A Good Day to Die Hard (John Moore)

[TGM]

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

Director: John Moore

imdb

[TGM]

It has its moments, such as the ridiculous chase scene that essentially becomes a monster truck rally. And Bruce Willis appears to be having a decent enough time. But otherwise, the movie just takes things too seriously. It tries to do too much, and it does so without really having much fun. It lacks the charm, fun, and simplicity that made the originals such classics. That, and a lot of the action scenes were just really disorienting, and oftentimes even boring.

That, and there were far too many slow father-son bonding moments. There's only one that seems to work, but the rest just drag the movie to a snail's pace, and there's about a good three or so of them here, and they each grow increasingly unnecessary and just last forever. So yeah, I dunno, it has its moments here and there, so I didn't hate it, but overall I'd say that this one was pretty disappointing.

[EyesWideOpen]

The two reviewers over at dvdtalk tore this film apart.

[TGM]

The two reviewers over at dvdtalk tore this film apart.

It's one of those movies where I didn't walk out hating it, but I'm sure the more it digests, the more I'll grow the loathe it.

[EyesWideOpen]

I usually check out the reviews over at dvdtalk even if it's for stuff I'm not interested in just to see if they're blown away by anything that might have slipped under my radar. One reviewer gave this zero stars. I almost never see a score that low there.

[Henry Gale]

Siiiigh. I was looking forward to seeing this even if the general reaction ended up being fairly middle-of-the-road. I mean, it's Die Hard, right?! Surely that's a perfectly non-mentally-stimulating way to kill a couple of hours at the movies this time of year, even at its worst!

But now... with these reviews... I'm just not sure I can bring myself to it.

[Kiusagi]

It has its moments, such as the ridiculous chase scene that essentially becomes a monster truck rally. And Bruce Willis appears to be having a decent enough time. But otherwise, the movie just takes things too seriously. It tries to do too much, and it does so without really having much fun. It lacks the charm, fun, and simplicity that made the originals such classics. That, and a lot of the action scenes were just really disorienting, and oftentimes even boring.

That, and there were far too many slow father-son bonding moments. There's only one that seems to work, but the rest just drag the movie to a snail's pace, and there's about a good three or so of them here, and they each grow increasingly unnecessary and just last forever. So yeah, I dunno, it has its moments here and there, so I didn't hate it, but overall I'd say that this one was pretty disappointing.

More or less what I thought. It has even less resemblance to a Die Hard movie than the fourth movie (which I liked anyway). Interesting to note that this was the first sequel whose script was written to be a Die Hard sequel. Ironically, that may have been the problem, just writing action scenes and attempting (key word) to be faithful to the series without coming up with an actual plot.

[Sxottlan]

Blah. Trailer gave away everything. Spent the whole film waiting for the one amazing shot from the trailer of the two of them falling with the chopper going down behind them.

[

Show Spoiler

Turns out that's the climatic shot of the entire damn film. It was like Tarsem suddenly stepped in to do that shot.

] It's like they had an idea for this one shot and tried to build the rest of the film around that. A good trailer makes you want to see something with what you think is all the action only to have the film spring something even better on you.

I was indifferent towards the third film. Kind of silly. Loved the other three. This was bad.

[Morris Schæffer]

Blah. Trailer gave away everything. Spent the whole film waiting for the one amazing shot from the trailer of the two of them falling with the chopper going down behind them.

[

Show Spoiler

Turns out that's the climatic shot of the entire damn film. It was like Tarsem suddenly stepped in to do that shot.

] It's like they had an idea for this one shot and tried to build the rest of the film around that. A good trailer makes you want to see something with what you think is all the action only to have the film spring something even better on you.

I was indifferent towards the third film. Kind of silly. Loved the other three. This was bad.

But two stars would still seem to indicate average.

[Dukefrukem]

Just want a yes or no answer but was the car chase that was 70 days in the making, live up to the hype?

[Skitch]

The reviews I've read tearing it apart also seem to tear apart part 4, and I like that one, so...

