There are a lot of people out there that debate frequently the best 80’s action star. My vote goes to a late entry in 1988, Bruce Willis. He wasn’t all beefed up like Arnold or Stallone. He looked like an ordinary guy with extraordinary talents which made him more believable in my eyes.
‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ starts in Russia with news reports about a man named Komarov and a man named Chagarin. We see Komarov in a prison getting a visit from Chagarin where Chagarin is asking Komarov for a file. He declines and we are moved to a nightclub where we finally get to see Jack McClane for the first time. He walks right into a club and up to a man and tells him that Komarov says hello and shoots the guy dead.
John is at a shooting range where he is given information from a fellow officer. The info you find out is about his son being held in Russia for murder. Lucy, his daughter, takes him to the airport to catch a flight to Russia so that he can see his son hopefully before he goes to prison for life. About the same time John shows up in Russia, the trial has started for Jack. He’s able to see him right before he goes in and notices some suspicious vehicles driving around. He goes to investigate and an explosion happens right by the courtroom and frees Jack and Komarov. They all escape only to have Komarov captured by the same group that had been chasing them the whole time. The McClane's use everything in their arsenal to find Komarov and find out who is really behind everything.
Since ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, I’ve felt the series went to big with everything and lost track of what made McClane. Sure they have to compete with all other action movies but that’s what made John McClane John McClane. Like I said, he was an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. This new movie is just as good as the last one but not as good as the first three movies.
I do like that they waited awhile with the movies so that we now get to see his kids all grown up. Lucy was the in the last movie played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She is in this movie at the start and the end and we finally get to see Jack played by Jai Courtney. Jai was in ‘Jack Reacher’ last year with Tom Cruise. You can read my review for that by clicking here. He did a great job as Jack and Sebastian Koch did a good job as Komarov.
Nobody had a stand out performance, unlike the first three movies. The ‘Die Hard’ franchise has turned into your typical action series now and it’s sad. I’m still going to keep seeing them and hoping that it finally gets back to its roots but I’m thinking it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was a good action movie and if you liked the last one, you’ll like this one. I just wish McClane was back to being McClane and not what the studio has turned him out to be where we are all just waiting to see what crazy stunt he’s going to do while we wait for him to say his catch phrase.
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