A Nice Day To Die Hard 

Crash bang wallop, a huge amount of death and destruction - it's all in a day's work for John MacLean aka Bruce Willis - even when he's on holiday and wants a bit of peace and quiet. 

It goes without saying that you can't take the Die Hard films seriously. I saw the previous one, but was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand it, not knowing the back story: well, you don't have to because there isn't really one. All you have to do is sit back, suspend belief and enjoy the car crashes, explosions, gun fights and falling out of skyscraper windows. For all I know, this film could actually have been its predecessor, just with a different name. It was great fun: within minutes I was laughing out loud at the sheer improbability and comedy value of it all. Enough cars were destroyed in the first ten minutes to account for the whole industrial output of a small nation - and this was just John MacLean getting through a traffic jam in Moscow to get to see his son, who was up for trial. 

Needless to say, he saves his son, they foil a dastardly plan involving fuel for nuclear weapons from Chernobyl and in the process they patch up their differences in a very wholesome American kind of way. It can be easily seen therefore that despite apparently getting panned by the critics, it already has an almost infinitely better plot and characterization than "A Quantum Of Solace", and indeed, "Lincoln". 

I like it very much for the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Indeed, I fear that it goes a little too much in the other direction of being too humble about it. It risks being taken as a comedy film, or a parody of itself, whereas in reality it would like to be regarded as an action/adventure film. When asked "whether every day is like this for you" (or words to that effect), John MacLean's reply is basically "yes, I suppose so". 

In conclusion - good, clean, entertaining fun. A totally different type of film, but much like "The Hobbit" in that regard.

31.03.13