As a big fan of the Die Hard series I went into A Good Day to Die Hard expecting to have a good time. I consider Die Hard to be one of my all time favorite movies, and I have enjoyed all of the subsequent sequels, that is until A Good Day to Die Hard. Simply put A Good Day to Die Hard just does not feel like a Die Hard movie. As I was sitting in the theater watching the movie I kept thinking to myself that something felt off, something was wrong. The glue that connects all of the Die Hard movies is Bruce Willis’ performance as John McClane. The John McClane of the previous Die Hard films has always been a police officer that somehow is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Trouble seems to find him, he does not seek it out. As a police officer he is out to protect the innocent, and to do that he often puts himself in harms way. And finally in true John McClane fashion he uses humorous banter to ease tension, and to trash talk the villains. While the John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard appears to be a different character. Here his actions seem to put others in harms way, he forces himself into the action, and even his trash talking banter felt off (during the action he repeatedly yells at the villains that he is on vacation, though he is in Russia to help his estranged son who has been accused on murder). He is still capable of killing terrorists with the best of them, its just that this time the fun was not there.
Another hallmark of the Die Hard movies has been the memorable villains. Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber from Die Hard is one of the greatest film villains of all time, up there with Darth Vader, the Wicked Witch, and Hannibal Lecter. William Sadler (Die Hard 2: Die Harder), Jeremy Irons (Die Hard with a Vengeance), and Timothy Olyphant (Live Free Or Die Hard) all made for good Die Hard villains. While watching the movie you wanted to see them on screen because they presented John McClane with an opponent that would challenge him, and you were never certain that the hero would survive. A Good Day to Die Hard‘s villains were forgettable, and were not given enough screen time to make me care about what they were after or to ever fear that they could actually hurt the heroes.
The movie is not all bad, it does have some entertaining action set pieces, however I was expecting so much more from it. If you are looking to see a good Die Hard movie just go and watch Die Hard (5 popcorn buckets), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (4 popcorn buckets), Die Hard With a Vengeance (4 1/2 popcorn buckets), or even Live Free Or Die Hard (3 1/2 popcorn buckets). While A Good Day to Die Hard gets 2 1/2 popcorn out of 5.
