The latest installment of the Die Hard franchise came out four months back and was reviled by the critics and savaged by the cinema goers. It bombed at the box office and was universally acknowledged as the worst in the Die Hard series. After browsing through the shit storm of adverse media reports, I had decided back then I would be seeing it on my PC. Yesterday, I finally got my hands on the blue ray rip and decided to risk my sanity. I was pleasantly surprised.
The movie has a plot whose thickness would shame a wafer. Willis goes to Russia to talk to his son who has been charged with killing a person close to Russia's minister of some department at the behest of one Komarov, a billionaire dissident who has been jailed. They escape from the court during the hearing and then the movie moves on to become an 80 minute long action scene.
The acting is par for the course with Willis trying to look cool and mean mouthing "mean" one liners. However, in most scenes he looks the shadow of his past which he has become.
Jai Courtney has become the specter I have begun to fear. He was there in Jack Reacher too and his mere presence combined with a remarkable lack of acting prowess turns the viewer off like a naked photo of Adele.
John Moore takes over the director's mantle from Len Wiseman who delivered the fantastic Live Free or Die Hard. Moore does not have the pedigree to helm what is one of the biggest Hollywood franchise. But still he shoots what for me is the best chase scene I have seen in recent years (I haven't seen the last three parts of the Fast & Furious franchise). Then there is the truck-bringing-down-the-helicopter bit in the end which frankly left me with a dropped jaw.
The action scenes are the lifeline of a movie like this and they have been executed perfectly. If only the producers had invested a small fraction of the budget in the scripting stage, this would have been one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Probably, they would learn and this franchise would stage a triumphant comeback.
This was a guilty pleasure for me and I would unabashedly recommend it to action movie buffs. Watch this without any expectation. I can guarantee absolute satisfaction.
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