FILM REVIEW: A Good Day to Die Hard

Even the meanest super agent has a father. And when that father is John McClane, things are sure to get interesting.

Just imagine you are a CIA agent on a mission and just when you have difficultly dragged your target to a van and are preparing to drive to safety, your dad shows up at the corner of the road. Oh, did I mention that the action takes place in Moscow, so it’s not like you can easily find your way around in your neck of the woods?

While not really an action movie buff, A Good Day To Die Hard was on my must-see list for several reasons. First of all, having seen all the other films in the series, it would be a full circle ending. Secondly, let’s face it, Bruce Willis as a ‘cowboy’ action movie hero fits him like a glove!

Spoiler alert! As retired police officer John McClane receives the news his estranged son is detained in Moscow, he decides to go over there and try to bring him back somehow. What he thought was a simple case of good boy gone bad turns out to be a political mess in which the CIA is involved and his son turns out to be a secret agent.

Thumbs up for Sebastian Koch who plays the devious and chameleonic Komarov and to Yuliya Snigir, who plays his daughter Irina.

The plot turns out some interesting twists and turns but other than that, A Good Day To Die Hard did not really meet expectations. In spite of over the top special effects and playing the two-heroes-against-two-villains-card, it seems it just cannot shake off ‘the sequel syndrome.’ This is a shame, because some of the Die Hard sequels were even better than the first film in the series. Not even re-echoing famous punch lines from the previous versions manages to contribute to the sense of novelty. Still, this last part still qualifies an an agreeable week-end pastime.

A Good Day to Die Hard
Directed by: John Moore
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch
On at: Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Sun Plaza, Grand Cinema Digiplex, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex, Romtelecom IMAX, The Light

Otilia Haraga