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Sunday 24 February 2013

Film Review: A Good Day To Die Hard

image from the IDMB site
Went and saw the latest offering from the DIE HARD franchise on Saturday with the lovely Ishbel, who is a big fan of the movies and indeed of Mr Willis.  Me I can take or leave him although my favourites with him were the TV series Moonlighting and the movies  Hudson Hawk, The Fifth Element, Tears of the Sun and Red - but the whole ensemble cast was outstanding and funny in that last one.

Die Hard, I have been able to take or leave but did really enjoy the one set in New York with Samuel L Jackson and Jeremy Irons although the rest of the cast weren't so good but the interaction between Willis, Jackson and Irons were great, every time.  Even the first DIE HARD movie and I suspect the others too, although can't remember that much about them, was the bullet speed of the dialogue.  It was sharp, it was funny and it was brilliantly delivered.

A Good Day To DIE HARD had, like it's predecessors, lots of Boom and Bang but absolutely little in the way of dialogue and certainly not delivered with bullet speed. Nor did I think it was sharp, or funny and it was most definitely not brilliantly delivered.  It honestly seemed to me as if Mr Willis was a bit tired with the whole thing.

It opens with him in New York honing his firing skills in an underground range and being approached by a scruffy looking cop with the ubiquitous NYPD badge hanging around his neck carrying a file.  The file as it turns out is on Maclean's son who is in a Moscow jail awaiting trial on a murder charge and Maclean feeling sorry for himself as he recalls never being there for his kids, so it's all his fault.  Oh, Oh, first warning shot across the bows here then.  John Maclean feeling sorry and guilt ridden, yeah, we know he is getting older, the scruffy cop calls him grandpa (sic) and this might explain his  guilt, But FFS it's John Maclean there isn't a sorry bone in his body!

And that's another thing, you know if you follow my blogs that I don't swear a lot, not because I don't, swear like a trooper at work and where appropriate and as one of my niece's said to me a while back, Unky Tom, sometimes you just need to use a 'good Fuck' and she's right of course, some situations and dialogue just aren't the same if there isn't a 'good fuck' in there somewhere and there has been plenty of that in the past in the DIE HARD franchise and it wasn't out of place, but the best we got in this was 'Let's go and kill us some bad guys' between Mr Maclean and his wayward CIA operative son! And not a Yipee Ki Aye to be heard anywhere throughout the too long ninety seven minutes the movie was on, even when the baddy was professing his love for westerns while doing his impression of the next person to be voted of from Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars....

Oops just given a bit of the plot away, never mind.... Maclean is driven to the airport to go and help his son in Moscow, by his daughter and they are professing their undying love for each other and then he is in the back of a Taxi in a traffic jam in Moscow, outside the courtroom and then it's boom bang a bang for the next 85 minutes with pretty much drivel for dialogue and me wishing Ishbel had left me to my nap......

Apparently we can't wait for his next outing in GI Joe and @JuliaRBarret is bullying me into watching Loopers too, come on ladies 'gies a break will ya'

So from me I give it a 1 out of 5 and
Ishbel gives it a 5 out of 5




9 comments:

  1. Damn! I was hoping for a good old fashioned yippee kiyay mother f.....! Ah well. I'll wait and watch it at home.

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  2. Haaaaa! LOVE your review, and I love that you gave it 1 star and Ishbel gave it 5 stars. Heeeeee! That is hilarious. I loved the first one of this series, but sometimes you just have to let it go.

    Time now!

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  3. You're niece was right, Tom, so don't hold back; go ahead and really give "A Good Day To Die Hard" a loud and clear Fuck You.
    We have a good friend who writes spoof reviews for his alum magazine, and he wrote, "After the first DIE HARD, which was actually good, they should have given it last rites and buried it. But No, then they had to do a DIE HARD (Again and Again), and now we want Willis try DYING EASY and just crawl under a bed and suck his thumb."
    This review--and now yours--is all we need. Why is it we have to resort to sequels 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 4? Can't we just come up with some good new scripts?

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  4. This isn't Die Hard. It's just not. I choose to believe otherwise. Nice review Tom.

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  5. Thank you Penny, there are movies that we watch together that we do agree are good, but they are few and far between especially in this genre which you would Think I would LUV and Ishbel would hate

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  6. Marylin my nieces are so irreverently funny, see my comment to Jules, it really was dialogue lite where the other had fast paced funny interactions, but yes, there aren't too many repeat movie franchises that work too well but I guess when you have a blockbuster earning millions there is temptation to try and repeat it ...

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  7. Dan, thank's for stepping in and your very kind comment ...

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  8. Since I don't Twitter, I'll have to post a new message to you on this old blog. I saw on Julia's blog that you're having tests and might go to the hospital (don't you know sick people are there...and you might catch something??)
    Keep us posted, okay, dear Tom. Take care, get well soon and be back to your spunky wonderful self!
    Marylin

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  9. Marylin my sweet, sorry for my prolonged absence just been feeling a bit down recently and have been giving up on a lot including social media. I have a hospital appt scheduled for Thursday but had a great day with Mollie and Shannon went to a restaurant with them ahead of Mollie reaching double figures next Monday and Ishbel and I are booked into a Spa tomorrow morning for our 37th anniversary. So, apart from the hiatus hernia which is crippling me, but at least it's making me lose weight, at last, I am actually feeling better than I have for the last 2 months. So hopefully I will start to visit again soon Love to you my sweet and thanks for thinking about me xxxxx

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