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A Good Day To Die Hard begins with bad guy Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch) languishing in jail until he gives another bad guy what he wants, namely a file on some other bad guy called Chagarin (Sergey Kolesnikov). Meanwhile, bad son Jack (Jai Courtney) is in Russia bumping off bad guys in nightclubs, and John McClane (Bruce Willis) is off there to find him and calm him down, but he’s a bad Dad because he’s never been there for his son. Well, he hasn’t been there for at least 25 years since the first Die Hard film.
For one reason or another, Jack is about to testify against Yuri when they escape a courtroom ambush. So, why, before long, does Jack appear to be on the same side of Yuri? Who cares… the writers certainly didn’t.
This time round, John McClane is even more indestructible than ever. He manages to spin a truck round and flip it over a zillion times, yet climbs out without a scratch. Sure, Die Hard 4.0 did a lot of that, too, but at least it was mostly interesting. What doesn’t help is the jerky piss-poor camerawork. Many early driving scenes are speeded-up and suffer as a result, as it just looks off.
Then he drives off a bridge, similar to Die Hard wih a Vengance, and proceeds to pootle along several cars in order to get to the bad guys, never minding how much damage is caused to civilian vehicles.
There’s no sense of action, no sense of adventure, no sense of emotion, no sense of excitement. Just a load of random, badly-choreographed set pieces. You could believe the things that were happening to McClane in the first Die Hard film, you could just about believe them with Die Harder. Events stretched credibility in …Vengeance and they started to go out of the window with the last film, but this is just, without a doubt, the worst film in the series and, in addition, it’s an insult to at least the first three films.
Apart from the lack of any decent plot, John Moore’s choice to shoot film No.5 in 1.85:1, rather than the 2.35:1 scope ratio we’re normally used to in this series, makes this film feel more like a TV movie. It’s not like he’s not seen a scope ratio before. He made a decent fits of 2001’s Behind Enemy Lines, but his last directorial outing was the appalling movie version based on one of my favourite video game franchises, Max Payne. 20 Century Fox released that turkey, so why go to him to ruin another franchise?
A Good Day To Day Hard is lazy, contains cardboard cut-out baddies, it’s clumsily directed, and worst of all, boring. And Bruce moaning about being on vacation every five minutes, i.e. with the terrorists ruining it, does not a catchphrase make.
Comparing this to the theatrical version – which is also on this disc – cinemagoers watching this “extended cut” will notice that Lucy McClane (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is nowhere to be seen, yet originally she was the one driving John to the airport. Why make such an edit?
I checked out some of the key deaths and was expecting one to be seriously edited, but then saw, and without saying who it was, the victim was shot in the head, blood spraying out the other side. I expected this to get trimmed considerably. It wasn’t. So, it’s okay to blast someone in the head, right in front of the camera, in a ’12’, yet they can only say “fuck” a handful of times?! Oh, he can also say “motherfucker” in a 12-cert this time, it seemed… Well, no, it seems like they’ve just used seamless branching on the same print to go between the two versions, rather than a separate print. Perhaps they’re massively embarrassed by it.
There’s also a brief comic exchange between Jai Courtney and Sebastian Koch in a lift, while Bruce Willis is present, which… falls flat, because this was in the trailer… where a much better line was used. Why did they change it? The same lame line is used in both the theatrical and extended cuts.
In fact, it says a lot about a Die Hard film when the only memorable thing I can recall from it is when Jack stamps on John’s phone, who replies disheartenedly, “There was a two-year contract on that phone.”.
Oh, and Irina (Yuliya Snigir) (pic on page 2) is quite cute, too.
Overall, after loving most of the earlier films in the series, John Moore has made me look forward to ‘Die Hard 6’ about as much as I look forward to my next eczema flare-up.
Check out my view on the film’s cinema censorship on page 2.
But it’s not just not ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’ because of this being such a poor film.
And that reason is that, two days before the film was released in cinemas, the BBFC revealed it would be rated ’12A’. Yes, this is a version of John McClane that will be available for all children to see, of any age, as long as they’re accompanied by an adult. This is NOT what was expected from a Die Hard film. (Mark Kermode also had a lot to say on this subject, on this video. )
Back in 1990, Die Hard 2: Die Harder had cuts aplenty to get it down from an 18 to a 15, simply to put more bums on seats, a practice that has spread throughout the industry ever since. It eventually came out as an 18-certificate widescreen video, and subsequently on DVD and Blu-ray, but the cuts involved ‘smudging’ some sounds of f-words as if the microphones had distorted at the time of filming.
1995’s Die Hard With A Vengeance saw so many cuts to the violence that the infamous edits to the lift scene meant that what was left didn’t actually make sense. One minute, Bruce is standing amongst some cops and talking about the lottery, while the next minute he’s standing over a pile of dead bodies. Huh?
Only relatively recently did this version get an uncut version released on Blu-ray and DVD, but in the meantime, Fox accidentally (on purpose?) released what was basically a PG-cert version on DVD which was even more censored than the original cinema release.
In 2007, Die Hard 4.0 (aka ‘Life Free or Die Hard’, in the U.S.) appeared in a badly-censored 15-cert which not only cut out many of the f-words as well as the violence (this is the version which frequently appears on Channel 4), but also ripped apart McClane’s famous catch-phrase, so the f-word part of it was muted as he shot a gun through his own shoulder to dispatch with Timothy Olyphant as the baddie.
On DVD, you can buy the ‘Harder’ version of this film, which is how it should’ve been originally, yet the Blu-ray still remains censored, which is just stupid.*
(*Unless Fox have changed their minds with the 5-film compilation released at the same time as this title)
Surely, the barrage of complaints 20th Century Fox received about that would stop them doing it again? No.
