Yippee Ki Ay, Mother Russia (spoilers all over the joint)

[f4f3]

There are smarter action franchises than the Die Hard movies - Bourne pisses all over it with its fancy camera work and shouty CIA people. There are more glamorous franchises - if James Bond ever wore a vest, it would be hand-tailored in Jermyn Street, and modelled by Dan Craig on the cover of FHM. But the thing Die Hard has, that keeps me happily coming back to the movies, is heart. It's the Little Hundred Million Dollar Action Franchise That Could, and it just does not know when to quit. I mean that in a good way. When Harrison Ford hirpled off in pursuit of the Crystal Skull he looked old, and he looked tired. And, by the end of that movie, so was I. At the start of A Good Day to Die Hard, Bruce Willis looks grizzled, and a little pissed off. As the movie goes on, and he becomes progressively more blood stained and less dressed, he perks up, and by the end of the movie he's a smirking, wise-cracking scum bag killing machine again.

All of the DH movies (even 2, which, as we all know, never happened) have family at heart. John's failed marriage and his relationship with his ex-wife and children drives large parts of the plots of all the movies, and this one is no different. His estranged son is in prison in Moscow. He goes to find out what's happening, and, of course, ends up in the middle of a plot involving crooked politicians, corrupt businessmen, and of all places, Chernobyl.

The plot does not matter. Which is just as well, because it makes no kind of sense at any point. Really. My personal favourite is the point where radioactive contamination can be completely removed in 30 seconds with a set of bicycle handlebars. And that's not the worst of it.

What matters is that the car chases are epic, the firefights are noisy, and that John will bring a helicopter gunship down in flames. And all of these things come to pass. I should say something about the stunts. When James Bond has a chase scene involving a run away train, a JCB and a big red wagon, we all gasp in awe at the smoothness of it all. When John McLean drives a four by four across the roofs of other cars stuck in traffic, we hoot at the improbability of it. It's funny, because it's untrue.

There's a saying that bad writing is writing that you notice. I'd say there's something similar to be said about acting. Skyfall, which I loved, suffered from the acting of Javier Bardem - he was so over the top, that he wasn't credible. There's a turn here, from one of the second rank bad guys, which could have been made to send Bardem's role up. "I could have been a dancer", he laments, "But I never got the support". And, "Do you know what I hate about Americans? Everything." He also points out to JM that "It's not 1986 anymore" and we all smile, because Bruce has been putting away scum-bags like this since just that year.

Willis is credible because his character is consistent. You expect him to be put upon, smirking, virtually un-killable. And he is. You also expect him to be gooey in the middle. Although, as his son says to him at one point, "Don't you go opening up to me now, because that's not your thing." "What's my thing?" he asks. "Killing scumbags. That's your thing."

Enough- there's only so much you should write about a movie that is mostly all about fun. This is 90 minutes (my God! a movie that doesn't require a jam jar to pee in) of explosions, wry grins and occasional out and out hilarity, and it was worth my money any day of the week.

Good job, people.

Comments

THANK YOU

[jen-c-w.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the only one who found Bardem woeful in Skyfall

Re: THANK YOU

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I think he just about got away with it, but it was a performance in the same vein as Ledger in The Dark Knight, all about the quirk. I didn't believe in him for a second, which is fine in a costumes movie, but out of place in Bond.