A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

If you though Live Free or Die Hard was bad, you gotta make sure to stay the hell away from A Good Day to Die Hard, or as I like to call it, A Good Day to Forget, a dreadful action flick as well as the last entry (hopefully) of the franchise. 

After making a fool of himself in the previous film, an even older John McClane (Bruce Willis) travels to Russia to help his estranged wayward son Jack (Jai Courtney). Turns out his son was in no danger and that he's a CIA agent working undercover to protect a Russian (Sebastian Koch). And guess what, they get caught up in a terrorist plot and they must overcome their differences to save the world.

The plot of this film is like Bruce Willis's hair, non-existent, therefore I don't understand why Skip Woods, the writer, tried so hard to make it complex. None of the previous Die Hard movies had a complex plot anyway. Apparently though he didn't work so hard because the twits are so stupid you can see them coming almost immediately. To that, add the humongous amount of plot holes that make this look like Swiss cheese and the fact that this whole thing is beyond illogical. It's in moments like this that I think I'm a Vulcan.

But let's leave my alien heritage out of this and let's talk about the next horrific aspect of this film, the characters. I'm not going to spend a lot of time to point out how old Bruce Willis is to play the action guy and how indestructible John McClane has become. I'd rather focus on what a terrible character McClane's son is. He is so bland and uninteresting he made me regret saying s**t about Justin Long last week. And don't even have me started on the villain. I wouldn't know where to start since there even isn't a real villain here. There's like three villains, one worse and less interesting than the other and they make Timothy Olyphant's Thomas Gabriel looks like the greatest villain ever. Also, they are paper-thin clichés.

20th Century Fox

Then there's the family relationship, again. As if suffering that pathetic estranged father-daughter relationship wasn't enough, this time around we suffer an equally pathetic estranged father-son relationship. They are pretty much the same, they only changed the gender of the McClane kid, gave him more screen time because he's a man and made of him a terrible sidekick. Which is still better than his daughter who came off as a spoiled brat.

The comedy is gone too. A Good Day to Die Hard is indeed filled with bloody awful jokes that do nothing but fall flat.

And at last but not least there's the action. Yes, you guessed it, it's terrible just like everything else in this film. The action sequences are chaotic from start to finish and the annoying shaky camera doesn't surely help. They are beyond ridiculous but, believe it or not, that's not even the worst part. That would be how boring and unexciting the sequences are.

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Die Hard is arguably one of the best action movies ever made and has one of the best villains ever. Die Hard 2 isn't that good but it's still an entertaining flick. Die Hard with a Vengeance is a tense action movie with a good villain and an incredible sidekick. Live Free or Die Hard is the point of no-return, the moment the franchise started drowning. 

12 years after he stopped Simon Gruber, John McClane (Bruce Willis) joins forces with a young hacker (Justin Long) to take down Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), the leader of an Internet-based terrorist organization who is trying to take over America from their computers.

The plot to Die Hard movies have never been the greatest out there. They were indeed full of holes and quite illogic at times. Still, they were pretty tense and had enough elements of surprise to keep you engaged throughout the whole film. Live Free or Die Hard's plot is none of those. Instead, it is a compilation of clichés and predictable and ridiculous plot points.

The characters don't get any better, starting from John McClane, a character I used to love because he was the opposite of your typical action hero. He was a real human being. Now he's some indestructible superhuman. Also, the humour that used to be one of his strengths now is very forced and unappealing. Willis himself looks bored in this.

20th Century Fox

McClane's hacker/geek sidekick is no Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus and he's also annoying. Not to mention how terrible Justin Long is. The villain is weak, dull, forgettable and not even that clever. The henchman (played by Maggie Q) is just as terrible and it takes her so much to die that her turning out to be McClane's daughter would have made such a great twist.

On the other hand, there's the action, arguably the most important element in movies of this genre. And it's quite good. It isn't as exciting and thrilling as it was in the previous movies, and most of it is explosions, but the stunts are well staged and these sequences are rather entertaining.

The problem is that the action, although there's plenty of it, isn't enough to save this overlong and boring film. 

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Although it didn't quite live up to its predecessor, mainly because it lacked in originality and a strong villain, Die Hard 2 was a good action flick. Third entries, on the other hand, have the tendency to suck really bad and since I didn't remember anything but some bits of the plot of Die Hard with Vengeance, I was worried it was going to be terrible. Turns out it's better than Die Hard 2.

Finally not set on Christmas Eve, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is now an alcoholic and is suspended from the NYPD. But then a man calling himself "Simon" (Jeremy Irons) threatens to detonate bombs around the city unless McClane accepts to play his game. McClane obviously accepts and must join forces with Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), a Harlem shop owner who saved John's life during one of the tasks assigned to him, to stop this new threat.

And finally, in spite of the fact that the film drowns in plots holes and it's so damn illogical, Spock would kill himself over this (every single cop knows about the bomb and that doesn't leak to the journalists? Seriously? What is this, wonderland?), the plot has a good development, it's tense and its many twists and turns (some more unexpected than others) will you keep involved in the story and engaged until the end.

