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What did you think of...A Good Day to Die Hard?

Feb. 15, 2013by: JoBlo

38%

The original DIE HARD movie is one of the best "action movies" of all-time, and certainly one of my favorite movies of all-time (action or otherwise), so we decided to spend this past week kicking all kinds of DIE HARD ass on the site, but alas, it seems as though the "pay-off" ultimtately didn't pay off as both of our reviewers didn't care much for the latest installment called A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD. You can read Chris Bumbray's review here or JimmyO's review here. Jimmy also reviewed the entire series for us earlier in the week, so if you haven't checked those reviews out yet, check them out here: DIE HARD, DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER, DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. We also asked you which "action franchise" you preferred between DIE HARD and LETHAL WEAPON and even interviewed Willis himself (see video below) as well as his son in the film, Jai Courtney, right here.

But in the end, we want to know what you thought of the film so please feel free to POST YOUR OWN REVIEW in our strike back section below (or to your MFC profile) and we'll continue to update the Rotten Tomatoes and Movie Fan Central reviews over the next few days as well.

Rotten Tomatoes: 145 reviews, avg score: 17%
Movie Fan Central : 7 reviews, avg score: 5.0/10

Extra Tidbit:	If you can come up with a humorous title for a possible DIE HARD 6 movie, CLICK HERE and post away! Winner gets the DIE HARD Blu-Ray collection.

Source:	JoBlo.com

Tags:	2013, A Good Day To Die Hard, action, Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser, Jai Courtney, John Moore, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Skip Woods, what did you think

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DeakenBlack

-1

10:16AM on 02/19/2013

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Not as bad as part 2

Or as bad as people are saying.

Longbaugh

6:02PM on 02/17/2013

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By far the worst in the series, and definitely the farthest removed from what made the original so great, but I didn't hate it. It was loud and bombastic, but I was never bored. Some of the one liners were groan-inducing, but for the most part I had a good time. The most important thing is that Bruce Willis looked like he was having a good time. The worst thing about movies like this is when the star looks bored and they're reading their lines off the back of their paycheck. Not great by any

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studboi69

11:16PM on 02/16/2013

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Definitely the worst of the Die Hards. The plot was a complete mess. It's kinda funny how they wasted so much firepower and explosives on what should have been a simple political assassination. The directing was just terrible, with all horrendous quick-cutting and shaky cam. I couldn't tell what the hell was going on with that car chase. What's with the dialogue, with McClane yelling out "Jesus!" and "I'm on vacation!" every other time. Really took me out of the movie.

> 1 Reply

pretony

11:22AM on 02/17/2013

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The Shaky Cam was VERY annoying (especially at the beginning). "I'm on vacation," was annoying too, because he wasn't even on vacation so why the heck did he keep saying it. He went there to save his son, not to go on vacation so the line didn't even make sense once...not sure why he then had to repeat it several times!!!

HarkonnenAmongYou

-1

11:08PM on 02/16/2013

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Mediocre film, unfortunately I don't think they tried all that hard with this one. The villains felt very stock and the ending was less than satisfying. 2 out of 4 stars

deathw1shzero

8:20PM on 02/16/2013

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it wasn't bad

certainly not the best one but i had a good time watching it but i was kinda disappointed cause i expected much better.Anyway it's a decent 7/10 it is what it is.

Great One

-2

6:19PM on 02/16/2013

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Tidbit

Just die already.

pretony

3:53PM on 02/16/2013

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I didn't love it but I didn't hate it...

I give it a C. At this point, my two least favorites are 2 and 5 (not sure which one I would give the title of "the worst too." I still welcome a sequel though and hope that they can recapture some magic. I thought that the first car chase scene went on WAY too long, I think there should have been more John McClane screen time (because he was great as always), and most of the plot I figured out before it unfolded. Every time they introduced a character I knew what part they were going to play. That's ok though...soooo bottom line, it wasn't as good as most of the other ones. It was kind of entertaining (although not long enough). I guess my biggest complaint is that it felt like a long movie but it was actually really short.

> 3 Replies

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BDubs

9:26AM on 02/17/2013

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I havent seen this one yet, but I feel like too much time went by between Die Hard With A Vengeance and Live Free or Die Hard, and the John McClane character felt less like John McClane, and more like Bruce Willis doing any other action movie. I do plan on seeing this though.

