Cultural contrast is at the center of what amounts to “Die Hard 5” – 20th Century Fox’s A Good Day to Die Hard – starring Bruce Willis as John McClane in Russia. There are the requisite plot twists of the series, which began in the 1980s with the perfectly done, Los Angeles-based Die Hard. Here, the usual who-are-the-bad-guys-and-what-really-motivates-their-crime? stuff comes into play as McClane is reunited with his wayward son (Jai Courtney in fine physique) as they bond while escorting an enigmatic Russian named Komarov unrecognizably played by Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others).
The story begins with the usual cultural cues, such as a Moscow taxi driver singing “New York, New York” as against the Communist hammer and sickle of the former Soviet airline Aeroflot, pitting East versus West in the soul of Russia amid various shootouts, blowouts and sieges that take place as Komarov falls into the right and wrong hands while the McClane men try to score one for the good guys. It’s not as light and comedic as past outings and A Good Day to Die Hard lacks the strong sense of place – a California skyscraper, a New York City bank, a passenger jet – that marks these pictures. The opening driving/chase sequence is preposterously but excitingly executed with wild abandon as military and civilian vehicles go spinning, mowing and flying out of control throughout Moscow traffic jams.
All ends predictably well, with a slow motion climax in which everything blows up, and this installment of Die Hard, which is best seen as a matinee or home entertainment experience for my money, is what it’s intended to be: a live action cartoon with a few wisecracks and traces of old-fashioned, cowboy individualism along for the ride. It’s not a great movie, and it’s not even the best of the series. But like a decent video game or cartoon, it’s a diversion.