A Good Day to Die Hard

It's very likely that this entry will be the death of Die Hard. Twenty-five years after the original film in the series, John McClane now has a grown son who serves as his comic sidekick, like Samuel L. Jackson in the third entry and Justin Long in the fourth. But Courtney was cast for his brawn and not for his banter; the characters' "tough love" talk is actually more cruel than funny. Moreover, director John Moore (The Omen remake, Max Payne, etc.) is a camera shaker who often jolts the action off-kilter.

The script by Skip Woods hits all the right marks, but it also relies on some ludicrous twists and ridiculous plot holes. For example, father and son survive a gas explosion, unscathed, merely by ducking behind some stone pillars. Not to mention that the use of Chernobyl as a setting for a showdown is in questionable taste, and the movie humorously shrugs off the possibility of radiation poisoning for our heroes.