Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actors

Directors

Archives

The Playlist

Weekend Box Office: 'Identity Thief' Returns To First; Stitches For 'Snitch'

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • February 24, 2013 12:54 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Box Office
So far, 2013 is trailing 2012 in box office receipts, allowing “Identity Thief” to celebrate the spoils of war. The comedy is slated to become the highest grossing film of 2013 within days (beating out “Django Unchained,” which is actually a 2012 release), and this weekend it romped over a couple of weak newcomers to reclaim the top spot at the box office.
Read More »
More: Weekend Box-Office, Identity Thief, A Good Day To Die Hard, Safe Haven, Snitch, Dark Skies

Box Office: 'A Good Day To Die Hard' Has A Good Weekend At #1, 'Beautiful Creatures' Not So Pretty

  • By Gabe Toro
  • |
  • February 17, 2013 12:48 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Box Office
Welcome to the world of the new blockbuster. Would Hollywood studios learn to make good movies, or make smarter fiscal decisions first? Given that we're looking at "A Good Day To Die Hard" ruling over the box office, the latter is true, with the fifth installment in the action series winning a very close horse race on this Presidents' Day weekend. The fact that this opening is significantly smaller than the one for "Live Free Or Die Hard" and that the picture is assuredly the worst in the series turns out to be irrelevant.
Read More »
More: Weekend Box-Office, Bruce Willis, A Good Day To Die Hard, Identity Thief, Beautiful Creatures, Safe Haven

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Escape From Planet Earth' With 'A Good Day To Die Hard' & 'Beautiful Creatures'

  • By Emma Bernstein
  • |
  • February 15, 2013 7:11 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
News
Dear faithful readers, we hope you enjoyed your day of stuffed animals, roses, and antacids in the shape of little hearts. Or maybe you just got drunk and ate cheesecake (after which you probably needed a couple of those Rolaids disguised as candy). Holiday traditions are the best, aren't they? Well, in case you didn't get enough of the love, there's plenty going around in theaters this weekend. A(nother) fantastical being falls hard for a(nother) human, John McClane bonds with his son, a call girl finds herself torn between a client and her fiancé, paramours turn pathological in an Indian remake, and one more Nicholas Sparks lovefest sobathon -- er, novel -- gets a silver screen adaptation. Be sure to pack some insulin for the sugar rush, and tell us what you'll be seeing in the comments below!
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Beautiful Creatures, Safe Haven, Like Someone In Love, The Jeffrey Dahmer Files

Watch: Ben Stiller's 'Die Hard 12' Sketch That Is More Of A 'Die Hard' Movie Than 'A Good Day To Die Hard'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • February 15, 2013 12:43 PM
  • |
  • 3 Comments
News
Of the many, many things wrong with the thoroughly awful "A Good Day To Die Hard," the major issue is that it barely contains any of the trademarks that made the franchise unique in the first place. Oh sure, there's the always quip-ready Bruce Willis, but there's no villain with a crazy scheme or any sign that John McClane is ever in any real danger. 'Good Day' merely has McClane and his son running through Moscow, blowing shit up, and jumping through more plate glass windows than you thought possible while chasing some vague file. Basically, it could be mistaken for any faceless production Luc Besson cranks out these days. So who would've thought that Ben Stiller would have got it right more than a decade ago?
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, Bruce Willis

Review: John McClane Becomes A Non-Entity In The Faceless & Tedious McActioner 'A Good Day To Die Hard'

  • By Rodrigo Perez
  • |
  • February 13, 2013 5:28 PM
  • |
  • 11 Comments
Reviews
If you were to tell the even the average civilian who frequented movies that the script for "A Good Day To Die Hard" was actually just another generic actioner found in a studio pile and then subsequently retrofitted to fit the "Die Hard" brand, said average schmoe would have no reason to doubt you. In fact, this was exactly the case for both “Die Hard With A Vengeance” -- originally called “Simon Says” -- and "Live Free Or Die Hard," which started as "WW3.com" (seriously) with neither originally conceived for the franchise. That is to say there’s almost nothing distinguishable that identifies this particular story with the John McClane (Bruce Willis) narrative -- that of an everyman New York cop who often finds himself a magnet for trouble -- other than gigantic broad strokes. This is how largely anonymous and colorless, "Die Hard 5" aka “A Good Day To Die Hard” truly is. Set in Russia for seemingly random (and antiquated) reasons and featuring a father/son dynamic that's uninspired and banal, the fifth installment of this series takes a weak, half-baked story and simply grafts it onto John McClane's ongoing adventures, but for no discernible reason other than to keep said adventures going.
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Die Hard 5, Jai Courtney, John Moore, Review, Reviews

