The "Die Hard" series has never been noted for realism, but there used to be an actual connection to the physical world that helped us digest some of the silliest of antics. In the fifth entry, "A Good Day to Die Hard," we're treated to a mess of explosions, uninspired catch phrases and plot turns that are not only fairly predictable but laughable, leaving us with franchise that is clearly running out of gas. While Bruce Willis' John McClane is still somewhat easy to root for, "A Good Day to Die Hard" feels like an old band getting together for one last show, only to realize they've forgotten their lyrics and lost touch with what brought them together in the first place.
Like many action superheroes that have their glory years behind them, John McClane spends his latter years trying to figure out what exactly went wrong with his life. Sure, he may have saved thousands of people from being blown up multiple times and single-handedly taken down some of the most vicious killers in history, but that doesn't mean he's entitled to a family life filled with barbeques and comforting normality. Instead, he has a son he hasn't been in touch with in years and an ex-wife he was never able to get back together with. McClane is in need of some bad guys to kill and fast.
Luckily for McClane, and us, his attention is soon turned to his son Jack (Jai Courtney), who is imprisoned in Russia in the aftermath of an assassination. Not one to sit around twiddling his thumbs, McClane flies over to Russia to see what he can do. But before he gets a chance to do much good, an explosion at the courthouse springs a terrorist plot into action, putting McClane in a situation he feels very much at home in. With his son freed in the aftermath of the explosion, McClane only has a little time to bond before they have to start foiling the plot.
Deciding who's behind the plot, however, seems to be a bit of a problem for the recently reunited McClanes - not that it actually matters. Though the screenplay offers a couple different potential villains pulling the strings, "A Good Day to Die Hard" is shrewdly concocted to bring the McClanes from one explosion and/or gunfight to the next, leaving us with little room to actually care about the sinister motivations, or the father-son bond the movie is built around.
We've already established that John is remarkably talented at killing superbly skilled bad guys, and "A Good Day to Die Hard" shows that his freakish talent has been passed on to Jack. If you're in need of a father-son tandem to take down a crazy Russian looking to utilize several billion dollars of weapons-grade plutonium, the McClanes have you covered.
As John and Jack hurdle from one unlikely scenario to the next, director John Moore fills the screen with as many explosions and excitement as he can conjure, but the elements of the story are so overused at this point that it's nearly impossible to get truly drawn into the action. Any action movie these days can drum up at least a little bit of enthusiasm with a few clever action scenarios, and "A Good Day to Die Hard" has several, though we never feel like we're on the ground floor with McClane the way we were in his earlier adventures.
When he was crawling around in an air duct trying to outwit bad guys in the original, we truly felt that he was the only thing in between a bunch of innocent people and a ruthless villain. By the time everything truly hits the fan in "A Good Day to Die Hard," it almost feels like we're simply waiting to get through the explosions and chaos so McClane can get to the catch phrases he loves so much. This is the same thing that plagued the latter Pierce Brosnan Bond movies as well, and it's an easy way to turn a beloved action hero into a cartoon.
Like many of the least inspiring action movies of the day, though, one of the biggest faults of "A Good Day to Die Hard" is a lackluster villain who stands very poorly in the shadows of his predecessors. In a franchise that gave us Alan Rickman's deliciously evil Hans Gruber 25 years ago, we expect nothing short of a brilliant sociopath with a plan so good that it's difficult to imagine how McClane will succeed. Even Gruber's brother, played by Jeremy Irons in "Die Hard with a Vengeance," was a mastermind armed with an ingenious plot and a real reason to hate McClane, creating the perfect counterpoint to our invincible superhero.
This time, though, the script attempts to be too clever for its own good, relying on absurd plot twists to mask the true villain instead of putting him in plain sight. Sure, there may be a moment in which you're surprised as to which character turns out to be the most villainous, but it's a shallow payoff that only stands to point out how far the series has fallen.
As we've seen again and again, we love our action superheroes so much that we never want them to quit, and John McClane has been one our best. Even with a few blemishes, the original trilogy is filled with enough clever villains and entertaining side characters to allow us to get sucked in by the outlandish action. Even "Live Free or Die Hard" seemed to have enough enthusiasm left over to make it worthwhile for action fans. Though there could still be another good movie featuring Willis as McClane, "A Good Day to Die Hard" makes it difficult to imagine.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.