A Good Day to Die Hard - Review

A Good Day to Die Hard
(2013 February 14)
Action | Crime | Thriller
97 min

Rated: R Violence and persistent profanity Read more
Grade: C-

Director: John Moore
Writers: Skip Woods, Roderick Thorp (certain original characters)
Stars: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch | See full cast and crew

New York City cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives in Moscow to track down his estranged son, Jack (Jai Courtney). McClane thinks his son is a criminal, so it comes as a shock when he learns that Jack is actually working undercover to protect Komarov (Sebastian Koch), a Russian government whistleblower. With their own lives on the line, McClane and Jack must overcome their differences in order to get Komarov to safety and thwart a potentially disastrous crime in the Chernobyl region.

This film is #5 in the Die Hard franchise and yes...it's

A Good Day (for this franchise) To Die Hard!

Classic action films...classic Willis.

So so to ho hum...Willis still a presence.

Jumping the shark...Willis collecting a paycheck.

What an ignominious end to a movie franchise. We all know that in a Die Hard film there is going to be a lot of tension, suspense, backstabbing, explosions, double-crossing, guns blazing, car chases, profanity and strategically placed F words. No big surprises here except that the suspense is somewhat lacking and the double-crossings and back-stabbings are so numerous that one tends to becomes impatient, even annoyed with the story. Like it's trying too hard to keep you guessing.

If all you want is explosions and guns blazing and predictable quips and logic and believability are of no importance this may be the film for you. It's like a Bruce Willis/Roadrunner-Wiley Coyote movie. John McClane (Bruce Willis) and Jack McClane (Jai Courtney) would have died at least a dozen times in this film.

The car chase in the beginning of the film is without a doubt incredibly stellar stunt work with dozens and dozens of vehicles being destroyed, but to be honest completely unbelievable. Our heroes (and villains) would all have been killed several times over not to mention that life seems to go on unfettered in Moscow while all of this hellishness is unleashed. Where are the police? The stupensous explosions, gunfire and car crashes would be heard all over Moscow but no one seems to be too concerned. Helicopters fire rockets into downtown buildings and yet nearby people are still shopping and going about their daily business as if it were just another day.

 

If that is enough for you and believability is of no importance this may be the film for you. At least they didn't include gratuitous nudity and sex. That and the superbly executed stunts saved A Good Day To Die Hard from earning a lower grade from me.

Behind the scenes with director John Moore

Cast

                 Bruce Willis             Jai Courtney  Mary Elizabeth Winstead   

  John McClane                Jack McClane                Lucy McClane 

    Sebastian Koch           Yuliya Snigir         Radivoje Bukvic   

 Komarov                             Irina                                      Alik       

Dark Skies - Review

Dark Skies (2013 - February 22) Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller 1 hr. 35 min. Rated: PG-13 Violence, Language, Drug Content, All Involving Teens, Sexual Material and Terror Throughout Grade: C Director: Scott Stewart  Writer: Scott Stewart Stars: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons | See full cast and crew  From the producers of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Sinister comes Dark Skies: a supernatural thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters in their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family. Dark Skies starts out with promise and anticipation, unfortunately it falls into the rut that most of this genera seems prone to succumb to. An interesting concept that looses focus and the wheels fall off about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way into the film. There doesn't seem to be a reasonable conclusion so the film becomes so fantastical that you are left thinking what a weak, or stupid, or silly ending. This film is sort of like an unremarkable episode of the The X-Files or The Twilight Zone (for those of us a little older), a little bit spooky, a little bit silly but pablum for the true 'believers'. The major problem with the film is that the director/writer can't seem to decide what story he wants to tell us, is it about paranormal activity, a drama about a family under stress, alien encounters or just what? Is the story about the mom, the dad, the oldest son or the little brother or the intruders? It gets sidetracked slumming into the prurient mindset and braggadocios conversations of pubescent teen boys, but otherwise the dialogue is pretty tame. It isn't laced with profanity so I do give it props for that. It's just too bad that it starts out well gets you interested and then lets you down. Behind the scenes The making of Dark Skies  B Roll Cast      Josh Hamilton            Keri Russell      Daniel Barrett                     Lacy Barrett       Dakota Goyo          Kadan Rockett  Jesse Barrett                        Sam Barrett  J.K. Simmons  Edwin Pollard

Beautiful Creatures - Review

Beautiful Creatures
(2013 February 14)
Drama | Fantasy | Romance
2 hr 4 min

Rated: PG-13 violence, scary images and some sexual material Read more
Grade: C-

Director: Richard LaGravenese
Writers: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Kami Garcia (novel), Margaret Stohl (novel)
Stars: Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson | See full cast and crew

A supernatural love story set in the South which tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan Wate, a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena Duchannes, a mysterious new girl. When Lena  arrives in the small town of Gatlin, she quickly captures the attention of Ethan, who only wants to escape what he views as a boring and dead-end town. He quickly gets more than he bargained for, Lena possesses strange powers that have long kept her at a distance from others in her life. Lena and Ethan are drawn together, but their romance is threatened by the dangers presented by Lena's being a Caster and her family's Dark powers. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town. Lena, on her sixteenth birthday, must undergo the 'Claiming', a process that will determine forever her fate: will she be Light or Dark.

Beautiful Creatures...creatures, yes, beautiful, eh...not so much. This supernatural, coming of age, romance, soap opera is far from super and just as far from romantic or even interesting for that matter.

There is so much exposition in this film because without it it would be completely impossible to follow. The script is so laborious that the pace of the film is excruciating, the 2 hour 4 minute run-time felt like 3 1/2 hours, it makes Les Misérables seem like a 60 minute TV prime time drama.

The element that you would expect to be the weak link, the teen romance, is really the strongest link in this very rusty chain. Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Viola Davis are all so bad that you worry about the negative effects this disaster will have on their careers. Where does one start? Viola Davis after her stellar performance in The Help, is reduced to playing a 'wise sage', a woman working two jobs, a house keeper for a white family and a librarian for bigoted white people. The stereotyping of southerners as hateful, religious bigots, intolerant, close-minded ignorant fools is so heavy handed it is barf worthy. Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson's over acting is so campy, with laughably bad southern accents that it is simply appalling. What a mess and what a waste of talent.

Beautiful Creatures is a romantic fantasy train wreck of a film based upon the The Beautiful Creatures Complete Collection by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The film is directed by Richard LaGravenese.  It is obvious that Beautiful Creatures is targeted at the Twilight Saga audience, which did not impress me much, but is of classic quality, comparatively.

The special effects are pretty lame considering what is the standard these days...cloudy skies, lightening, winds, a spinning table. Oooh scary. The 'Casters' have really startling powers too, like making teenage boys horny! I mean really, how hard is it to do that. I guarantee that the ending will leave you underwhelmed.

This is really one of those worthy of being passed over. It beats the anti religion drum persistently but I will give it credit for not bowing down to the Hollywood sex and F word culture although there is an abundance of lesser profanities. One would also have expected that they would take the opportunity to go heavily into the racy sex and nudity exploitation since, after all, this is a teen romance story. So, I do commend them for not going trashy.

Behind the scenes with director Richard LaGravenese.

Cast

  Alden Ehrenreich         Alice Englert    

     Ethan Wate                  Lena Duchannes

    Jeremy Irons         Emmy Rossum       Emma Thompson 

    Macon Ravenwood        Ridley Duchannes       Mrs. Lincoln/Saraine

 

     Viola Davis            Thomas Mann  

Amma                                Link