The fifth installment of Bruce Willis’ career-making ‘Die Hard’ franchise, ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’, hit theaters February 14, 2013. Unfortunately, seasoned moviegoers know February is the dumping ground for lazy, unimaginative, sloppy action flicks. ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ is without a doubt the final nail in the coffin for Detective John McClane, and Toonari is here to explain why the franchise needs to bite the dust for good. Mild spoilers ahead.

John McClane has nothing left to offer the audience

The original ‘Die Hard’ was a hit: the snarky New York officer ran around kicking butt, getting beaten up, and generally pissing off one of the greatest film villains of all time. John McClane is a household name because of his lack of respect for authority, his foul mouth, and his easy trigger finger. By the fifth film, McClane is no longer an honest, lucky guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. He comes across as boorish and arrogant in the Moscow setting. His character works so much better in the previous films, even in the lukewarm ‘Live Free or Die Hard,’ that in the fifth movie he seems like a hollow shell of himself.

The writers keep giving him annoying sidekicks

One of the reasons why ‘Die Hard’ was so awesome is because it was one guy hopelessly outnumbered by bigger, stronger, badder German mercenaries. Adding a foil to John McClane is unnecessary (with the exception of Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) in ‘Die Hard 3’ because he was funny, useful, and a great character). Jack McClane (Jai Courtney) is nothing more than a younger, less interesting shadow of his father and served absolutely no purpose other than to bounce dialogue off of his much cooler predecessor.

The villains cannot hold their mud compared to Hans Gruber

By far, this new villain is the weakest threat of the bunch. The first ‘Die Hard’ characterized Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) so well that he is almost as much of a household name as McClane. He was vicious, articulate, and cunning. The new villain is dull, has weak motivations, and is stuffed full of clichés. Even worse, the villain in the trailer is not the true villain and dies in the third act with no build up. The real villain is revealed in the last thirty minutes of the film,but it does not add anything to the story.

The films are almost entirely independent of each other after the third movie

The first two ‘Die Hard’ sequels worked because they made references to the original and tied back into the story relatively well. However, the fourth and fifth films barely string anything from the previous flicks together, aside from a brief cameo by McClane’s daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Jack McClane’s continuous digs at his dad for not caring about national security make no sense when John McClane stops cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) from stealing millions of dollars that would have collapsed the U.S. government. Additionally, McClane’s previous cohorts are forgotten. The audience never finds out what happened to Al (Reginald VelJohnson), Zeus, Matthew (Justin Long) or any other characters who made it out of the earlier movies alive. It is foolish to continue making movies without referencing the characters who helped make them worthwhile.

The filmmakers seem to misunderstand why we love the ‘Die Hard’ series

There are a plethora of reasons why the first ‘Die Hard’ is an American classic. The action is relatively realistic and superb, the stakes are high, and the dialogue is wonderfully irreverent. It is an incredibly memorable film because it presented a great character with plenty of flaws, a nasty villain, an engrossing heist, and a metric ton of violence and profanity. By the fifth film, it is impossible to see any of the enjoyable aspects of the franchise any longer; it has been bogged down with sickening clichés and an invincible main character with no involvement in the story. McClane has no motivation to hunt down the villain in ‘Good Day’, and that is one of the movie’s worst flaws.

With any luck, this ‘Die Hard’ will be the last, as many reviews reflect our aforementioned issues with the flick. It is safe to say that McClane should lay down his gun and retire before he starts making the audience wish they would die. Hard.

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FX’s hit show, ‘Justified’ (2010), about an urban cowboy and U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, is getting a fourth season. It was announced Tuesday, March 6^th, 2012, to the delight of its rather large fanbase.

‘Justified’, based on the short story and novels by Elmore Leonard, tells the tale of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant): a handsome Deputy U.S. Marshal with impeccable style, a distinctive (borderline memetic) off-white cowboy hat, and unbelievable quick draw skills. However, an incident in Miami involving a public shooting  gets Raylan reassigned to Lexington, Kentucky, a spitting distance from his hometown of Harlan.

Raylan has a great dislike for Harlan, because over the years it has become a breeding ground for drugs, prostitution, and all other manners of crime. But he is forced to return after one of his childhood friends, Boyd Crowder (Walt Goggins), is accused of bombing a church. Raylan uses his smarts to track Boyd down, and they have a good old-fashioned standoff in the kitchen of Boyd’s stepsister, Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter), who had recently killed Boyd’s brother for abusing her. Raylan shoots Boyd in the chest, but Boyd lives and is hospitalized before heading to jail.

Season one sets up the main cast and establishes the surrounding areas in Raylan’s world, which includes Lexington, Harlan, and a few other towns. Raylan’s boss is Chief Deputy Art Mullen (Nick Searchy), a sarcastic, tough, but ultimately fair authority figure. He and Raylan constantly bicker, but Art recognizes Raylan’s unparalleled ability to catch criminals and keep innocent bystanders from getting killed when things go south. Raylan also recognizes that while Art always gives him a hard time, he is someone Raylan can trust when things get rough.

Raylan is joined by Rachel Brooks (Erica Tazel), a polite, highly competent fellow Marshal, and Tim Gutterson (Jacob Pitts); a sharp-tongued sharpshooter who enjoys pushing Raylan’s buttons.

