A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD
US, 2013, 98 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch.
Directed by John Moore.
It’s Die Hard 5 – and a reminder that it is now twenty five years since Bruce Willis had a hit with the original action drama that led to a franchise. While he looks a bit older and has less hair than he used to, Bruce Willis seems much the same. He flares into action whether he really knows what’s going on or not. He still has that wry smile and can deliver an ironic line or two when the script offers him one.
Apart from that, this one has a plot which is farthest-fetched, both implausible and, for survival, most improbable.
The setting is Moscow (though most of the film was shot in Hungary) where Bruce’s son, John Mc Clane Jr, is in more than a spot of trouble, in gaol and about to go into court. (He is played by Australian, Jai Courtney, a bit of a stolid young man.) Bruce hears about it and is on the next plane to Moscow to rescue his boy whom he has not spoken to for years. (There is a daughter who lovingly bosses her father about.)
But, what Bruce doesn’t know, and we do, is that his son is a CIA operative and is in the middle of an operation to rescue a Russian oligarch/scientist from prison where his former friend and now rival-enemy wants him to stay.
Within about ten minutes we have a car chase, through Moscow’s main streets, highways and side roads, that must have been a bid for the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest number of cars crashed, smashed and trashed in a twenty minute sequence. While watching in disbelief at the most reckless driving you might see, it seemed umpteen cars were destroyed – but then you lose count.
After a couple of respites, there is a huge twist and a climax with a helicopter on top of a building that is pretty belief-defying as well, more smashes and deaths all round – except for John and John Jr who are now reconciled. Nothing, says Bruce, that a father won’t do for his son.
We see quite a bit of Moscow. We see plenty of shooting – and more. We see Bruce, not yet 60, though close, so why can’t he do all these stunts. And that is where that 98 minutes went.
1. Another Die Hard episode? 25 years since the first? Bruce Willis over 25 years in this kind of action? In this kind of trouble? Tough action show? A franchise?
2. Bruce Willis, in his fifties, still tough, still active, his police work, workaholic, his skills? The audience discovering his family? His concerned daughter and her bossing him around? The discovery of his son? The contrast between father and son?
3. The Moscow locations, filmed in Hungary, the use of locations, buildings, streets, overpasses? The new and the old? The warehouses and storehouses outside Moscow? Rousing score?
4. The situation with Viktor, the BBC News, his visiting the prison, threatening Yuri, owning the people in the court?
5. The CIA, the contacts, strategies, safe houses? The scenes at Langley?
6. Mc Clane receiving the information about his son, in gaol, the son offering to testify in court?
7. Mc Clane going to Moscow, the flight, arrival, the taxi, the repartee about New York, the taxi driver singing New York, New York and not charging any money? The traffic jam, and the later scenes on the streets with traffic?
8. The court, Jack in the glass case next to Viktor, his sign, the group attacking the court, the explosions of the cars in the streets, the attack, Jack helping victim to escape? Mc Clane and his watching, bewildered, seeing his son, wanting to talk to him, delaying the escape?
9. The flamboyance of the chase sequences? Reckless driving? Crashing and smashing?
10. Yuri, his character, his past, the escape, the issue of the file, Viktor wanting it? Yuri and his contact with his daughter? Setting up the meeting?
11. Ivan, the guns, the henchmen, his mockery, his talk about being a dancer, the two Mc Clanes turning the tables on him? The shootout?
12. Viktor, his daughter, being taken in the helicopter, his daughter’s seeming to turn against him, the truth, her being in charge of the operation, the death of Ivan?
13. The two Mc Clanes escaping, catching up with Viktor, the confrontations, Viktor pretending that he was ill, turning on them? The helicopter, the daughter in the helicopter?
14. The flamboyant action sequences on the top of the roof, with the helicopter, smashing the building, the crashing? The two leaping from the roof, and surviving?
15. The father and son talks, the sons resentment towards his father, overworking, being absent, overhearing him talking to Yuri? Their working together, saving each other? The final reconciliation, the return home, the daughter there to meet them? Happy ever after, until next time?
