Dir John Moore
Written by Skip Woods
Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Cole Hauser, Yulina Snigir, Sergei Kolesnikov
In the fifth and final Die Hard film, John McClane (Willis) travels to Russia when he learns his son Jack (Courtney), who he has not spoken to in years, has been arrested. When he arrives, all hell breaks loose with explosions, and he soon discovers his son is CIA working on a secret mission, and that is to keep billionaire Komarov alive, to take down a crooked politician Chagarin.
On par with the fourth film, with both downs and ups (for reasons I’ll go into in a moment), but still awfully silly end to what was a great first two films (even #3 which I still stand by as a good film, was not as good as #1 and #2.
The direction here is probably the worst so far, with chaotic and irratic shots and cuts, especially in the heavy (and constant) action scenes. There is some aggressive use of camera flares in some shots too, that is quite off putting. The ‘plot’ armour that John has is slightly less egregious than #4, but there are some laughable moments in what he survives here too.
The secondary characters are probably the weakest in the entire franchise too, with the most forgettable secondary cast members, the weakest villain, and most the most pointless third act ‘betrayal’.
The improvements on #4 is the screenplay, and some of the action sequences have been adjusted to the American ‘R’ rating, rather than the PG-13. The inclusions of the ‘f’ bomb, including the yipie ki ya mother… was a welcome return.
The big up was actually the relationship between John and Jack, and them getting back to what they once had. John has grown himself since the first movie, and there was what I felt to be quite organic heart in their relationship.
An okay end to the franchise, but it is still on par the weakest entry next to #4.
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