director John Moore seems dead-set on ruining the formula. Through obnoxious shaky cam, sloppy editing, and aggressively insipid direction of a mediocre screenplay, Moore proves himself unable to stick even the tiniest moment, rendering all of those series' trademarks painfully perfunctory and entirely tone-deaf. Moore's work here is so bad it prevents the movie from even being an anonymous 21st century popcorn diversion.

Moore shares a couple of traits in common with Wiseman: he loves the traditional teal and orange palette of modern action movies (boring), and he has some interest in practical effects (good). Unfortunately, the impressive effort by Moore's stunt team on a massive car chase near the beginning of the film is completely ruined by his inability to hold a shot, either steady or for longdementia).

Things do not improve from there. Similar to the "Unrated" version of its predecessor, A Good Day to Die Hard refuses to commit to the violence or language. Some CG arterial spray and the occasional f-bomb (many added in post-production) aside, this R-rated outing manages feels more neutered than even the PG-13 previous film, which at least offered brutality in line with, say, Casino Royale or the Bourne franchise. Excepting a single death ripped from not only Die Hard but another Bruce Willis action-comedy, there's no impact to any of the violence on display, whether it's villainous Russians, or McClane himself. At least in the last film, Willis played McClane with a nice weariness, uncertainty, and occasional exhaustion; this time he survives two rollover accidents in the first