The Kidd here...
The DIE HARD franchise has, for me, been spiraling downward since WITH A VENGEANCE. I never needed to see John McClane with a sidekick or a partner. Reginald VelJohnson staying on the outskirts of the situation was always good enough for me. Wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time was a formula that worked, and, while it may have needed some tweaking to stretch beyond just one sequel, WITH A VENGEANCE and then LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD are progressively strayed further and further from what made this series and this particular character resonate with audiences. That doesn't look to be changing with DIE HARD 5, otherwise known as A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD.
I still remain quite hopeful that the wrongs of DIE HARD 4 can be righted with the proper vision, although the idea of including John McClane's son just gives me bad flashbacks to Shia LaBeouf in CRYSTAL SKULL. If the next sequel can get back to basics, head back to its roots, another DIE HARD might be a good idea that wipes away the bad taste of soulless action Len Wiseman gave us the last time out. But John Moore's recent comments to Empire about what A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD will be isn't only hurting my blind confidence... mostly because none of it sounds like a DIE HARD movie.
For example, any glib jokes coming from John McClane...?
"No, because that’s preposterous! I don’t know whether it’s post-financial crash or whatever, but I don’t think people are in the mood for that bollocks anymore. People are well savvy to the cynical reheating of any product, any franchise. Any shit won’t do. The bar’s a bit higher."
How about the whole John McClane being out of his element, fish-out-of-water premise?
"There are a couple of great gags and a couple of great McClanisms. It’s not like he's this idiot, bumbling around Moscow making ‘America won the Cold War’ jokes. It’s not Carry On Die Hard, I can assure you…"
What about doing more ridiculous stunts like jumping a car into a helicopter?
"The scope along goes from New York to Moscow. It’s very, very international. There’s a car chase through Moscow that’s taking us 78 days to shoot. So… yeah. That should answer your question!"
So no naturally smart-ass John McClane, but one-liner McClane is okay... and a giant car chase, which doesn't feel at home in a DIE HARD movie at all.
Fingers crossed... hoping for the best.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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