John McClane may still be one of the most loved film characters of all time, but his new adventure – A Good Day to Die Hard – is currently tanking with critics like a Die Hard movie never has before.
So,what went wrong? It seemed like a solid sell: the film threw John McClane into a fish out of water story by putting him in Moscow and we were even going to be introduced to a new generation of McClane through the introduction of John’s grown son, Jack (Jai Courtney). There should have been enough promise there for fans and critics alike.
But, critics did not respond well, and the film currently holds a rotten rating of about 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. To compare and contrast that with Live Free Or Die Hard is bemoaned pretty heavily by Die Hard fans but holds an 81% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Good Day To Die Hard has been attacked for everything from its lousy script to its poor direction to its idea of turning John McClane into a full blown superhero. I personally loved the film for all its horrible glory and cherish any chance I get to see John McClane kicking butt on screen.
But, in honor of A Good Day To Die Hard’s thrashing, we thought we’d take a moment to contemplate five ways Bruce Willis and 20th Century Fox can save the Die Hard franchise and bring it back to the former glory of films like Die Hard and Die Hard With A Vengeance.
5. We Need Another Gruber
One of the staples of the Die Hard genre has not only been the wise cracking of Detective McClane, but the introduction of legendary villains who just can’t seem to help McClane from getting under their skin. The original Die Hard gave us Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) who has been by far the best Die Hard villain and the most fun to watch McClane go up against, and even Bruce Willis has admitted they never should have killed the guy off.
The only time the Die Hard franchise came close to rivaling the first in terms of quality villain was in Die Hard With A Vengeance, and that’s probably only because the villain was none other than Hans Gruber’s brother played by Jeremy Irons. The new Die Hard has been justly criticized for ignoring the Die Hard staple and never even settling on whom the villain is, let alone allowing McClane to ruin their day.
The proposal is this: for the next Die Hard, give us another Gruber, perhaps a son or nephew (or even a grandson). McClane shouldn’t be done with the Grubers quite yet, and we’d be in for another great villain.
We just need someone on the level of Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman to play him, so sound off in the comments about which young actor you think could pull it off.
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26 Comments
I really enjoy your article…!
There’s only one thing that i believe you are missing, which was by faaaaaar what annoyed me the most on AGDTDH: Make sure John McClane IS the main character.
He can share screen time with a sidekick, sure, as you pointed out, with Zeus it was freaking fantastic. But Zeus was brains, and McClane was, well… McClane. That was also the case with Justin Long.
But with this one, they put Jack overdoing John… hell, they even make Jack to kill the villain….that’s unacceptable.
Want worse!? when the movie ends, and the screen is freeze, is Jack who is at the center of the screen…. Jesus, WTF were they thinking??
That was what really bothered me the most.
I’m a die hard Die Hard fan… Bruce Willis is since 1987 my favorite star, i have all his movies (even thinks like Breakfast For Champions, or Nancy Drew…) so as a fan, i felt really pissed about what they did with this last movie. Of course, that didn’t stop me from seeing the film twice…
I’m the same way. I had my problems with the movie, but I’m itching to see it again on that giant IMAX screen. Haha. Thanks for reading.
Bring back Reginald VelJohnson’s Sgt. Al Powell, he was great and it would give it a nice tie back to the first movie
It’d be great to have SGT. Al Powell back. I almost added him to the list. The last Die Hard should just be a giant mash up with everyone from the franchise in it. Thanks for reading!
The are a couple of actors that would be suitable for a Gruber-esque role in my opininion. Benedict Cumberbatch for one would be perfect, as his role in Sherlock shows that he possess the necessary qualities for an intelligent villian of the same level as Hans Gruber. Also, Tom Hardy would certainly do a great villain, both as the intelligent and teasing villain as well as a more physical one. Just look at TDKR and Bronson. Other actors I could certainly see playing villains are Christoph Waltz, Bryan Cranston, Gary Oldman, Michael Fassbender, Ralph Fieness and Guy Pearce. Saying that, I’m heartbroken to say that I don’t believe that the Die Hard-franchise will be able to bounce back from the trainwreck that was Die Hard 5.
Brian Cranston would make an awesome bad guy.
All great choices by both of you guys. Bryan Cranston would be cool especially if he randomly had a German accent. I remember hearing Patrick Stewart being rumored for the fifth. He might be cool. Thanks for reading guys!
Bring back Reginald VelJohnson’s Sgt. Al Powell
tom hiddleston
Agreed and agreed. Thanks for reading.
We seriously need Zeus and to be able to throw Alan Rickman off a building.
Really need to see the latest one, but I’m not sure if I should .. maybe it just might kill off Die Hard for me on a personal level?
It didn’t kill Die Hard for me. Just go in with the right expectations. It’s not worse, just different. McClane comes out unscathed.
Hey, I really enjoyed this article and agreed 100%, I still havent seen the newest one yet as it’s not here in Australia yet :( but I do believe the next one should be an ensemble cast of all the Die Hard movies. With John, Holly, Jack, Lucy (and Matt Farrel assuming they got together :P), and maybe a extra spot for Zeus or Al. How about like a diner or something? New Years celebration? That brings them all together and John gets back with Holly finally. ANd yes bring back the Grueber family, there’s still unfinished business there, and really, McClanes and Gruebers have been arch nemesis since the first film, which is really what McClane needs, an evenly matched enemy. Like the 1st and 3rd films, so please god! Make this happen!!!