PS....for a little perspective, pretony thinks Teen Wolf is one of the greatest movies of all time

pretony

11:19AM on 02/17/2013

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HAHA!! Teen Wolf is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine!!!! BDubs, you bring up a good point about too much time passing. A lot of people complain that the last two don't feel like Die Hard movies and that John McClane seems to have become a superhero more than just an "everyman" I can see what they are saying but my thought process is that he was always like a Superhero. The first movie isn't "realistic" as others claim it to be. He jumps off a roof as it explodes and he crashes through a window with a fire hose wrapped around his waist (I am not complaining, I think the original Die Hard is one of the best action movies of all time), in the second one he blows up a plane, in the third one he surfs ontop of a truck through a flooded sewer, in the forth one he brings down a jet...etc

The locations get bigger, first it was a building, then an airport, then a city, then country, and then a foreign country...this progression makes sense.

Every movie has to do with him saving his family. In the first one he was saving his wife, which meant saving everybody in the building, the second one was him saving his wife from a plane, the third one (actually maybe the third one didn't follow this formula...though the "bomb" ended up being in a school that his kid could've been at), the fourth one he was saving his daughter and the 5th one he was trying to save his son.

So again, these all have a Die Hard feel to them.

As for him becoming more like a "superhero" because these dangers increase and he keeps getting away virtually unscathed. I just think of it as that the more he deals with these kinds of instances the better he gets. He always had a knack for this kind of stuff...so he just gets better and better.

After some thought, this is definitely the weakest in the series but it's still ok. This one definitely feels the least like a Die Hard movie but there are definitely Die Hard "moments" in it.

John McClane to me is a sarcastic hero. As long as he is muttering to himself, I am happy. I do agree with other people that the plot of this movie is a little generic and it should have been better...it could have been better but sadly, it wasn't.

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BDubs

7:46PM on 02/17/2013

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So if the action landscape gets larger with each movie, should we expect an outerspaced themed Die Hard with the sixth installment?

Chris Ba�os

2:43PM on 02/16/2013

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Yeah it could have been better but

I enjoyed it. It's main strength to me was to see John McClane interacting with his son. It never felt forced, although I wished Jai Courtney's character would have been better written.

ShonK

-2

12:16PM on 02/16/2013

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Tidbit

"About Time he would Die Hard" - who needs another after the last 2.

matike

7:10AM on 02/16/2013

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I thought it sucked goat dick

Citizen Carl

4:47AM on 02/16/2013

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I will agree with what most have already said. As an action movie, pretty damn entertaining. The set pieces were inventive and pretty damn cool. The first 15 minutes I was about to leave. I am not one of those pretentious assholes who has to over think every movie. I want to tune out every once in awhile but good lord, I could barely hear what anyone was saying due to the massive amount of overpowering sound fx, the shaky cam seriously got me nauseous, and I thought the dialogue would get

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Jedd the Jedi

10:11PM on 02/15/2013

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I thought it was very much a let-down. I was extremely disappointed as I was actually looking forward to it and thought the trailers looked cool, but at the end I was just bewildered, and left the theatre in kind of a daze. I guess the warning signs were there, with John Moore of Max Payne infamy directing and Skip Woods writing. What was supposed to be a straightforward story came off as confusing. Tons of shaky cam, no memorable villains, derivative evil plot, McClane's son is not annoying but he is awfully bland...it was quite a mess. It sucked all the life and spark out of the series, and it felt like one of the most iconic action heroes in recent memory had been plopped into a soulless, assembly-line action flick. It's kind of lazy to have the son be the sidekick, but even then there's lots of potential with a character like that - which is completely squandered. I can't say too much because spoilers, but there's a shot towards the end that homages one from the first Die Hard - which I thought was cool for about a second, and then realised I found it insulting. Insulting that McClane had fallen so far. And I actually liked Live Free or Die Hard!

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razgriz21

-4

8:03PM on 02/15/2013

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Servicable.

Might be because of my low expectations. It needed fleshed out villains and at least 20 extra minutes.

NeoAnakinPotter

-1

7:08PM on 02/15/2013

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The "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" of Die Hard.

It had Russians, a stupid father/son team up & lack of any plot that would be worthy of it's franchise.

Yeah. It was *THAT* bad.

