REVIEW: Let's get the basics out of the way first: If you want to see "A Good Day to Die Harder," the fifth film in the "Die Hard" series, that's pretty much a guarantee that you'll like it. Don't read the negative reviews that are sure to come out, just go.

No, Bruce Willis, 57, is not too old to be an action hero (though a few "Grandpa" jokes go a long way). Yes, he sails through blizzards of bullets seemingly untouched, makes the same joke ("I'm on vacation!") a dozen times, and the actual movie plot makes little sense (secret files and weapons-grade uranium and a truly bizarre visit to Chernobyl). So what? 

Willis tells GQ in the magazine's new issue that he knows he'll never win an Academy Award for his role as John McClane, saying "you don't get an Oscar for shooting people." Got that right.

But in McClane, he's created a truly classic character, and he deserves recognition. Untouchable, unbreakable heroes like the ones Arnold Schwarzenegger plays are fine in their place, but McClane's not that. He's more Indiana Jones or McGyver, street-smart and world-weary. He spots things others don't, dives through escape hatches that a sane person wouldn't consider, and through it all, remains the action hero you'd most want to have a beer with.

Here's the difference: Schwarzenegger knows he's the Terminator. Willis acts like he's a lunkhead with a gun, a hapless Joe just trying to get home. Terminators are fun to watch, but hapless Joes are the ones we take to heart.

This installment sends McClane to Moscow in pursuit of his equally lunkheaded son Jack (Aussie Jai Courtney), who turns out to be as much of a superhero as Dad, even though the actor himself has none of Willis' beer-me personality. Father and son hate each other at the start, then come around, duh.

20th Century Fox

Like father, like son: Bruce Willis' John McClane and his son Jack team up in "A Good Day to Die Hard."

That doesn't matter. What matters is that Willis is still a comfortable tour guide through the car-flipping, tank-driving, window-smashing wreckage that is "Die Hard's" stock and trade. His McClane tries to stop cars with his body. He takes a call from his daughter while driving over other vehicles. He dubs other characters "Papa Gepetto" and "Odd Job," bluntly confesses he's a bad dad, and agrees with his son that "we're not really a hugging family." He wins the audience over to the point that the plot holes and logic lapses and unexplained minor characters sail past you like the fusillades of bullets.

The "Die Hard" series has had some heart-in-your-throat moments, from a horrifying plane crash ("Die Hard 2") to McClane being forced to wear a racist sign in the middle of Harlem ("Die Hard With a Vengeance"). It's unlikely any moments from this film will stand out in the same way -- although one especially gruesome bad-guy death had the audience howling with laughter.  The father-son feud is meant to be the backbone of this one, and that makes for a lighter, never stressful movie.

Back in 2010, Willis said he'd make this film and then one more "Die Hard" installment  before he lets McClane yippee-ki-yay off into the sunset. But action heroes today scoff at mandatory retirement. Schwarzenegger just made "The Last Stand" at 65, and 66-year-old Sly Stallone starred in "Expendables 2." Willis himself has a role in "Expendables 3" and the upcoming "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." In other words, we'll believe McClane's retired when we see the AARP card, and not before.

Will you see "A Good Day to Die Hard"? How long can Willis keep at it? Tell us on Facebook.

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Reuters

John McTiernan.

No more sequels for John McTiernan. Prison looms for the 62-year-old "Die Hard" director after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his conviction for making false statements to FBI agents while they were building an illegal-wiretapping case against celebrity private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who's been behind bars since 2006.

McTiernan initially copped to lying to federal investigators in April 2006 and agreed to cooperate, but, with a new lawyer on his case, he moved to withdraw his guilty plea in September 2007.

The Pellicano trial wrought quite a bit of celebrity fallout

He was indicted a second time, pleaded guilty as a formality in order to give him the opportunity to appeal after he failed to prevent a key piece of evidence from being used against him, and was sentenced to a year in federal prison and fined $100,000.

See more celebs who've had mug-shot-worthy run-ins with the law

In August, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his petition to have the conviction thrown out, paving the way for him to start serving a year-long prison sentence, but Team McTiernan opted to try its hand with the highest court in the land.

They struck out in that field on Monday, according to Reuters.

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Oh, yes. "Die Hard" fans, we have just four months to wait. A short teaser trailer from "Die Hard 5," aka "A Good Day to Die Hard," has been released, and it's the Die Harderest of them all.

As Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" crashes in the background, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane to do some crashing of his own. Choppers! Guys in hazmat suits! Menacing figures on fast bikes! Bruce Willis racking a giant shotgun in an elevator! Breathtakingly gorgeous  Julia Snigir unzipping a black leather catsuit to reveal sexy lingerie!

Buildings blow up! Cars blow up! For some reason, a piano seems to blow up!

And Bruce Willis just smiles, and dubs himself "the 007 of Plainfield, New Jersey."

Yippie-ki-yay, monkey fighters. We're pretty sure that's the line, right?

The movie opens on Feb. 14, which makes sense for such a romantic film.

Will you see "Die Hard 5"? Tell us on Facebook.

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Wait, this wasn't in the script, was it? Talk about an action movie!

In true adrenaline-pumping Hollywood fashion, a fire broke out Thursday on the Budapest set of the latest "Die Hard" sequel after a high-flying stunt went awry, engulfing a building in flames, E! News has confirmed.

Alas, contrary to at least one heroism-touting report, Bruce Willis was not on hand to battle the blaze himself.

More from E! Online: Cute alert! Bruce Willis and baby Mabel!

"There was a fire on the set of 'A Good Day to Die Hard' in Hungary," 20th Century Fox said in a statement. "No one was injured by the flames, which occurred during a pyrotechnics stunt just after midnight CET on Thursday, and were contained a short while later. Bruce Willis, was not on set, nor were other principal cast. Principal photography on the movie began in April in Budapest, and is expected to wrap late summer."

Production crews were reportedly shooting a scene that called for a helicopter to land near a five-story wooden structure whose lobby would be set on fire for the action sequence.

However, stunt coordinators didn't anticipate that the helicopter's expansive blades would actually stoke the fire, causing the flames to quickly spread and raze the building.

The fifth "Die Hard" flick also costars Patrick Stewart and is scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 14, 2013.

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