Film review : A Good Day to Die Hard - International version (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

This 5th installment in the Die Hard film franchise is basically a live-action cartoon. Physics barely plays a role here in the chase scenes, and the shoot-out scenes, and the scenes in the final act. But if you turn your brain off, and treat it like an amusement park ride, it hits a few Die Hard spots, at least for me. They turned John McClane into a terminator Dad of sorts, there's no registering of fear or trepidation by John, or of consequence for wanton destruction in the pursuit of his son in Russia in the first act. It's crazy like that. John suffers blows injuries that should have sidelined him with broken hips and torn ACLs from the action, but I guess he's been toughened up by the first four films. The strained character interplay between son and father slowed down the film, the script hamstrung the momentum with too much vagueness. Maybe a different director could have mined the interpersonal scenes better, but there wasn't much on the page, I suspect. I'd like to have seen more of the Russian gal, they did cheat us out of stuff already shown in the trailer. Weird. I give it 2 stars or a grade of C, just for embracing the action zeitgest of today without any recriminations.

 

[Nelson Au]

I just came back from seeing this. I really had low expectations because I never let myself get too excited anymore. I agree this film wasn't as strong as the first four. McClane did feel secondary at times because they were trying to set-up the son. A lot of the car chase action and the action during the final sequence with the

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

helicopter

felt like and looked like a video game. I've never seen a direct to video sequel before, this felt sort of like one with a higher budget. With that said, I enjoyed it for what it was. A mindless action movie. I miss McTiernan's touch. Maybe when he's out of jail, he can be lured to film the 6th one.

 

[DaveF]

DH4 was, surprisingly, a lot of fun. When I saw previews for the new one, I was excited; good trailer and the hopes that it would at least match the previous one. I was disappointed then to see 15% on Rotten Tomatoes, and then read these reviews. I will be skipping this movie altogether. No need to waste time on it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

On the handful of occasions when guns weren't firing and things weren't exploding, there were bits I liked. I really liked see that after the events of the fourth film, McClane and Lucy have a healthy, real relationship. I liked that McClane mentioned commiserating with Holly about Jack's absence and what dark place he could have ended up in. I liked McClane's terrible Russian, and his rapport with the Moscow cab driver. The problem is that 98 percent of the very short runtime doesn't leave room for character moments. And the action isn't surprising enough or innovative enough to cover for the fact that there simply isn't much here. If this is the "Rocky V" of the franchise, I hope they make a Die Hard 6 so that this franchise can go out with a "Rocky Balboa". Keep Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy, bring back Bonnie Bedelia as Holly, and make the stakes small and intimate again. Maybe John gets shot on duty and he's recuperating in the hospital. Holly's in town for a business conference and ends up paying him a visit in the hospital. Meanwhile, an urbane and sophisticated tristate drug kingpin decides to target McClane for revenge. The still wounded John manages to escape the hospital, and he ends up against the drug lord's thugs on their home turf -- but it's also his home turf. With action on a human scale.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

We may have 10.5 months left in 2013, but I feel confident this will be my biggest disappointment of the year. I like all of the first four movies - even though 2-4 have flaws, they're fun. There's not one second of fun in "Good Day". It's random, incoherent and pointless. John McClane becomes a buffoon with no purpose; he bears no resemblance to the character in the first four. The son seems to exist as a potential springboard to a spinoff; he adds nothing and actually distracts, as he takes the lead too much of the time. I'm fine with "McClane sidekicks", but this time, it's John himself who feels like the secondary character. Jack comes to the fore too much of the time, and John just seems superfluous. He blunders along with little purpose or positive influence. Does the plot make the slightest amount of sense to anyone else? I couldn't name any of the non-McClane characters on a bet because they don't matter. They exist to motivate a series of loud, unengaging action scenes, none of which excite. Stuff blows up good but who cares? It all acts within a vacuum of its own idiocy, so the pyrotechnics have no impact. They just look stupid and random. I never thought I'd see a "Die Hard" that I openly hated, but "Good Day" is that film. I thought "Identity Thief" would go down as the worst movie I saw in February, but I was wrong. While that movie was completely moronic, at least I laughed a couple of times. "Good Day" lacked even the most minor pleasures - it's crap from start to finish.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

We may have 10.5 months left in 2013, but I feel confident this will be my biggest disappointment of the year.  I like all of the first four movies - even though 2-4 have flaws, they're fun. There's not one second of fun in "Good Day".  It's random, incoherent and pointless. John McClane becomes a buffoon with no purpose; he bears no resemblance to the character in the first four.  The son seems to exist as a potential springboard to a spinoff; he adds nothing and actually distracts, as he takes the lead too much of the time. I'm fine with "McClane sidekicks", but this time, it's John himself who feels like the secondary character.  Jack comes to the fore too much of the time, and John just seems superfluous.  He blunders along with little purpose or positive influence. Does the plot make the slightest amount of sense to anyone else?  I couldn't name any of the non-McClane characters on a bet because they don't matter.  They exist to motivate a series of loud, unengaging action scenes, none of which excite.  Stuff blows up good but who cares?  It all acts within a vacuum of its own idiocy, so the pyrotechnics have no impact.  They just look stupid and random. I never thought I'd see a "Die Hard" that I openly hated, but "Good Day" is that film.  I thought "Identity Thief" would go down as the worst movie I saw in February, but I was wrong.  While that movie was completely moronic, at least I laughed a couple of times.  "Good Day" lacked even the most minor pleasures - it's crap from start to finish.

Your review mirrors my thoughts to the letter. It's no exaggeration that I would rank this as one of the worst sequels to an established franchise of all time, right up there with Superman IV The Quest for Peace and JAWS 3 & 4.

