Die Hard 5 (2 Stars)

Die Hard 5, also known as A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), is the point at which the franchise finally loses its grip on what once made it special. While the first four films stretch plausibility to varying degrees, they all understand the core appeal of John McClane; a stubborn, vulnerable man surviving chaos through wit, pain and bloody-minded resilience. The fifth film forgets this almost entirely.

The most obvious problem is tone. The earlier films balance spectacle with humour and tension, allowing McClane to react to danger rather than dominate it. Here, the film embraces a generic modern action aesthetic; hyperactive editing, anonymous explosions and weightless destruction. The sense of geography that defined Nakatomi Plaza, Dulles Airport or even the internet-age Manhattan of Live Free or Die Hard is absent. Moscow becomes a blur of collapsing buildings and car chases with no spatial logic, making it hard to feel either excitement or suspense.

John McClane himself is also diminished. In the first four films, Bruce Willis plays him as exhausted, sarcastic and often outmatched. Pain matters; injuries slow him down and bad decisions have consequences. In Die Hard 5, McClane is virtually indestructible, shrugging off crashes and gunfire like a superhero. The wisecracks remain, but they feel hollow because the character is no longer under real threat. Without vulnerability, McClane stops being relatable and becomes just another action archetype.

The introduction of his son, Jack McClane, should have refreshed the formula, yet it does the opposite. Their relationship is sketched in the broadest strokes, relying on clichéd father-son conflict rather than earned emotion. Jai Courtney's Jack is competent but bland; he lacks the charisma to carry half the film and his CIA backstory further pushes the series away from its original premise of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. The franchise has always flirted with spy-movie excess, but this instalment dives headfirst into it.

Villains have also been a strength of the series, from Alan Rickman's elegant Hans Gruber to Jeremy Irons' mischievous Simon. Die Hard 5 offers antagonists who are forgettable and poorly motivated, with a plot that hinges on convoluted double-crosses involving uranium, files and political corruption. The story feels more like rejected Bond material than a "Die Hard" film, and none of it gives McClane a personal or thematic stake in the outcome.

Ultimately, A Good Day to Die Hard misunderstands the franchise it belongs to. The first four films, even when uneven, are built around tension, character and a clear sense of place. The fifth replaces these with noise, speed and scale, mistaking excess for excitement. It is not just weaker than its predecessors; it feels disconnected from them, as if John McClane has wandered into the wrong film altogether.

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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