeding movie making at it's worst.

First of all the magic is clearly gone especially when Bruce Willis's line readings sound stale and his delivery is arrogant and detached. Second, we don't find out who the villain is until the last half hour of the movie because of a terrible plot twist I saw coming miles ahead. Third, director John Moore has no ideal how to frame an action movie. The action scenes are shot in close ups and I couldn't follow anything. The bad guys are wooden, Jai Courtney as John McClane's son has zero personality in this movie and the only reason I give this movie any stars is because of a beautiful Russian actress but alas she can't act. It is also amazing how cheesy this movie looks with it's special effects. The first "Die Hard" back in 1988 had a much lower budget so I am shocked that this movie's effects budget looks like it cost $10 and we are in the year 2013.

There are explosions and chases and shootouts that are shot too tight and are sloppy. There is a terrible and confusing chase in the beginning that is uninvolving, laughable and horribly planned out. The rest of the movie is shootout after shootout, explosion after explosion and I became numb and bored after a half hour. The first "Die Hard" had an unique approach and location and this movie makes no attempt to be creative or different. The interplay bewteen Courtney and Willis, father and son, is badly written and the wisecracks by Willis are lame and would be cheesy even in the 80's. The bad guys have no personality and the final helicopter explosion made me laugh at how cheesy it was and how different the stunt men looked from the stars. You see I didn't mention the plot because I coudldn't follow it and after 30 minutes I tuned out and detached myself from this turkey.

The reason I am mad is that I expected at least a competent, dumb movie that was fun like the fourth "Die Hard" and I didn't even get that. This is freaking "Die Hard"! How can you make this atrocious movie in a series that had pleased so many movie goers over the years. I disliked the third movie but at least it looked like a big budget action movie. This movie is shockingly worse than that other turkey "Bullet To the Head" by Stallone earlier this year. Schwarzeneggar (supposedly) Stallone and now Willis are coming back at an old age and insulting us with bad action movies. At least Willis could be doing character work in dramas, I mean have you seen him in the Paul Newman movie "Nobody's Fool"? I suggest he look for movies like that and like great, creative movies like "Looper". Willis has said that there is a chance he would make another "Die Hard" movie. What nerve he has after making us sit through this embarrassment hinting that he wants our money for probably another bad sequel.