Release date: 22 Feb 2013
		123telugu.com Rating : 3/5
		Director : John Moore
		Producer : Alex Young, Wyck Godfrey
		Music Director : Marco Beltrami
		Starring : Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch Yuliya Snigir

Bruce Willis is back as the badass cop, John McClane , with Die Hard 5. The movie has released today in India in a big way. John Moore has directed this instalment and Jai Courtney makes an entry into the series as John McClane’s estranged son Jack McClane. Let us see if Bruce Willis still has what it takes to cock a snook at the bad guys.

Story :

John McClane (Bruce Willis) comes to know that his estranged son Jack McClane is holed up in a Russian prison, facing serious criminal charges. He decides to head over to Russia, in a bid to try and help him. But once he goes there, John realises that there is more to Jack than he could have ever guessed.

Jack is on a mission to rescue the jailed political prisoner Komarov (Sebastian Koch) from his arch enemy Chagarin and Jack unintentionally gets mixed up in the mess. Chagarin is a dangerous foe who is willing to go to great lengths to kill Komarov in order to bury some incriminating evidence.

A dangerous game of chase begins, a chase that ultimately leads to the dreaded nuclear ghost town of Chernobyl. Father and son must now team up and fight against all odds to come out alive from the mess they find themselves in. How the do it is what Die Hard 5.0 is all about.

Plus Points :

Bruce Willis still has what it takes. When compared to Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis has still got the pace and the looks to carry off a mega action entertainer on his own. His corny one liners will remind you of the good old days….days spent watching instalments of Terminator, Die Hard and Rocky in theaters.

Jai Courtney is decent as the estranged son Jack. Subtle hints are dropped about a possible change of guard for the Die Hard series. Perhaps, Jack McClane will take over from John McClane in the next instalment of this series.

The action sequences in the first half of the film are pretty good. The car chase sequence through the streets of Moscow has been shot well. Sure, it is a little outlandish..but hey, this is a film from the Die Hard franchise so what did you expect? If you are a fan of the legendary Mercedes G Wagen, you will have a whale of a time watching the car in action.

The first half has good pace and the emotional relationship between the far and the son has been captured well.

Minus Points :

The second half of the film is a big letdown and the climax is a way too far fetched, even for John McClane. The film loses its way once the scene shifts to Chernobyl and the ‘twist’ that comes up is all too predictable. Pace also slackens considerably before the climax action sequences start to unfold.

As with most big budget action entertainers, logic goes for a toss in the film. The way in which Bruce Willis dodges bullets and bad guys is a bit, errr… unbelievable.

Die Hard 4 worked so well because the plot had a certain depth to it and the action sequences had character. Those qualities are missing in version 5.0 .And Bruce Willis was the alpha dog in the old films. Here, he lets Jai Courtney take some of the credit and that is perhaps one of the reasons why you can’t really root for John McClane’s character.

Technical Aspects :

Jonathan Sela’s cinematography is neat and the action sequences look grand. Dan Zimmerman’s editing is good for most of the film but he drops the ball in the final stages. Action sequences are very good in the first half and a little ludicrous in the second half.

John Moore’s direction is not very satisfactory. This was the same guy who screwed up Max Payne, so let us not be too surprised.

Verdict :

Die Hard 5 aka A Good Day to Die Hard is a watchable action flick. It has the chases, the big explosions and the grand action sequences. Sadly, it lacks character and it is also let down by a bad second half. You may catch the flick on the big screen for Bruce Willis, but don’t go in expecting Die Hard 4 levels of entertainment.

123telugu.com Rating – 3/5

Reviewed by Mahesh S Koneru