Very much like for Die Hard, the strength of Die Hard with a Vengeance is its characters. John McClane was no super-man in the first film, he was simply human. Then he turned into the typical action movie hero, the unbreakable man. And now he's back at being a real, flawed human. He is more grounded and a little bit darker than usual, and it works. The writers also had the brilliant idea of pairing him with Zeus, a local shop owner who is very likeable, hilarious and easy to sympathize with because he could easily be one of us. This guy doesn't have a gun, he doesn't even know how to use one, he's not trained, and has no experience with terrorists. It's just a poor guy who found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, Samuel L. Jackson gives such an entertaining performance and his chemistry with Willis is great.

20th Century Fox, Buena Vista International

The villain is good too. First of all, he ties this film with the first one and he's given a good motivation for the 'Simon Says' game he's playing with McClane. Second, he is a clever, sneaky man and Jeremy Irons does a really nice job. However, he does sound too much like Alan Rickman's Gruber.

As for the action, it is as good as it was in the previous movies, although maybe there's a little too much of it. I'm just saying this film begins with a building being blown up. Anyway, most of the sequences are fast-paced and exciting and they make for a very entertaining film.

Die Hard 2 (1990)

"How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?" John McClane asks himself a little into Die Hard 2. Well, I know the answer. It's because a successful action flick is usually doomed to become a franchise. But at least this second entry is still good. 

And still set on Christmas Eve. Only this time John McClane (Bruce Willis) is in Washington at Dulles Airport waiting for his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) to land when a group of terrorists, led by Colonel Stuart (William Sadler), takes over the landing system to have a drug lord freed. 

The plot is basically a rip-off of the original film, lacking in originality and freshness. There's also plenty of plot holes, the terrorist plot doesn't work as smoothly as it did in Die Hard and McClane's involvement in the story doesn't work very well either. I mean, he's complaining all the time about not wanting to be there and not wanting to go through that shit all over again and yet there he is, doing the same stuff. He didn't have much of a choice in the first film, but he does this day. 

In spite of all those flaws and the slower pace, the story still has a nice flow, there are some good twists and there's plenty of tension and suspense to keep you engaged. 

20th Century Fox

As for the characters, as much as I loved seeing John McClane back in action, the guy doesn't get any further development here and he was treated quite poorly. I'm not sure who is to be blamed, whether the writers or Willis, but he's too serious and when he's trying to be funny, he does it at the wrong moment and it doesn't work. And Colonel Stuart isn't much of a villain. He is just scary-ish. You can't top Alan Rickman's Gruber though. 

Anyway, Die Hard 2 still is a very entertaining and enjoyable film and the action plays a very important role in that. There's way more action than there was in the first film, it's basically everywhere, and, while most of the scenes are recycled, it's quite exciting and the sequences are well elaborated.

Die Hard (1988)

I've seen many action movies over the years, but Die Hard has a special place in my heart. Two are the reasons: it's one of the first action movies I've seen (and probably the first cop thriller as well) and it's one of the greatest I've ever seen (let's make it three since there's a young and good-looking Bruce Willis too). 

It's Christmas Eve and NYPD officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) just arrived in LA to spend the holidays with his family. While he's at his wife's company headquarters for the Christmas party, a group of terrorists take control of the building and hold everyone hostage. It's up to McClane to save them all.

The plot isn't anything new really. It's the typical (former) cop who finds himself in the right place at the right time, has to face bad people and save the hostages because the police just can't do their job. It isn't completely believable either and it has many holes and yet it never feels forced, it flows very well and thanks to its many twists, it keeps you engaged from start to finish.

Another reason the film works so well is its characters. John McClain isn't your typical action hero. In fact, he has much more depth than that. He is just an ordinary guy who finds himself in a not-so-ordinary situation. He is the kind of man who struggles in his fights against bad guys, both psychically -- Willis isn't pumped as action actors usually are (I mean, just think about Stallone or Schwarzenegger, they are monsters!) -- and mentally -- he doesn't want a fight and doesn't enjoy killing people. And the man bleeds! When someone shots him, he actually bleeds. Willis's performance as McClane is amazing. He delivers the right amount of arrogance while showing stress and fear.

20th Century Fox

Another great character in this movie is the main bad guy, terrorist leader Hans Gruber. He isn't a tough but a rather charismatic,  cold and calculating man who lets his men do most of the dirty work. He is the kind of villain you could root for. Most of the credits for that go to Alan Rickman. His performance is fantastic and he surpasses Willis.

Also worthy of a mention is McClain's wife, Holly. She isn't your typical damsel in distress. She is a quite strong, smart and feisty woman and Bonni Bedelia does a very good job.

Then, of course, there's the action. The action sequences are consistently exciting and very well directed. McTiernan's solid direction doesn't stop there though. He knows exactly how to use the locations to build tension and create the right atmosphere.