A Good Day to Die Hard

**A Good Day to Die Hard** is a 2013 American action\thriller film directed by John Moore.

The film was released on February 14, 2013 by 20th Century Fox. It is the fifth installment in the "Die Hard" film series.

## Plot

The film follows John McClane (Bruce Willis) who travels to Russia to his estranged son, Jack (Jai Courtney), an undercover CIA agent out of prison and finds himself caught in the crossfire of a global terrorist plot.

## Cast

* Bruce Willis as John McClane
* Jai Courtney as John "Jack" McClane, Jr.
* Sebastian Koch as Yuri Komarov
* Yulia Snigir as Irina Komarov
* Radivoje Bukvić as Alik
* Sergei Kolesnikov as Viktor Chagarin
* Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane
* Cole Hauser as Mike Collins
* Aldis Hodge as Lt. Foxy
* Amaury Nolasco as NYPD Detective Murphy

## Production

In 2010, production for "A Good Day to Die Hard" was formally announced with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "The A-Team" writer Skip Woods confirmed as the film's screenwriter.

Noam Murro was originally attached to direct the film, but he left production to direct the 300 prequel, "300: Rise of an Empire" and John Moore was subsequently drafted in to replace him.

The film was originally titled "Die Hard 24/7." The media speculated that it would be a crossover between the "Die Hard" and the "24" television series, with Kiefer Sutherland to reprise his role as Jack Bauer alongside John McClane; however, this was never confirmed by the studio.

The film's title was later revealed to be called "A Good Day to Die Hard" (with no further mention of any involvement from the "24" series) with a release date of February 14, 2013.

### Casting

Bruce Willis returned as John McClane and has expressed a desire to shoot "A Good Day to Die Hard" & a sixth installment in the "Die Hard" series before retiring the character.

When casting the role of Jack McClane, the studios considered several actors, including Liam Hemsworth and James Badge Dale before ultimately settling on Australian actor Jai Courtney.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead also appeared in the film, reprising her role as McClane's daughter Lucy; however all her scenes were cut from the Extended release.

Sebastian Koch played the film's primary antagonist, Yuri Komarov while Yulia Snigir and Cole Hauser were featured as secondary characters Irina and Collins.

The cast was completed by actors Amaury Nolasco as a friend of McClane,] Pasha D. Lychnikoff as a taxi driver, and Megalyn Echikunwoke, Anne Vyalitsyna, and Ivan Kamaras in smaller roles.

### Filming

Production for "A Good Day to Die Hard" began in Hungary in April of 2012, with the capital Budapest standing in for Moscow.

A military shooting range near Hajmáskér was used for shooting live ammunition while vehicular stunts were shot at the Hungaroring, a Formula One racing circuit in Mogyoród.

In July of 2012, a fire broke out on the set while shooting an aerial stunt although no one was injured and shooting resumed after a short delay.

In creating the film's visual style, Moore wanted the camera work to be almost entirely handheld, using three 4 Perforation 35mm Arri cameras equipped with long lenses to capture tight close-ups.

Moore explained, "McClane is in a strange world, with little or no initial control over his environment. He's unable to anticipate things as he normally might. He's caught off guard, and we want the camera to mimic that surprise and confusion."

He also chose to create as many of the film's effects on camera as possible, only using visual effects to enhance elements or paint in backgrounds.

## Box Office

During its opening weekend, "A Good Day to Die Hard" grossed $24,834,845 at the box office. On President's Day weekend, it opened in first place with $28,640,657, bringing its total at that point to $36,879,773.

Domestically, the film grossed $67,349,198 and $304,654,182 worldwide.

Overseas, "A Good Day to Die Hard" grossed $10,860,000 in its first weekend. Opening in seven Asian markets at 1,182 locations a week before North America's release (February 6–7) to take advantage of the Chinese New Year holiday, the majority of the film's gross came from South Korea, with the film also setting a Fox record in Indonesia and a series record in Hong Kong.

## Critical Reception

"A Good Day to Die Hard" was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 14% based on 229 reviews with an average rating of 4.00/10. The site's consensus reads: *"A Good Day to Die Hard is the weakest entry in a storied franchise, and not even Bruce Willis' smirking demeanor can enliven a clichéd, uninspired script."*

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 28 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

On both websites, the film ranked lowest among the "Die Hard" films. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale (the lowest score of the franchise).

A. O. Scott of The New York Times described "A Good Day to Die Hard" as *"a handful of extended set pieces—each more elaborate and therefore somehow less exciting than the last—linked by a simple-minded plot and a handful of half-clever lines."*

Though complimenting the special effects, Scott criticizes the direction of John Moore, the lack of style, and writes that *"everything that made the first "Die Hard" memorable—the nuances of character, the political subtext, the cowboy wit—has been dumbed down or scrubbed away entirely."*

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter expressed similar sentiments, particularly of the direction, for which he says that John Moore *"has directed these sequences in a way that makes the incidents look so far-fetched and essentially unsurvivable that you can only laugh".*

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a 2/5 and remarked that it lacked "*inspiration*", and that the onscreen rivalry of Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney was *"more irritant than enticement."*

Richard Roeper rated "A Good Day to Die Hard" one and a half stars out of four, criticizing the implausibility of the action sequences, as well as the film's lack of sufficient characterization for John McClane and the villains as compared to the other films in the series.

Roeper says that *"[John] McClane has been stripped of any real traces of an actual three-dimensional character,"* and that the film *"never giv[es] us a chance to get the least bit involved with any of these characters."*

Among the rare positive reviews, Robbie Collin for The Daily Telegraph remarked: *"Yet even though the ride finally stalls, A Good Day To Die Hard has been thrustingly outrageous enough in its earlier moments to coast to the finish line on momentum."*

Writing for the New England Movies Weekly, Daniel M. Kimmel found the film to be better than "Live Free or Die Hard" and states that the car chase scene *"is well worth the price of admission."* With a 3.5/5 rating, Kimmel summed up his review, saying: "It's probably a good day to end the series at last, but it's an action-packed and entertaining finale."

Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail criticized the action scenes in the film as being "*messy*", but concluded his review saying that it *"continues the franchise without undue embarrassment."*

Peter Howell of The Toronto Star remarked that Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney made a strong estranged family duo and that the film had a nice drinking game routine going for it with how many times McClane exclaims, "I'm on vacation!" during the running time.