A Good Day to Die Hard

Jmac:

Alright, so while I was stoked about this when it was first announced, and was still wanting to see it, I had not heard a lot of “OMGs” or “You have to go see this movie” from friends that had gone to see it in theaters. So while I still wanted to see it, I was a bit wary. This wary feeling turned out to be validated in the end.

One thing that really threw me off, was that I was expecting to see some of the scenes from the trailers..... scenes that did not show up. It could be the stupid restrictions on rental disks, and how they dont included the extended cuts, but then again if you show a scene in a trailer at least put it in the theatrical cut. The whole scene with the taxi driver was just his terrible singing and Bruce Willis attempting Russian... which came down to not be all that funny.

Another thing that I was looking for is pithy dialogue from Willis..... I saw none. We can all remember that scene from Die Hard I where Willis is in the air duct and say “Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs,” all while bleeding profusely from pretty much everywhere as he tries to fight ‘Hans Gruber...... who was Simon’s bro”. (Just a side note if you love the franchise you have to watch the Guyz Nite Die Hard Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa8_UiDfipA) Well there was none of that. No “yippie ki yay Mother***ers” even though one of the taglines for the movie was “Yippie Ki Yay Mother Russia.”

So the whole plot of the movie centers around Bruce Willis who travels to Russia because he thinks his son is a screw up and has gotten himself in jail. Once it is revealed that his son is actually a CIA agent, there are several car chases, fights with Hind helicopters, and bumbling through Pripyat, Ukraine; which some of you may know, some of you may not.... I guess i'm trying to stay away from spoilers. The movie is non-stop action which is actually a detriment to it, because as mentioned above, I think there should have been better dialogue, or at the very least a little more backstory. Just tell me why I’m supposed to hate the Russian billionaire Oligarchs.

In the end I enjoyed the movie, but was still let down because it was not the Die Hard of yester years, nor did it make any attempt to be. I will probably still purchase it when it gets cheaper just to placate my OCD need to round out genres.

I give it 3.2 khoroshos out of 5. 

Oh and since his boy, as he calls him in the movie is in the CIA, and I'm feeling lazy, its also Spy Day Friday.