A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (12A, 98 mins) **
Starring Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Sergei Kolesnikov, Radivoje Bukvic, Yuliya Snigir, Cole Hauser, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Directors: John Moore.

Halfway through this outlandish fifth instalment of the Die Hard franchise, a Russian henchman scolds John McClane (Bruce Willis) for recklessness in the face of certain death.

“So arrogant,” sneers the East European underling, “it’s not 1986, you know!”

No it’s not, despite the Cold War stereotypes that perpetuate Skip Woods’s shambolic script.

This high-speed tour down Memory McClane cynically exploits our nostalgia for one of modern cinema’s most tenacious action heroes.

It’s been 25 years since Willis’s wise-cracking cop stormed the Nakatomi Plaza to rescue his wife from German terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) in the original Die Hard.

Since then, McClane has demolished an airport, played deadly games with Gruber’s psychotic brother (Jeremy Irons) and hacked down a gang of cyber terrorists in the company of his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

For this latest assignment, estranged son Jack (Courtney) enters the cinematic fray, joining the old man on a testosterone-fuelled romp through Moscow.

There’s no art, creativity or invention in this overblown sequel; no subtlety nor emotion, even with the strained father-son relationship at the heart of Woods’s screenplay.

Just outrageous set pieces which defy the laws of physics, deafening explosions that shake the entire cinema and Willis delivering his “Yippee-ki-yay” catchphrase with a weariness we share by the end credits.

A Good Day To Die Hard is a soulless money-machine exercise.

Pithy one-liners are noticeably thin on the ground and while stunts are undoubtedly bigger than previous films, they are certainly not better.

It’s anything but a good day for Die Hard.