Three days before the theatrical release, they announced that the fifth film in the franchise, A Good Day To Die Hard, would be a 12A certificate. This is pathetic, and it is the work of Fox, not the BBFC, who offered a 15-rated version to them, but as confirmed by the following…
The BBFC’s site states in the pre-cuts information:
- “During post-production, the distributor sought and was given advice on how to secure the desired classification. Following this advice, certain changes were made prior to submission.”
It goes on to say (and there are possible spoilers here):
- “A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is the fifth film in the DIE HARD action franchise starring Bruce Willis as New York City cop John McClane. In this film McClane travels to Russia and joins forces with his son to foil a nuclear weapons heist. It is rated 12A for strong language and violence.
The film contains four uses of strong language (‘f**k’) and a partial use of ‘motherf***er’, the end of which has been cut short so the implied strong language is not heard in full.
Against a backdrop of explosions, car chases and the destruction of property, there are a number of scenes featuring shootings which occasionally show brief bullet impacts, but there is no focus on blood or injury. In scenes of hand-to-hand combat we see brief punches and kicks, impressionistic rifle butt blows and an implied, but unseen, neck break. Although there are some crunchy sound effects and incidental shots of the heroes with blood on their faces and clothes, no detail of injury is shown.
A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD also includes scenes of gun threat to the head and several brief shots of knife-blades as the heroes prepare to defend themselves. There are also passing references to ‘doing drugs’ and some mild innuendo.”
Check out my look at the extras on page 3.
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and the picture can’t be faulted (only the widescreen ratio, but I’ve covered that already).
The sound is in DTS HD 7.1 and there’s explosions all over the speakers. Again, it technically delivers here, but it’s over the top.
The extras are as follows, all of which are also in HD:
- Deleted Scenes (14.28): There are 7 here, all in stereo, and none of which need to be put back in. You’d think there’d be something here that would help extend the length of the film since 97 minutes is too short for a Die Hard, but most are little set pieces that just divert from the main storyline, such that it is, or repeat plot points we already know.
- Making It Hard To Die (60.22): Well, for the effort they don’t put into the finished product, they certainly do for the extras. This is a 15-part piece that looks at many aspects: Stunts, Helicopters & Aerial, Special Effects, Motion Base, Armoury, Russia & Budapest, The Look of the Movie, Chernobyl, Camera Work, Editorial Los Angeles, Color Grading, Visual Effects, Film Scoring and a Wrap Up.
There’s talk about from key cast and crew members about how they want to make things like explosions as real as possible, rather than just relying on CGI – even though there’s a lot of that; filming scenes inside vehicles where only half of it has been made and the backgrounds are added with green screen; filming some exterior scenes in countries while using movie sets for others; and a compilation of behind-the-scenes moments.
- Anatomy of a Car Chase (26.12): A breakdown of the early car chase where Bruce is going after the bad guys.
- Two of a Kind (8.00): Expect lots of gushing from the cast and crew about how Jai Courtney makes the perfect son of McClane.
- Back in Action (7.06): A puff-piece about John McClane being ‘back in action’ on the big screen.
- The New Face of Evil (6.57): i.e. The Russians.
- Pre-Vis (11.36): Three pre-visualisation sequences here, i.e. basic-looking CGI sequences which are created prior to making the film so the director knows what he’s aiming for. All of these are 2.35:1, and it shows how it could’ve looked. In fact, these are more entertaining than the film itself!
- VFX Sequences (5.35): Creating the final visual effects sequences for 16 scenes. Therse are all obviously brief but make for a nice little addition.
- Storyboards: Taken from five scenes, there’s more storyboard sequences than you can shake a stick at…
- Concept Art Gallery: Almost 130 separate images.
- Theatrical trailers: Two of them here. One about a minute, and the other clocking in at 2:30 (below), both in 1.85:1. These are the only times you’ll hear Beethoven’s Ode To Joy. I remember seeing these with them mentioning the release date being Valentine’s Day. No good action films get released in January or February. Good action films are saved for the summer.
- Maximum McClane (3.16): Clips from the first four films, reminding us when Bruce Willis was at his best… well, for the first 3 films, anyway.
- Audio commentary: From director John Moore and first assistant director Mark Cotone. This is for the extended version only. I rarely listen to these and only skipped to the part where Mary Elizabeth Winstead was cut out, as I was curious to know about this change. They didn’t even mention her.
- Audio descriptive track: For the theatrical version only.
The menu features clips from the film playing with the incidental music playing in the background. There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired and Spanish. Meanwhile, there are a decent number of chapters with 28.
With well over two hours of extras – not including the commentary track, this is a good package… as long as you liked the film. Sadly, that’s the only duff part of it for me.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
2 10 10 8 |
| OVERALL | 8 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 97 / 101 minutes
Studio: 20th Centuy Fox Home Entertainment
Cat.no.: 5513007001
Year: 2013
Released: June 10th 2013
Chapters: 28
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 (English only), DD5.1: Spanish and French
Languages: English, Spanish and French
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: John Moore
Producers: Wyck Godfrey and Alex Young
Screenplay: Skip Woods
Music: Marco Beltrami
Cast:
John McClane: Bruce Willis
Jack McClane: Jai Courtney
Komarov: Sebastian Koch
Lucy: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Irina: Yuliya Snigir
Alik: Rasha Bukvic
Collins: Cole Hauser
Murphy: Amaury Nolasco
Chagarin: Sergey Kolesnikov
Anton: Roman Luknár
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.