Tuesday 19 February 2013

REVIEW: A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD

3/5

The St. Valentines Day Massacre.

Starring: Bruce Willis & Jai Courtney. Director: John Moore.

Yippee, ki-yay, John McLane is back yet again for the anti-Valentines day movie of February 14th. There's no love lost here inbetween the blood and bullets and even though Bruce Willis may not be able to don the string vest anymore, he still muscles up and shows he's still got the action smarts for a big, holiday blockbuster. Right in the midst of latest releases from the ageing action stars Arnie ('The Last Stand') and Sly Stallone ('Bullet To The Head'), Willis shows he's still not expendable when it comes to being THE tough guy.

The Die Hard series is classic and Valentines day is the perfectly good release date for 'A Good Day To Die Hard'. Following the updated and still fresh surprise of the fourth installment 'Live Free Or Die Hard' (which really was one of the most entertaining and best) 'A Good Day' takes Bruce's Hollywood act to Russia, which recently staged the fake explosion of the Kremlin for yet another surprise franchise return to form in Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol'. Following the fourth hit is no easy task and even though this film is more '3.0' then '4.0' it still passes the test like a good grade point average.

Still a good day to try hard could have made this film that much better. Although it is still exciting and entertaining...besides your never going to hate Bruce Willis or John McClane. The man who recently played the same man with Joesph Gordon-Levitt in the Sci-Fi action smash 'Looper' trades daughter for son as the family feuds of New York's finest cop continues overseas. After dueling with Cruise in yet another surprise hit ('Jack Reacher') Jai Courtney proves to be the perfect, Joe-Levitt style lookalike to play McClane's son and through their similarities and differences the father and son dynamic is nailed. At a boy!

Timothy Olaphant had a hard act to follow with all the classic, crazy 'Die Hard' bad-guy but he more than claimed his insane place in the series. Here our villain has an even tougher actor to follow, but between eating carrots and dancing around he seems to have it down, even if he is a bit vegetarian in comparison to those who have had beef with McClane. With aerial action and car chases with class there's a lot more than just good gun fights and funny punchlines in this film that pulls a lot of fist fights. Still with a sixth film on the cards it's time for McLane to get even tougher and prove Willis really is a 'Die Hard' when it comes to the life of this franchise. Let's see a real good day. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

No comments:

Post a Comment