A Good Day to Die Hard

Ah, liked the other Die Hard films.

Even Die Hard 3.

Live Free or Die Hard was a big surprise, seeing how it was the franchise's 4th instalment and disseminated one of its best narratives.

Bearing this in mind, I was excited when I heard that A Good Day to Die Hard was being released, naively figuring that they would at least sustain Die Hard 4's momentum with another deep script packed with the expected explosive cast of supporting characters.

In other words, I completely forgot that this was Die Hard 5.

Bruce Willis still excels at playing John McClane. There weren't any moments where it seemed as if he had lost touch with the hands-on hardboiled lawperson whose gifts for instantaneously outwitting ingenious villains in the heat of the moment flexibly manifests an endearing contextual psychocorporeality.

But no single performance could have saved this film, with its brutal lines, shoddy editing, improbable scenarios (usually you try and set up an elaborate situation whose intricate details, improbable though they may be, at least cleverly conceal the improbability), and rather one-dimensional depiction of Russia.

The idea behind the script is solid. Send Mr. McClane to another country where he must contend with the wicked with the help of his son (Jai Courtney as Jack McClane) thereby quasi-globalizing his law enforcement instinct while strengthening his commitment to family.

The film's best moments see John and Jack airing their grievances while preparing for another round of improvisational hyperactivity, and its best line is "Tough to kill a McClane."

But Die Hard 5 can still be categorized with Rocky V and Star Trek V, more concerned with its image than the traditional kinetic synthesis of action, dialogue, stitch, and kitsch that produced it.

Remember the cold war? The creative forces behind Die Hard 5 sure do.

Ugh.

Live Free or Die Hard

I remember watching the first Die Hard flick as a child and instantly becoming addicted. It rivals Robocop and the Terminator for best action film and continues to deliver a strong mix of solid pounding timeless one liners and thrilling death defying situations to this day. I was slightly distraught after hearing that the fourth installment in the Die Hard series was being released since the fourth installment in a franchise is often a slipshod affair, thrown together to make a quick and careless buck at the expense of its loyal fans (Hellraiser: Bloodline, Star Trek IV, and Alien Resurrection stand as exceptions). But after viewing Live Free or Die Hard, I sit content, happy in the knowledge that director Len Wiseman (Underworld) and screenwriter Mark Bomback (The Night Caller) crafted an entertaining film that has me hoping that one day we may be fortunate enough to see Die Hard 5: I Just Want Another Cigarette.

The fourth installment in a series is often free to discover a completely new situation for its characters, one that strays from the narrative threads that closely linked the first three films/novels/texts (God Emperor of Dune for instance). Live Free or Die Hard recognizes this potential and delivers a fresh situation full of politically relevant commentary, intriguing new characters, and delicate action sequences etched on rationally chaotic backdrops. It’s another acute adventure for street wise John McClane of the NYPD. And fortunately Bruce Willis delivers the goods, discovering that crisp, charming character he's crafted for years (to which he adds a fatherly nuance that can only be described as abrasively benign).

In 1988, not possessing an intricate knowledge of computers and the internet didn't stop John McClane from outwitting Hans Gruber, but in 2007, McClane's technological illiteracy leaves him handicapped. Fortunately, hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) tags along, providing McClane with the cyber-related-know-how he needs to save the world from brilliant computer programmer Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). Gabriel has launched a Fire Sale attack on the United States which proceeds in three stages: eliminating the structures that facilitate a nation's transportation, erasing the nation’s financial records, and disengaging its utilities. The dynamic established between Willis and Long is cohesive enough to overcome Olyphant's solid but one-dimensional villainy, and their witty dialogues quaintly yet corrosively accentuates their generational and psychological fissures.

The message of the Die Hard films seem to be that life is rough and things often don't work out the way you won't them to, but, nevertheless, when you find yourself confronted with such realities, you've still gotta, what’s the phrase, keep on keeping on?

Note that the relationship between McClane and grown daughter Lucy McClane (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) provides Live Free or Die Hard with the same familial punch that gave the first two films their endearing touch, and there's a subtle reference to FBI agents Johnson and Johnson from the original. And McClane can now fly a helicopter.

Not bad.