Raylan also becomes involved with Ava Crowder for a while, who had been nursing a crush on him before he left to be a U.S. Marshal, but things don’t last long, as Raylan’s ex-wife Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea) saunters back into the picture. Winona is married to a real estate businessman named Gary Hawkins (Williams Ragsdale), whom Raylan is not a fan of at all. Raylan and Winona are both still in love with each other, but his job continues to keep them separate for much of the first season and ultimately in the third one as well.

Harlan is also the home of Raylan’s estranged father, Arlo Givens (Raymond J. Barry), and his aunt Helen Givens (Linda Gehringer). Raylan disowned his father years prior due to the physical abuse he and his deceased mother suffered at Arlo’s hands, but Arlo’s hot temper gets him embroiled in criminal activities throughout seasons one, two, and three, forcing Raylan to have to pick sides between the law and family, more than once.

The main conflict of the show comes from several villainous characters: Bo Crowder (M.C. Gainey), Boyd Crowder’s father and local crime boss in Harlan during season one, Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale), an ambitious drug lord, and her family, Coover and Dickie Bennett, and Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), a former Detroit mobster who comes to Harlan looking to take over, in season three. Other sources of drama stem from the inhabitants of Harlan, who have little work and no prospects to make a living, so many turn to a life of crime.

The show has been critically acclaimed and showcases excellent dialogue, shocking twists, interesting characters, and rousing action scenes. The ratings have steadily grown since its premiere in 2010, and it continues to pull in more with each season. Fans are eager to see it return next season for 13 hour-long episodes.

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It has been nearly half a decade since the last Hitman game was released onto a major console. Barring the 2007 movie with Actor Timothy Olyphant playing the role of Agent 47, the Hitman franchise has been dormant in the minds of most fans. Well that stops today with the walkthrough commentary video below.

Rumors started surfacing around 2007 parallel to the release of the movie tie in and then authenticated in 2009 for development by IO Interactive, that the next Hitman game has been a long time coming for fans of Agent 47.

Announced with an approximate release time in 2012 and a longer nearly two minute trailer (above), thanks must go to the Glacier 2 engine from IO interactive for its sheer realism and depth of detail.

Now fans can have a small taste of the game with the release of the 16 minute play through video, this time with commentary by Game Directors Tore Blystad and Gameplay Director Christian Elverdam.

The initial release of the 16 minute video without the commentary gives the players an exceptionally focused view of the game. The footage is quite dark for most of the video, which may not shed a great deal of light on how well the graphics can be expected even with the Glacier 2 engine. Still, the darkness serves to add an almost tangible sense of menace when combined with the sound and special effects. You won’t be bored watching this video, that’s for sure.

Fans will further be confused with a new skill that they’ve never seen or used before come into play during the video. The new body heat sensing skill allows Agent 47 to see through walls and floors to gain a better mental picture of his enemies’ locations.

Much improved and welcomed are the cinematic feel of the AI characters and the higher degree interactivity with the use of cover environments. Opponent dialogue has certainly improved as has the heighten realism of the shooting with slight weapon recoil. They have clearly taken cues and inspiration from some of the more successful games in the recent assassin genre.

The sound design again comes into play during the video for eliminating targets silently; the only audible sounds are the increasing suspense, followed by the crunch of bone and then silence in a targets’ heart rate.

However, the next parts of the game once you exit the building onto the adjoining roofs are anything but quiet as you are chased, shot at and leap across an open chasm  between buildings a la Jason Bourne. Towards the end of the chapter, there is even someone whom asks Agent 47 if he’d quit years ago and 47 mumbles that he never left, no doubt answering fans questions as to Agent 47′s retirement.

With the commentary however, you get a different and more complete picture of what Director’s Bylstad and Elverdam wanted to achieve. Mentioned within the first few minutes is the perceived dark and broken first chapter which is meant to convey his progression through the game. This is a significant change from past Hitman titles as those tended to stay uniformly in the same slightly drab and dark themes rather than changing as Agent 47 progressed through his journey.

The new skill as mentioned before about the body heat sensing now has a name aptly called “Instinct”. Seeing through walls and predicting the path of an enemy for much better execution of gameplay, this feature may take some of the surprise out of the experience but adds to Agent 47′s skill set when he eventually needs to eliminate another target quietly.

Additionally the commentary also reveals familiar knowledge that the game is being developed to tailor the player and give them choices. It is your choice to be the coldest assassin on the block or to spare everyone except the primary target. Perhaps we can also expect a rating system, a hallmark feature in previous Hitman titles, to rate your kill count per mission anywhere from Silent Assassin to Mass Murderer.

Another familiar touch the commentary mentions is the use of costumed disguises, which has always been a favorite aspect of the Hitman franchise. It has allowed for some of the most memorable and exciting kills in Hitman history and will certainly change gameplay since players must now match disguises with props or risk being discovered. A mailman carrying pizza for example, would be easily exposed.

One thing not completely obvious at first glance,  is that Agent 47 does not at any point in the level, despite being shot at by cops and a helicopter, ever need a health recovery. There is a health bar but perhaps for the purposes of the initial play through, this aspect was set aside? Most will wonder but hopefully new information will surface soon to further explain this specific aspect of this otherwise fantastic gameplay experience.

The newest edition of Hitman therefore, seems to be the best and brightest of all. It does what previous games could not, offering an expansive interactive experience that is sure to wow fans and new comers alike. Hopefully the main storyline and the rest of the proceeding game are equally as spectacular so that fictional assassin can meet factual gameplay.

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