A Good Day to Die Hard

Stars: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Sergei Kolesnikov & Yahiya Snigir 

Synopsis: A concerned John McClane travels to Russia to find and help his seemingly wayward son, only to reveal his son is an undercover CIA agent attempting to uncover a nuclear arms deal.

Bruce Willis is getting old, and it is starting to show in this movie. The story was pretty reasonable, and the action, albeit a little far-fetched in places (John McClane driving a Mercedes G-Wagon across the roofs of cars in pursuit of the bad guys) was in my opinion keeping up with the gunfights and explosions we're used to in the past 25 years of Die Hard movies.

The producers seem to have returned to the no holds barred violence, the blood and guts and language that the first film had. As a result, this film has gone back to a 16LV age restriction. Quite a few "Die Hard" one-liners have returned as well, and true Die Hard fans will be pleased to hear that "Yippie ki yay, motherf***er" is back.

Bruce Willis still performs quite well in his lead role, but I feel he was a bit overshadowed by his son, Jack McClane, portrayed by Jai Courtney. Being an undercover CIA agent, he has all the fighting and guns skills one would come to expect from years of training in the United States secret service, although he is no Jason Bourne. Sebastian Koch plays the role of Yuri Komarov, a previous nuclear expert working at Chernobyl, imprisoned by corrupt government official Viktor Chagarin (portrayed by Sergei Kolesnikov) who is demanding the handover of top secret files which can incriminate Chagarin. The alternative is an unfair trial for Komarov, who chooses to testify against Chagarin. Also along for the ride is Yuri Komarov's daughter, Irina, played by Yahiya Snigir who is used as bait to lure Komarov into revealing the location of the hidden files.

It was nice to see a decent action film again. John McClane rebuilds his relationship with his wayward son, much like Indiana and Henry Jones from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I liked how McClane toyed with his sons pride after the bad guys escaped: "Yeah, lets just put a Bandaid on, go home and let them get away with it." There is a reference to McClane's antics from the first Die Hard; his son jokingly commenting he could have also wiped out a whole building full of terrorists.

All in all, it was an entertaining romp, good to rewatch on a Saturday afternoon with some popcorn. Overall I rate the film 6/10.

A Good Day To Die Hard is now showing in cinemas countrywide

View the trailer here.