A Good Day to Die Hard Will Be Rated R

Posted by on January 15th, 2013   Filed under: Action, Industry News
Source: AICN

Apparently last Friday was a good day to be a Die Hard fan. This is when word first broke that the upcoming fifth Die Hard film A Good Day to Die Hard had officially garnered an R-rating from the MPAA. This is a bit of a surprise considering that the last film, Live Free or Die Hard, was released as a PG-13 film much to the disappointment of long-time fans. It was a move aimed at expanding the film’s potential audience (and as a result, its box office revenue), but ultimately Live Free or Die Hard only made about $20 million more than Die Hard with a Vengeance. So now it appears that they’ve decided that the bad PR from a PG-13 rating isn’t worth the minimal reward. Yippee ki-yay?

The news first broke over on Collider last Friday before eventually being confirmed by Ain’t It Cool News. Bruce Willis has verified that Fox won’t be recutting the film for a PG-13 rating, they simply decided that the MPAA’s decision “was for the best.” We can probably also thank the success of The Expendables for this decision. But does this mean that the movie will actually be any good?

While I do think that great action films can be made within a PG-13 rating, I prefer not to see the seams where they have made cuts to avoid violence and profanity. For the last film they released an Unrated cut on DVD, which many fans seemed to appreciate, but from what I understand most of the blood was added digitally after the fact. I suspect they still used the same method this time around, but hopefully John Moore can at least deliver the movie he intended to make in the first place. A Good Day to Die Hard hits theatres on February 14th… does this news give you faith that it will deliver the goods?

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  • Colin

    Bruce Willis looks like an animated corpse in that screen shot.

  • http://www.MosserCasting.com/PlanBFromOuterSpace PlanBFromOuterSpace

    This could be like “Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem”, where it’s too little too late, and nobody gives a shit that it’s not PG-13 like the last one, that the goodwill for the franchise has been pissed away.

  • Indianamcclain

    At #2, I give a shit but that’s probably because I enjoyed the last one.

  • Brendan

    The bigger thing for me that seemed missing in the last film was the profanity, not the blood. It just seemed out of character for McLane to not be cursing like a sailor every other word.

    Of course, there were other things that made it not seem very “Die Hard.” It’s been a while since I saw it (the unrated version), but if I remember correctly, McClane didn’t seem as panicked or on edge as in previous movies. There should be that tone of constantly being in danger for a successful Die Hard film.

  • La Menthe

    @Brendan, I completely agree. It’s the moments where he is a nervous wreck, and is frustratingly laughing over the disastrous situation he is in, that makes John McClane, John McClane. It is when he is sitting exhausted on the ground, covered in sweat and blood, and swearing and nagging about his condition, that makes him the character we know. In Die Hard 4, this function was mistakenly given to Justin Long’s character, where McClane played the “don’t complain”-role — a part that doesn’t fit him at all. They seem to have done the same mistake in the fifth installment.

  • Derek McFarland

    @Colin
    lol….yeah he does…

    I will admit i’m happy to hear that it will be rated R….I’d say that sounds like a good start (a better start than the film, Max Payne). I’m still a bit worried about the film being made by Moore though….Behind Enemy Lines was probably one of the only movies he did, that I thought was somewhat cool. I guess I was just really let down with Max Payne, consider how much of a fan I was for the first game, back in the day.

  • Stinker

    Well who cares, a little bit more digital Blood, a little bit more mother….er, s..t, f..k and so on. Hope the movie is better than live free otherwise it will die fast.

  • scott

    I’d be more interested to see a G-rated DIE HARD. They might actually get creative with it.

  • Colin

    I think too much emphasis is being put on the physical rating. To me, Die Hard 4 sucked not because it lacked Fucks and blood, but rather because it was intellectually a movie for 13 year-olds.

    So sure, it’s nice to hear Die Hard 5 won’t hold back on the violence and swearing, but I’m still not convinced it’ll be a movie for adults.

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