You can’t keep a good man or in the case of Hollywood franchise down. A Good Day to Die Hard is the 4th installment in the popular action franchise. The DigitalHD version is now available for download through your favorite download services (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Cinemanow, etc.) – a good two weeks ahead of its June 4th, Blu-ray release. Fox Home Video provided a digital code so I can take a gander on iTunes.
The HD encode looked flawless and the Dolby digital surround worked brilliantly. The purchase comes with iTunes extra and includes 7 deleted scenes. While I will probably never give up Blu-ray and physical media, I do love building my digital library. The Digital download is $14.95 vs. $25 for a Blu-ray/Digital copy version.
This time out the Die Hard franchise takes us to mother Russia as Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is out to help his estranged son Jack (Jai Courtney). Seems like Jack has gotten himself put into a Russian prison for working for notorious Russian drug dealer, Komarav (Sebastian Koch).
Irish Director John Moore, best known for the lackluster Max Payne and The Omen remake, does a nice job setting the tone and pacing of this movie. His action scenes are fairly straightforward, if not a bit pedestrian and are paint by the numbers, but it is Bruce Willis in a Die Hard movie, so a lot is forgiven. There are some nice sequences but no real stand out holy crap moments. The weird mixture of green lighting and gray overtones makes the movie look duller and lack any pop.
I have the same issue with this film that I’ve had with every Die Hard since the 2nd one. John McClane is a freaking HERO and I’m tired of seeing him being treated like crap by everyone that knows him. Watching Jack treating his dad like crap, for no apparent reason gets tedious real fast. At some point it would be nice to see a Die Hard film where John McClane starts off in a good place. Writers Skip Woods, and Roderick Thorp do a decent job on the script. There are some nice moments between McClane and Kamorav.
Being part of the Die Hard legacy, this movie has a lot to live up to. In some ways a lot is forgiven because of the love that I have for this franchise on the other hand I found myself wishing this wasn’t a Die Hard movie because it simply doesn’t compare. No Die Hard movie can live up to the first two or three, but I appreciate the effort,
Final Grade B-