“A Good Day to Die Hard” stoops down to the abysmal category of film making that I have a new respect for its predecessor in the franchise “Live Free or Die Hard”. At least there was some effort in being coherent. John Moore’s take on this beloved action franchise is not alone bad film making but also a display of inefficiency and lack of any respect to the character this franchise created.
Bruce Willis has given sweat, blood and flesh to this series of films and here even he seems to not care of what he is outputting. Did they even glance through the screenplay by Skip Woods which has a characteristics of a slacker disrespecting the work he has been given or did they just read it during the scene and just that “well, it is too late now”? This is bad writing at best and the fact that it passed through several hands to make it thus far on to the full blown IMAX screen shows how much of a face value they attach to the franchise.
Die Hard series gets a free pass for several things because it delivers what is expected out of it and nothing more, nothing less. Or to be precise, more of blowing the heck out of every movable and immovable objects. Plus it gives Bruce Willis with his sarcastic, condescending and snarky personality that provides the sense of humour several action heroes crave for. Here there is not a single line in the entire film that has the semblance of John McLane we grew up with. Instead it comes imposed and impossible to bear moments with his son Jack McLane (Jai Courtney).
Yes, John gets his son as a side kick and of course they have to sort out their issues amongst gun fights, punches, Uranium and dumbest Russian villains. They plunder through the roads of Moscow, jump off a construction site, play with Uranium in Chernobyl and in between talk senselessly covered in mud, blood and several brutal lacerations. None of them inventive, none of them carry any kind of weight or humour whatsoever and none of them act.
“A Good Day to Die Hard” reminded me of the horrendous lines good actors had to utter in another action franchise “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and the comparison cannot be more on the same scale. Both had beloved characters running for long time now along with CGI aiding in great deal for the stunts and splendid choreography of those and both suffered from a terrible screenplay and even acting. Yet Mission Impossible survived by the way it moved through the choreography of those chase and stunt scenes. It had Tom Cruise giving everything he got physically to those that erased the ridiculousness on the other departments. It kept the momentum and kinetic energy working from start to finish with a razor thin storyline as this one yet coming out without disappointing its loyal viewers and fan base. John Moore’s film loses everything including the CGI pumped steroid boosted gun fights and explosions.
It is sad to see a great franchise wither miserably. I grew up watching this and I cannot forget how glued my whole family was watching the first Die Hard. We were in awe of McLane’s character struggling through with minimal gadgets against a band of bad guys. His force was raw and his tactics were suicidal. He kept us on the edge and kept going further in Die Harder and moderately in Die Hard with Vengeance which had its own quirks and flaws nevertheless keeping its trend going. It struggled and began to fade in Live Free or Die Hard and not it has come to die in a “A Good Day to Die Hard”.
Bruce Willis has given sweat, blood and flesh to this series of films and here even he seems to not care of what he is outputting. Did they even glance through the screenplay by Skip Woods which has a characteristics of a slacker disrespecting the work he has been given or did they just read it during the scene and just that “well, it is too late now”? This is bad writing at best and the fact that it passed through several hands to make it thus far on to the full blown IMAX screen shows how much of a face value they attach to the franchise.
Die Hard series gets a free pass for several things because it delivers what is expected out of it and nothing more, nothing less. Or to be precise, more of blowing the heck out of every movable and immovable objects. Plus it gives Bruce Willis with his sarcastic, condescending and snarky personality that provides the sense of humour several action heroes crave for. Here there is not a single line in the entire film that has the semblance of John McLane we grew up with. Instead it comes imposed and impossible to bear moments with his son Jack McLane (Jai Courtney).
Yes, John gets his son as a side kick and of course they have to sort out their issues amongst gun fights, punches, Uranium and dumbest Russian villains. They plunder through the roads of Moscow, jump off a construction site, play with Uranium in Chernobyl and in between talk senselessly covered in mud, blood and several brutal lacerations. None of them inventive, none of them carry any kind of weight or humour whatsoever and none of them act.
“A Good Day to Die Hard” reminded me of the horrendous lines good actors had to utter in another action franchise “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and the comparison cannot be more on the same scale. Both had beloved characters running for long time now along with CGI aiding in great deal for the stunts and splendid choreography of those and both suffered from a terrible screenplay and even acting. Yet Mission Impossible survived by the way it moved through the choreography of those chase and stunt scenes. It had Tom Cruise giving everything he got physically to those that erased the ridiculousness on the other departments. It kept the momentum and kinetic energy working from start to finish with a razor thin storyline as this one yet coming out without disappointing its loyal viewers and fan base. John Moore’s film loses everything including the CGI pumped steroid boosted gun fights and explosions.
It is sad to see a great franchise wither miserably. I grew up watching this and I cannot forget how glued my whole family was watching the first Die Hard. We were in awe of McLane’s character struggling through with minimal gadgets against a band of bad guys. His force was raw and his tactics were suicidal. He kept us on the edge and kept going further in Die Harder and moderately in Die Hard with Vengeance which had its own quirks and flaws nevertheless keeping its trend going. It struggled and began to fade in Live Free or Die Hard and not it has come to die in a “A Good Day to Die Hard”.
2 comments:
This review defies the Ashok method. Also, you forgot to name and criticize the 2nd unit grip.
There is no "Ashok" method for rating. If you guys decide to contrive on rating based on number of paragraphs, this is what happens! And the 2nd Unit Grip called and he wants to punch you just because for this comment and your irresponsibility in not spending the free 400$ you got.
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