In Theaters Now
 Posted by - February 18, 2013

Poll: What Did You Think of ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’?

The staff here at High-Def Digest is taking a break on Monday to celebrate the President’s Day holiday. While we’re resting, we’ll leave you with a little poll to occupy your time. If you saw the latest ‘Die Hard’ sequel over the weekend, what did you think of it?

I’ll weigh in when I get a chance to see the movie. (I wanted to go this weekend, but another snow storm here in New England kept me housebound.) The buzz seems to be overwhelmingly negative, so I’ll try to keep my expectations really low. What did you make of it?

What Did You Think of 'A Good Day to Die Hard'?

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About Josh Zyber

Josh Zyber is a veteran movie and video disc reviewer from Laserdisc to DVD and beyond. He previously wrote for DVDFile.com, DVDTalk.com, and Home Theater magazine.
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19 comments

  2. Mark B
    February 18, 2013 at 6:57 am -

    I didn’t love or hate it, but it definitely felt like it was phoned in across the board. Bruce Willis just seemed to be haplessly wandering around during the movie, and I really hated his constant father/son jokes. The only thing that could’ve made it worse was a “I”m getting too old for this” joke.

  3. Shayne Blakeley
    February 18, 2013 at 7:29 am -

    We were planning to go see this yesterday (you may notice my thumbnail is a sketch of Hans falling on our calendar) but we opted instead to go to the Music Box Theater’s 70mm festival. We definitely made the right choice. We saw 2001 last night and we’re hoping to go back for Vertigo tomorrow.

  5. Defshep
    February 18, 2013 at 9:28 am -

    It just wasn’t great. I’m of the opinion that Len Wiseman should have been brought back to direct, as 4 brought the series into the 21st century. 5 is almost like a time warp, back to an 80s action movie from Cannon Films, just blowing shit up when the story isn’t there. The whole movie felt like a cheat.

  7. Bruce
    February 18, 2013 at 6:49 pm -

    I’m with Bryan, I had a smile from ear to ear watching the action chase scene in the the beginning of the movie.. That was fun. The movie was never boring.. I get what most of you are saying. But I enjoyed for what it was.. Fun, not smart but it was fun..

  8. Pyronaut
    February 18, 2013 at 9:39 pm -

    It was nothing special, but it wasn’t awful either. Lots of generic action and predictable surprises, and a few too many “I’m on vacation” moments, and awkward father/son moments where they tried to be sentimental. It had its fun moments though.

    If it wasn’t labelled “Die Hard” it wouldn’t have done nearly as well. I’ve seen much worse.

  9. Wurms
    February 20, 2013 at 2:10 am -

    Worse Die Hard yet, but its still fun to watch. They got the action right for the part.

    What they failed to do was get The Villain. Die Hard’s need a good villain that McClane can annoy by just killing all his henchmen and never dying like a normal person under the same circumstances.

    The first Die Hard had him and Hans on the radio; Die Hard 2 didnt have a good back and forth with Col. Stuart, but Dennis Franz filled in; Die Hard Vengeance had the great Jeremy Irons and McClane banter; Die Hard 4 tried with Olyphant and at least had a central villain; In “A Good Day” the only person McClane talks too is his son and himself.

  10. Neville
    February 20, 2013 at 4:10 am -

    I went with my son, mainly to hear the Dolby Atmos sound. I thought the film was not very good and the sound effects very noisy and unsubtle. The on-screen dialogue was coarse and unclear. Perhaps I ought to wait for some other film before giving a final judgenent on Dolby Atmos.

  12. Josh Zyber
    Author
    February 21, 2013 at 9:27 pm -

    Finally saw this tonight. 9:45 PM show on a Thursday. There were precisely four other people in the theater with Mrs. Z and me.

    I have to agree with the consensus. It’s pretty lame. Dumb plot, awful dialogue, incomprehensible shaky-cam action and ugly teal photography. Sure is a good thing the bad guys had that magic radiation-eliminating spray that made Chernobyl safe for everybody. If I’m not mistaken, I think that was Febreze. Extra Strength formula, right?

    The worst part is the way that John McClane is made to be a spectator in his own movie. He’s just along for the ride. His presence serves no purpose to the story. He just gets in the way. Everything would have worked out better without him there. That’s disgraceful.

    I also found it annoying the way that McClane was turned into a stereotypical Ugly American obnoxious tourist, yelling at the locals for speaking their native language in their own country and just generally behaving like an ass the whole time.

  13. Defshep
    February 23, 2013 at 9:35 am -

    Yeah, it was annoying that McClane basically screwed his son’s operation, like a meddling, incompetent senior citizen. NOT John McClane. Same with yelling at Russians, screaming things like, “Do you think I understand what you’re saying?” I don’t know how any DH fan could have enjoyed this truly stupid film. Looking back, it just makes me mad. Brett Rather would have done a better with it.

  14. Chris M
    February 28, 2013 at 7:07 pm -

    The picture above, and the previews on TV, say it all. That same stupid turquoise or “teal” tint that looks like garbage. I will not waste two hours of my life on this.

  15. Matt J
    March 8, 2013 at 9:37 pm -

    I thought it was awesome, way to go Bruce Willis. You know how to keep a series going. I can’t wait for Die Hard 6. If only every movie had so many dead bad guys.