 

[TheBat]

Your review mirrors my thoughts to the letter. It's no exaggeration that I would rank this as one of the worst sequels to an established franchise of all time, right up there with Superman IV The Quest for Peace and JAWS 3 & 4.

die hard 5 is bad like superman 4 and saw 3 and 4. its a shame really. I know some people are not fan of number 4. that is a much better movie then die hard 5. Jacob

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!
Your review mirrors my thoughts to the letter.
It's no exaggeration that I would rank this as one of the worst sequels to an established franchise of all time, right up there with Superman IV The Quest for Peace and JAWS 3 & 4.

Agree. I never thought I'd feel that way about a sequel to a franchise I really like - hey, I enjoyed the three "Star Wars" prequels as well as "Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", for God's sake! - but "Good Day" is complete dreck. Other than the brief shot of the lead actress in her skivvies, there's not an enjoyable moment in this stinker...

 

[TravisR]

...there's not an enjoyable moment in this stinker...

I remember chuckling at some of McClane's wisecracks. Although I guess it's telling that I can't remember even one of them four days later.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Let us all lay off JAWS: THE REVENGE as it is a camp classic that I love. It's too bad the words "Die Hard" got so many people into the theater because they would have been much better off watching the earlier Arnold movie as it was much better. Even the Stallone flick was better than this yet those two bombed.

 

[Malcolm R]

It may be a critical stinker, but according to BoxOfficeMojo it's already over $117 million worldwide in about 10 days. These films are largely made for international markets these days, not critics.

 

[Tino]

I saw it today and perhaps due to the terrible reviews, my expectations were greatly lowered. As a result, I enjoyed it for what it was...90 minutes of mindless action. All four people in my group enjoyed it. Nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews I have read. I would give it :star::star::star: out of four.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Anyone had a chance to check this out in an Atmos equipped theater? Go behind the mix with Academy Award®-nominated re-recording mixer Ron Bartlett and Dolby Atmos Mix Tech, Erin Rettig to learn how they were able to create the immersive sound environment with this behind-the-scenes cip on the Atmos mix for A Good Day to Die Hard.


HTF attended a panel with the people behind the Atmos mix on Life if Pi
Home Theater Forum previously covered Atmos technology in great detail here
A list Dolby Atmos locations can be found here.
[color=rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;]For a listing of all movies released or set to be released in Dolby Atmos, visit Dolby Atmos Movies[/color]

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich
Anyone had a chance to check this out in an Atmos equipped theater? Go behind the mix with Academy Award®-nominated re-recording mixer Ron Bartlett and Dolby Atmos Mix Tech, Erin Rettig to learn how they were able to create the immersive sound environment with this behind-the-scenes cip on the Atmos mix for A Good Day to Die Hard.


HTF attended a panel with the people behind the Atmos mix on Life if Pi
Home Theater Forum previously covered Atmos technology in great detail here
A list Dolby Atmos locations can be found here.
[color=rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;]For a listing of all movies released or set to be released in Dolby Atmos, visit Dolby Atmos Movies[/color]

Colin wasn't too impressed.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/325348/official-dolby-atmos-fans-thread#post_4039067

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford
Colin wasn't too impressed.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/325348/official-dolby-atmos-fans-thread#post_4039067

No, he wasn't. I mean, it was a good mix, but I didn't sense anything extra that the Atmos brought to it.
I'll probably try Atmos again at some point, but I'm not gonna rush out to hear it again...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Originally Posted by Tino
I saw it today and perhaps due to the terrible reviews, my expectations were greatly lowered. As a result, I enjoyed it for what it was...90 minutes of mindless action. All four people in my group enjoyed it.
Nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews I have read. I would give it out of four.

I thought my lowered expectations and my fondness for the franchise would let me enjoy it - nope!

 

[Michael Elliott]

Had this been any typical action movie then it just would have been a very, very bad one. You try to make it a DIE HARD picture and it just added a disappointment factor to it. I do wonder if this was originally just "some other action movie" but then the names were changed to fit into this series.

 

[Malcolm R]

I do wonder if this was originally just "some other action movie" but then the names were changed to fit into this series.

Isn't that how most of the Die Hard films have been made? I think most are based on material optioned by the studio, then adapted to be a Die Hard film.
[*] DH was adapted from "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorpe (first intended to be a sequel to The Detective (1968) for Frank Sinatra, then optioned as a possible sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando, before finally being adapted as Die Hard).
[*] DH2 was adapted from "58 Minutes" by Walter Wager.
[*] DH3 was adapted from a spec script by Jonathan Hensleigh, originally intended to be the next Lethal Weapon sequel.
[*] DH4 was adapted by Mark Bomback from a screenplay by David Marconi based on the article "A Farewell to Arms" by John Carlin. Marconi's screenplay was to be a separate movie called WW3.com.
[/list] Oddly enough, A Good Day to Die Hard seems to be the first original screenplay written for the franchise. Written by Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The A-Team)

 

[Michael Elliott]

I think all four of them did a much better job making those stories fit into the character and series. I know many people said parts three and four weren't "really" DIE HARD movies but I think they did a great job at putting the Willis character into those movies and making it work. It seems like this fifth one just took the original story and hired Willis. It really didn't seem like there was any attempt to fit this into the series or to build this story around the character.

 

[Jose Martinez]

Just came back from watching this turd. It's all true what they say. It's that bad. All the action scenes were dull and just bored me. Not only was the direction awful but camera work was amateurish. This definitely didn't feel like a Die Hard film. John McClane was not John McClane. Story was just plain stupid too. One thing I hated as well was the casting of his son, John Jr. (Jack). Jai Courtney does not have a face of an action hero. He has the face of a villain, as he was in Jack Reacher. However, just as in that film, he lacks any charisma. He's a one dimensional actor. I hope to never see his face on the big screen again.