Back in September, it was reported that the sixth installment of the Die Hard franchise was retitled into McClane, from the unofficial Die Hard: Year One.
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| John McClane in Die Hard from deadline.com |
The film was said to explore the rookie year of John McClane while still exploring his present-day adventures.
Since we do not have further updates after that, let us enjoy ourselves with these two Die Hard-like movies form 2018.
As an impact of the first Die Hard movie in 1988, the movie itself has become a separate movie genre. When a building, or any structure (like cruise ships, and plane), would be hijacked by terrorists and only one man could do save the people being hostage, you would call it a Die Hard film of this actor, of that actor.
Jackie Chan had his one in City Hunter, and arguably, Harrison Ford with Air Force One. In 2018, Dave Bautista and Dwayne Johnson had theirs. Two former professional wrestlers in two different films, Final Score (Bautista) and Skyscraper (Johnson).
Skyscraper already received mixed reviews upon the release of its movie poster. The jump featured in the movie poster was mathematically impossible to do. The Rock would definitely miss his target. Bad publicity was still publicity. It worked and it made me want to try and watch the movie.
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| Skyscraper Promo Poster from mensjournal.com |
The movie gave the Die Hard genre a twist. The Rock had an obstacle with him. He was amputated and was given an artificial leg. Of course, the movie exploited this artificial leg and made all sorts of situations convenient for The Rock with the help of his artificial leg.
The movie also borrowed bits from Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon with the mirror fight scene at the end of the film.
Overall, it was an enjoyable film. But it was just a silly take on the Die Hard genre.
Final Score was more low-key than Skyscraper and that made it more worthwhile to watch, for me.
It was like this - it let its action and overall feel do the talking. Having Pierce Brosnan in it definitely did help. Although while I expected him to die in this one, I hoped that he could have done more action in the movie.
In Final Score, Bautista was accompanying his niece into a soccer match which Pierce Brosnan's character would also come and watch. The problem was that there was a terrorist looking all over for Pierce Brosnan's character.
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| Final Score Promo Poster from cinenews.be |
Brosnan's character actually just changed his identity. He was actually the terrorist's brother.
I loved how the movie fit some Die Hard references like how the number of terrorists was identified, and the call made saying that Bautista The Rock was the only chance they could have in order to save the hostages.
There was also added drama in the movie with the father of his niece, who was actually a colleague of Bautista who died in the line of duty.
Overall, the movie made more sense with its mixed drama, comedy, and over the top action.
Dave Bautista was in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, and I thought that he would be typecasted into villain roles. However, he now has Escape Plan 2: Hades, and Final Score in his resume, and of course, his portrayal of Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