“Bring back the Grubers.”
Well, who would it be this time? Son of Simon? Heck he’s pretty much annihilated the gruber clan at this point.
Andreas is right though. Bryan Cranston, –with the right script!– would be an excellent McClane nemesis. Exactly what Rickman did only with more edge.
The next movie should be something that relates to the third one. Someone with a personal stake in eliminating John McClane specifically. Not in the midsirectional Simon Gruber kind of way, rather in a “Man who knows too much” way.
Problem is, McClane has nothing to do with such a thing so how do you shoe-horn that particular McGuffin into a DH flick? Seriously, the guy who doesn’t look for trouble but it always seems to stumble into it is played out. He needs for some trouble to some find him!
Thanks for the compliment and thanks for reading brother. I would love those ideas too. Tying it back to the first film would make it great.
Well-written article, but i think the best way to save the franchise was for somebody to build a time machine and go back and stop all the Die Hards after the sequel. Like a Terminator then we can all agree that Die Hard was awesome and there is no point trying to remake it; also they could stop the remakes of Spider-man and Red Dawn.
holy crap,i just thought of Die Hard 6; have the Terminator come back and try to kill Bruce Willis, like the other overly-long terminally ill franchises have done;
alien vs. predator, freddy vs. jason, terminator vs. mcclane. Who wouldn’t see that?
Thanks for reading man. I like the sequels. Haha. But, I like your pitch.
Wait! Didn’t they say AGDTDH will be the last DH film?
Bruce Willis said he definitely wants to make one more.
Given that John McT may or may not be doing a little jail time,is there any way we could petition Fox to get him on board for outing no 6.John Moore’s history with movie making was awful but Im guessing he was cheap.John McT hasnt made a movie in 10 years but he did give us some real classics i.e Predator and DH 1 and 3.
John McT could be the guy to save the Die Hard franchise
Dude, I don’t know if you were biased against the film because Bruce Willis is pro-gun, because of the director and writer, or whether you just ape everything Rotten Tomatoes comes up with, but Die Hard 5 was a very good movie. I never saw crap like this written after Die Hard 4, which really was a terrible movie. How that didn’t get panned while this did, is beyond me. Start thinking for yourself when you watch movies. This was a great addition to the Die Hard franchise. Many, many people enjoyed it. I won’t even bother reading your shameful article. It’s insulting and it’s stupid. Let me guess, you want Christoph Waltz to play Gruber, right? Predictable. I’d prefer this to be the last one, because if people are going to complain, the hell with them.
Holy cow, you are such a douche. How many articles have you written bashing this film? How many did you write bashing number 4? You are so pathetic, no wonder you still live in your parent’s basement, writing this sad blog.
Don’t live in my parent’s basement brother and I actually say in the article that I loved A Good Day to Die Hard:) And over at breitbart.com I wrote some more articles about loving Willis’ gun stance and this new film by John Moore! Sorry to disappoint, but thanks for reading:)
I think apart from the Zeus returning way, every single one of them are brilliant. I mean, McClane back in New York? Everyone would love to see that. And he’s up against his greatest enemy’s family member with his whole family re-united? Wow. I also think that if John McTiernan directs the next movie, it would be a classic. Die Hard 1 was the most entertaining movie of the whole series because it was directed by John McTieran. Next die hard with all these things, would be an epic finale. I want the series to go on forever but it have to end someday because the time it takes to make every sequel is too much and Bruce Willis isn’t doing that ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ thing. I can say that I can’t wait to see the next Die Hard because I am a really big fan of this franchise and was disapointed seeing ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’. I just wish these all things are included in the next Die Hard to make it an ‘Unforgettable’ epic finale.
Agreed. Thanks for checking the article out.
All terrible ideas…
Basically you’re telling let’s reuse elements of past die hard…well if the only way before us is rehashing the original then maybe it’s time to call it quit.
You want a great die hard story?
Ok dh3 alternate ending : MacLaine has been fired from the nypd. He’s working as a low level security guard, he has trouble to get in touch with his ex wife and kids,he’s an outcast more than ever.He’s arranged a little get together with his family in a very fancy hotel complex where a top meeting is taking place in another building. His envisioned dream reunion doesn’t go well. Meanwhile terrorists thwart the meeting and start torturing one of the guys for secrets to get access to accounts and dirty corporate secrets and in the process take everyone in the complex hotel as hostages the time they get to the bottom of the big guy secrets. Now John after 10-15 years of this depressing life isn’t in a great shape,?he’s getting old too especially with his past injuries and former smoking and drinking. He’s as vulnerable as he was on the beginning. But his family and his ailing pride is at stake. He mans up and fight. Now he fights dirty and he can forecast the terrorist guy. In a nice reversal of role he’s the mastermind as he comes up with an elaborate plan to thwart the terrorist because he can’t run and shoot like he used to so he makes up for it by being smart. He saves his family, and also the corporate guy (that he still gets to jail after shooting the bad guys) He gets shot in the process, maybe he dies at the end. Either way he’s once again the American hero of the people and reconciles with his family and the police