‘Good Day’ lacks thrills due to poor screenplay, tired performances
Listening to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” in the background of “Die Hard” was quite symbolic, as it was nothing less than a joyous experience watching Bruce Willis shoot villains and jump off buildings. However, the same cannot be said about the fifth installment of the iconic action series, “A Good Day to Die Hard.”
This is coming from someone who considers “Die Hard” to be the greatest action movie of all time, but the only thing that needs to die here is this film series. This isn’t because the series is doomed to go downhill with continuous sequels, but because Willis is way past his prime. He may be a babe in the crib compared to the likes of Arnold Schwarzenagger and Sylvester Stallone, but with all of the sidekicks he’s been paired up with in the franchise, it just might be a testament of how old he’s getting.
But the sequels have played a significant factor into the series’ diminishing appeal over the years. Now that we’re on the fifth film, the franchise has been bumped so far down into generic action film territory that the only rush it delivers anymore comes from John McClane’s inevitable refrain, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf----r.”
Willis returns as super-cop John McClane, traveling off to Russia to help his son, Jack (Jai Courtney from Showtime’s “Spartacus”), who now works as an undercover CIA operative. Why? It doesn’t really matter because there are two basic components audiences need to know about every “Die Hard” film: Nothing is ever as it seems, and McClane will just jump through windows and explode stuff until the bad guy reveals his intentions.
Plus, it feels like the screenwriter just uses recycled plot details (referring, or course, to the father/son subplot). Jack apparently refuses to acknowledge McClane as his father because he wasn’t around for his childhood, but we all know that acceptance will enter Jack’s heart in the end. Why? Because this is basically the same parent/child subplot we have seen in “Live Free or Die Hard.” This dynamic is nothing more than a failure to add some drama to the film and only brings the film’s momentum to a screeching halt once the tension between these two reaches its climax.
The biggest “why” question I have concerns Fox’s use of such a hack director like John Moore in one of its most beloved film series. His rap sheet consists of basically unnecessary (for lack of a better word) remakes and adaptations like “Flight of the Phoenix” and “The Omen,” not to mention that terrible Mark Wahlberg video game film “Max Payne.” Moore basically strips away everything enjoyable about the franchise and pours on the excess with endless sequences of chase scenes, fireballs and assassins killing or being killed.
Moore, clearly a fan of explosion porn, has officially bolted the franchise down to the same generic quality as your regular “straight to Netflix” action film. Everything is gone, especially that sense of humanity and vulnerability that came McClane’s character in the original films. In between the action scenes of the first “Die Hard,” the action would slow down so the audience could get to know McClane; they’d see he’s just an everyday average Joe with the same personal and marital problems as everyone else.
Willis does his best to bring back his character’s snark and wit, but he isn’t even given the chance to let McClane be McClane. With action that refuses to slow down, “Good Day” just presents McClane as a simple degenerate who likes to carry a gun. Willis looks as if he’s finally bored with the role and just agreed to another movie in order to collect a paycheck.
As for Courtney, well, Justin Long was a more enjoyable sidekick in the fourth installment. An unknown in the movie industry teaming up with an action legend like Bruce Willis probably isn’t the best start to a lengthy movie career. Also, all of the family drama brought up between these two just makes you wish someone would drop a nuclear bomb on them.
There isn’t even a decent villain to pit McClane up against in this film, making me miss the greater villains like Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). In contrast to those guys, there isn’t a single brilliantly wicked villain here worth raving about. They’re all simply double-crossing Russians who look like they’re trying to impersonate Boris and Natasha from “Rocky & Bullwinkle.”
Despite all of the negatives about Moore, he has proved to be a capable action director. Though the fight scenes, car chases and explosions do lack energy, Moore does manage to keep the eccentric, if tiring, action going along smoothly. There’s one beautiful scene in the trailer: McClane and Jack fall through a damaged building alongside a mortally damaged helicopter. However, McClane may have pulled off implausible yet exhilarating stunts in the past. Moore reaches implausibility on a higher scale with McClane flying everywhere as if he’s Superman.
This isn’t a “Die Hard” film; this is just another mediocre Bruce Willis action film.