Viewed – 26 November 2013  Blu-ray

Back in 1987 Bruce Willis shocked audiences world wide by transforming his wise cracking, comedy image from popular TV series Moonlighting into credible action-hero machismo with the first in this franchise … arguably one of the finest action thrillers ever made.  Naturally such a well crafted movie would spawn sequels, and generally in my opinion, Die Hard has always delivered – but any good run had to come to an end, and yes, all the rumours you may have heard about this ill advised continuation of John McClane’s adventures are true.

Willis travels to Moscow to track down his estranged son (Jai Courtney) who seems to have got himself in a heap of trouble with some Russian terrorists.  But before long father and son are reunited against a common enemy, and attempt to bond between the bullets flying and the bodies piling up.  Directed by relative-unknown John Moore, this frantic, moodily shot attempt at an action movie from the get-go fails on almost every level.  Firstly this isn’t just Willis playing McClane as a fish out of water New York cop (that would have been fun – but it’s not explored) he genuinely looks lost – not necessarily over the hill, but just in the wrong movie.  His wise-cracks are delivered awkwardly like Willis himself is bored with the character, and the setting and the plot just failed to resonate.  Add to this rapidly edited, confusing action that is mostly too fast and too chaotic to follow or enjoy, and well … I began to almost want to remove this from my PlayStation 3 and throw the original Die Hard in for the umpteenth time.

A plot twist towards the end was borderline interesting, but especially bad for this franchise, the villain was just a cliché, and his evil scheme nothing that clever.  I wouldn’t normally be so against a movie, but for a franchise I previously adored – this was an embarrassment.  Oh, and that cool free fall through a building and into water showcased in the trailer – that’s the best bit of the movie.

Verdict:  1 /5