TAKE 1: One Man’s Opinion
…because film is largely subjective
by Frederick William Springer III
Release Date: 14
February 2013 Runtime:
98 Minutes
Review Date: 14 April 2013 Rating: 5 (of 6)
Yippe-ki-yay! A Good
Day to Die Hard is an action-packed, popcorn flick with a soundtrack that
helps roll it along. For franchise continuity
purposes, I haven’t seen the first 3 movies in over a decade and the preceding
installment for several years so I don’t know if it holds up what they set up
but as a standalone film it does quite nicely.
Continuing with
the rolling along theme (perhaps better suited if I was going over Die Hard with a Vengeance which had “Johnny
Goes Marching On” built into its soundtrack), it’s easy to overlook some of the
discrepancies. Mainly how—the others
having well-established John McClane as a little off-balance—John assaults
civilians and partakes in grand theft auto (again, from a civilian) while in a
foreign country (Russia!) where such offences would be amplified seems like a
bit of a stretch even for him. And then
you take one of these cars and John’s driving it on the roofs of other cars
stuck in highway traffic, potentially injuring and killing a whole slew of
civilians—for all we know, those civilians were injured or killed since the movie
never touches on this again—not to mention property damage, makes it even more
ridiculous.
You also have the
scenario where the bad guys are traveling to a remote location by helicopter
while our heroes, John and his son Jake, travel by car and yet somehow the car
gets there relatively soon after the helicopter touches down doesn’t really seem
to fly. Just for a finishing touch, when
returning to the United States, you would think that after everything they’ve
been through that maybe, just maybe, Jake’s mom would be there to see him home
(as does his sister), happy that he’s alive.
I guess she could have been detained somewhere else, I don’t really
remember if the preceding installment mentioned what became of her though I
recall John and her being separated or divorced in Vengeance*, but considering the situation I’m pretty sure my mom would make damn sure she was
there.
But those little
things you can kind of overlook and gloss over with the fast pace of the movie
and the story moving along, no time to really sit and dwell on it (unless, of
course, you intend to write a review of some kind and you want to try and make
yourself remember the point so you can mention it later in your writings, haha).
*They were separated in Vengeance
and divorced in Live Free or Die.
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