John Moore (director)

John Moore
Moore at the premiere of Max Payne, 13 October 2008.
Born	1970 (age 53–54) Dundalk, Ireland
Occupation	Director, producer, writer
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Fiona Connon (2005–present)

John Moore (born 1970) is an Irish director, producer and writer who is best known for Behind Enemy Lines and for the 2013 action film in the Die Hard franchise A Good Day to Die Hard.

Early life and career

Moore was born in Dundalk, Ireland, and attended Dublin Institute of Technology, where he attained a degree in Media Arts. Upon completing his course, Moore genuinely believed that he wouldn't go on to work within the medium of film, but after a few years, that promptly changed. After graduating, he wrote and directed a series of short films in Ireland. Several of these shorts have featured on Irish TV networks over the years, and along the way Moore founded an Irish-based production company called Clingfilms. He then went on to direct several commercials, including the launch advertisement for Dreamcast, which 20th Century Fox found so impressive they gave him the $17 million (BTL) budget for Behind Enemy Lines.

To date, Moore has made five films for 20th Century Fox: Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Flight of the Phoenix (2004), The Omen (2006), Max Payne (2008) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). Despite receiving mixed reviews, both Behind Enemy Lines and The Omen did well at the box office. Flight of the Phoenix, however, received mainly negative reviews and grossed just under $35 million worldwide, much less than the film's budget. Max Payne also receiving mainly negative reviews, but became a box office success, grossing $85 million on a $35 million budget. A Good Day to Die Hard has also received mostly negative reviews, but grossed $304 million on a $92 million budget, making it his highest grossing film.

In September 2008, Moore was involved in a dispute with the MPAA over the certification of his film Max Payne. The MPAA gave the film an R rating initially, which Moore argued viciously against. The rating was a month later changed to PG-13, just before theatrical distribution.

In late 2010, Moore was announced to be the director for the recent Die Hard film, A Good Day to Die Hard. The film premiered worldwide on 14 February 2013.

Personal life

Moore's partner is Fiona Connon, a makeup artist whom he met through an industry friend early in his career in Ireland. They have one child, Buzz.

Moore's brother, Éamonn, is a senior Public Health Physician and novelist in the UK. He has written a book called The Maiwand Lion.

During the production of Behind Enemy Lines, Moore was almost hit by a tank that was blasting through a wall. A stuntman had managed to push him safely out of the way.

Critical evaluation

Despite his films receiving negative reviews from critics, for the most part Moore's films have proved popular with audiences. Critic Armond White has described Moore as "a Peckinpah-esque, neo-Eisenstein stylist whose grade-B material (Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix, The Omen) has kept him from receiving the acclaim he deserves". In his review of Max Payne, White had stated that Moore "explores genuine, contemporary anxiety [and that] his images are richer than his plots".

Among the rare positive reviews for A Good Day to Die Hard, Chris Tookey of the Daily Mail tabloid paper described the film as "...as stupid in its way as The Expendables and Taken 2, and nowhere near the quality of the first three Die Hards. But if you approach it as I did, in a mood for preposterous action and massive explosions, it does deliver escapist entertainment and it's mercifully shorter than Die Hard 4. In a week as bad as this in the cinema, it is the only new movie I would have paid to see." Tookey then gave the final verdict as being "Entertaining, but dumb." along with a 3/5 star rating.

Daniel M. Kimmel, writing for the New England Movies Weekly, found the film to be better than Live Free or Die Hard and states that the car chase scene "is well worth the price of admission". With a 3.5/5 rating, Kimmel summed up his review saying, "it's probably a good day to end the series at last, but it's an action-packed and entertaining finale." Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail criticized the action scenes as being "messy", but concluded his review saying that the film "continues the franchise without undue embarrassment."

Filmography

• Jack's Bicycle (1990) (short film)
• He Shoots, He Scores (1995) (short film)
• Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
• Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
• The Omen (2006)
• Max Payne (2008)
• A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

External links

• John Moore at the Internet Movie Database