[Sven]

Just want a yes or no answer but was the car chase that was 70 days in the making, live up to the hype?

No. It was impressive only so far as it was loud and expensive. The narrative logic of the chase was slapdash and it's cobbled together with no real structure. Also, many people are undoubtedly dying and that is distracting.

[Kiusagi]

The car chase was more tedious than thrilling. Not only is it poorly constructed, it comes at a point where we have zero attachment to the characters involved since we really don't even know who they are, other than John McClane.

One thing I did kinda like was [

Show Spoiler

the ending showing the reunited family. It was just begging for a Bonnie Bedelia appearance, though.

]

[TGM]

Thr brief "monster truck rally" monent I alluded to was a bit fun, but otherwise, no. Lasted far too long, and it was hard to tell what was even going on the majority of the time.

[Boner M]

I've been enjoying Vishnevetsky's tweets on this one.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD: hate to be a logic Nazi, but Chernobyl is like 700 miles away from Moscow and also in a different country.

To be fair, if the movie was realistic, the "He's in Russia" scene would be followed by McClane filing out visa applications for months.

Bet all those drivers McClane crashed into walked away with some sweet dashcam videos, though.

If you're making a movie where 1/3 of the dialogue is in a particular language, it's usually a good idea to hire actors who can speak it.

"Oh, the movie's set in Russia? Let's hire a bunch of Hungarians and Germans!" #RussianGripes

[plain]

Went in knowing it would be bad, but it somehow was way worse than I expected. There were somehow two Willis age references in the first five minutes, an awful macguffin, a tap-dancing carrot eating villain, and a tattooed and bald Russian henchmen inexplicably wearing no shirt in the final 10 minutes. Not to mention the inclusion of Chernobyl for no apparent reason. So fucking bad, would like to see Hyams direct the next one.

[Morris Schæffer]

The worst one so far. The father-son moments, the humour, none of these really work. Villain is the suckiest one so far, and yet, it was so brief and action-packed that it flew by in a heartbeat. The action scenes were definitely over-edited, but I found them moderately thrilling. There were a bunch of cool shots in the finale, nothing to unseat McTiernan, or even Wiseman, but a bunch of cool bits nonetheless. I braced for the worst, and got something barely acceptable.

[Sven]

I will say that I did really like the one shot of McClane, in slow motion, careening from the tail of a helicopter, shattering through a window, and bouncing along the glass-strewn ground.

[Derek]

I will say that I did really like the one shot of McClane, in slow motion, careening from the tail of a helicopter, shattering through a window, and bouncing along the glass-strewn ground.

Where he flicked the pilot off as he went by? That was so lame, though not moreso than the rest of the movie. The father/son stuff was painful. It felt like they were cobbled together from cliched moments from a dozen other terrible movies. When I'm actually missing Justin Long, somethingg has gone very, very wrong.

[Sven]

Where he flicked the pilot off as he went by?

No. He'd been swinging from the truck danging behind the copter, then it tosses him through a building. That's the shot I mean.

[number8]

How much better would this be, tho, if Liam Neesons was also in this?

[Irish]

Don't disappoint me, Match Cut! There's gotta be somebody out there who's crazy enough to Yay!

(Has there ever been a movie on the forums that's been universally panned in the voting?)

[TGM]

(Has there ever been a movie on the forums that's been universally panned in the voting?)

Not if I have anything to say about it!

(Usually, at least. :P )

[Skitch]

Don't disappoint me, Match Cut! There's gotta be somebody out there who's crazy enough to Yay!

(Has there ever been a movie on the forums that's been universally panned in the voting?)

I'm sure it will be me.

[Derek]

No. He'd been swinging from the truck danging behind the copter, then it tosses him through a building. That's the shot I mean.

Oh, is that the shot you mean?

How much better would this be, tho, if Liam Neesons was also in this?

Liam Neesons and Bruce Willi can be brothers in Die Hard 6.