Survive Hard: All The Times John McClane Should Have Died In The ‘Die Hard’ Series

  • By The Playlist Staff
  • |
  • February 13, 2013 12:58 PM
  • |
  • 5 Comments
News
In 1988, when the first "Die Hard" was released, Bruce Willis' everyday action hero John McClane was something of an anomaly. This was the era of the invincible action superstar – people like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who would waltz through action movies firing machine guns, surviving explosions with the casualness of someone doing laundry or putting up wallpaper. With "Die Hard," McClane was a new kind of hero -- a New York City cop who is afraid of flying, who's deeply insecure about his marriage and who, once bank-robbing terrorists seize a Los Angeles skyscraper, forgets his shoes, embodied by an actor most knew from a primetime comedy. And while there are plenty of instances where he survives against all odds, he also gets cut, bleeds, and screws up – things that these Reagan-era he-men rarely (if ever) did. As the series progressed, things became more and more cartoon-y for John McClane, until, by the fourth film, he was just as undefeatable as the heroes he was once such a refreshing antithesis to.
Read More »
More: Die Hard, Die Hard 5, Bruce Willis, Features, Feature, A Good Day To Die Hard

Watch: New Clip From 'A Good Day To Die Hard' Plus Key & Peele Get Really Excited For The Sequel

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • February 12, 2013 4:03 PM
  • |
  • 5 Comments
News
If you haven't made your plans for Valentine's Day for your special someone, may we remind you that it's less than 48 hours away, and if you want to get into somebody's good books, you might want track down a reservation. But if you do manage to convince the special person in your life to go with you to the theater to see "A Good Day To Die Hard," no one will be able to match the excitement of Key & Peele for the fifth entry in the franchise.
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney

Bruce Willis Says There Will Be Sixth 'Die Hard,' Speaks Out Against Gun Control

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • February 6, 2013 5:38 PM
  • |
  • 8 Comments
News
So the fifth entry in the wheezing "Die Hard" franchise comes out in just over a week, and surprisingly, it's taken this long for the inevitable talk about a sixth entry to crop up. But with Bruce Willis on the press trail, the question has been asked, and the answer from the actor is simple: "Yes."
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Bruce Willis, Die Hard 6

The 10 Films Worth Tracking Down In Theaters In February

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
  • |
  • February 1, 2013 1:57 PM
  • |
  • 3 Comments
Features
As months on the movie calendar go, February is one of the quieter ones. It doesn't have the Oscar leftovers, or sheer terribleness of January, meanwhile, the hopeful blockbusters of the spring and summer still seem far, far away. But that doesn't mean that there's nothing worth seeing.
Read More »
More: Side Effects, Lore, No, A Good Day To Die Hard, Beautiful Creatures, Like Someone In Love, Sound City, Warm Bodies, Identity Thief

Watch: Bruce Willis & Jai Courtney Shoot The Glass In Clip From 'A Good Day To Die Hard'

  • By Ken Guidry
  • |
  • January 31, 2013 10:43 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
News
Well, we are just a few weeks away from the next installment of the "Die Hard" franchise, and for those who can’t wait to see John McClane back in action again, perhaps this clip will be enough to hold you over for now. It’s already been established that the film’s taking place in Russia this time around, and as we noted yesterday, “A Good Day to Die Hard” will also wind up being the shortest film in the franchise at a lean 97 minutes. As the clip demonstrates, McClane is not in Russia to do any sightseeing.
Read More »
More: A Good Day To Die Hard, Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney

Follow Us

Email Updates

What's Poppin'

Recent Comments

Blog Roll

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories