It’s pretty hard to fall asleep in an IMAX theatre. A film would have to have potent soporific effects to override the teeth rattling thunder of the sound system. Step forward A Good Day to Die Hard, a film so dull and witless that it nearly sent me into an afternoon nap despite the constant kabooms.
Moving further and further away from what made Die Hard so much fun, this time we find John McClane heading to Russia to re-unite with his son Jack (Jai Courtney), who seems to have fallen foul of the Russian justice system. Actually, Jack is an undercover CIA Agent, involved in a mission to rescue a political prisoner named Komarov from police custody (played by Sebastian Koch, who deserves to be doing better work than this). McClane arrives in the country just in time to wreck the mission and half of Moscow.
Director John Moore (who gave us the surprisingly passable Omen remake) is at the helm of the destruction and his ship soon runs way off course as he bombards the screen with incoherent action. A standard issue motorway chase gives way to some uninspired indoor gun toting, before a tired climax in an abandoned facility in Chernobyl. It’s all been done to death and much better.
But then, Die Hard is really all about John McClane isn’t it? Well, even the immortal Mr. Willis has started to look decidedly sleepy. As he’s gotten older McClane seems not only to have lost his hair but also his way with a one-liner. The script’s attempts at humour fall into two equally tedious camps; jokes aimed at the fact that McClane is a bit old for this carry on and jokes based on the fact that the New Yorker is a fish out of water in Russia. Neither manage to raise so much as a chuckle. In fact, as we limp into the fifth instalment for McClane as a character, there is little left of the funny, charming everyday action hero that began the series. In short, he’s turned into a bit of a jerk. As he lays waste to entire city blocks of Moscow, I was praying for some harsh Soviet justice to rain down on his bald bonce.
I have a feeling that nobody will think much of A Good Day to Die Hard and yet a sixth installment has already been confirmed. If only McClane would take the advice of the film’s name.