OsLord

5:46PM on 02/15/2013

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It was very over-the-top and ridiculous, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Bruce and Jai were good. The action set pieces were good. Could've done without the shaky cam and it's still kinda weird that it's about 30ish minutes shorter than every other DH movie. Could've been better, but it felt more like an "adult" action movie than Live Free. I also liked the use of the original Die Hard score in there at times. I'm down for another, but hope they take their time to push forward the best

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Thedude1989

-1

5:24PM on 02/15/2013

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I actually enjoyed it. I know I will take a lot of heat for it but who cares. It was a quick to the point action movie that is continuing the family story. While it is not the best of the franchise it is much certainly better than Live Free or Die Hard. Which was a disgrace to the franchise even editing the signature catch phrase.

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pretony

11:21AM on 02/17/2013

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I think that the unrated version of Live Free or Die Hard actually feels like a Die Hard movie (the theatrical version was very disappointing!)...I think that Live Free or Die Hard (the unrated version) feels more like Die Hard than this one does.

The_Soloist

-8

5:24PM on 02/15/2013

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The film could have also been a little longer. Maybe they could have developed the characters more or at least explain what happened the last time John and Jack were together.

The_Soloist

-11

5:15PM on 02/15/2013

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After thinking about it, this film was the weakest for me in the series. At least Die Hard 4 had a great villain with Timothy Olyphant.

This film had promise, but in this one I no longer see the McClane from the first three films. He's become too invincible and when a threat poses itself to him, you really don't feel the tension you should. For an action movie I enjoyed it, for a Die Hard movie it was the weakest. I do hope they do one more and make the story and threat personal and have it

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bluetuned

-1

5:04PM on 02/15/2013

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I enjoyed the action sequences for being big and bombastic, but my god was this movie just absurd. I couldn't help but feel like the screenwriter just didn't even try to make a Die Hard film. It was like they took a bad over-the-top spy thriller and literally dropped the John McClane character out of the sky and into the middle of the action. They abandoned everything that usually defines a Die Hard film. He's not a normal guy who gets caught up in the action. He's essentially a super hero who cannot be stopped or harmed. There isn't a big mastermind villain in control throughout the film. There are about four villains of varying degrees of ridiculousness, and none of them stand out at all. McClane shows no sense of duty for somebody who is supposed to be a cop. He wantonly wreaks havoc on innocent bystanders, driving a stolen SUV over cars with passengers in them in service of a car chase that he jumped into without even knowing anything about the circumstances. It's. simply. absurd. I never thought they'd put out a film that felt MORE out of place than Die Hard 4, but they pulled it off somehow.

All of that said, I still got a kick out of it in some ways. I just had to kill any expectations of it being worthwhile as a film at all. Also, pairing Willis with Jai Courtney as his son was a nice casting job. He made a better partner than Justin Long, even if the film overall was complete nonsense.

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The_Soloist

5:19PM on 02/15/2013

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He had no sense of duty because HE WAS ON VACATION!!!!! Didn't you get that?!?!?!

JaxSmrkngRevnj

12:06AM on 02/16/2013

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The_Soloist, he was not on vacation. It was ludicrous that he kept saying that. At the beginning he was looking into his son's life, found his Russian troubles and decided to go to his trial to support him. Not on vacation. It seems as if they just filmed what they wanted with complete disregard for what they filmed before. There was no continuity. He had a sense of duty, he made the point multiple times that he was taking out the scumbags. It's what we do. All that aside, this movie sucks.

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The_Soloist

12:44AM on 02/16/2013

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Hey Jax, you do know I was being sarcastic right?

Masterdebator88

-3

4:43PM on 02/15/2013

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Worst Die Hard, possibly worst Willis movie in 20 years...

The movie sucked. I love Willis, more so than Stallone or Arnie and this was just garbage.

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AlmostFamous91

9:21PM on 02/15/2013

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Really? Was it really worse then cold light of day, surrogates, cop out or any of his direct to DVD films?

Ryan44

-1

4:39PM on 02/15/2013

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Man alive, it was dumb.

I also didn't like it and I wanted to. It was just too stupid. He is now a ridiculous superhero instead of a cop that stuff happens to. I knew what to expect, but it was just worse than I thought it could be. Bruce said "I'M ON VACATION" about 10 times to much. Nobody goes to Russia for vacation. Save your money, JimmyO's and Bumbray's reviews were right one. Do not see this pile.