2006; 129 minutes. Genre : Action; Sequel. MPAA Rating : PG-13. Blog Rating : C-.
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This Weekend I Watched...
The fourth in the Die Hard series, and probably the fifth movie I've watched this year. Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, this time to thwart a UE who wants to destroy the USA by wreaking havoc upon our governmental, financial and utility institutions.
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What's To Like...
The action is non-stop. The stunts are impressive. Bruce Willis' performance is better than what I feared. Best of all, Justin Long, the "Mac guy" in those "Mac vs. PC" commercials, plays McClane's sidekick/foil and does a good job.
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What's Not To Like...
On a scale of 1-to-10, the believability of LFoDH is about a minus-5. Yeah I know, Die Hard plots aren't supposed to be plausible, but this one wallows in impossibility. Bad guys fall out of helicopters, hit the asphalt, dust themselves off, and walk away. Stealth fighters fire all their bullets and missiles at McClane - in an 18-wheeler no less - and somehow miss. And what takes the cake is Willis wind-surfing on the wing of that stealth-fighter right before it crashes.
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Worse, the things that made the Die Hard 1-3 movies enjoyable are missing. The UE in Die Hard 1 is a delightful character. And in all three of the earlier Die Hards, half the fun was trying to figure out the bad guys' ultimate intentions. There's nothing delighful or mysterious here.
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Live Free and Hard, but just Die...
I have to say I liked the first three Die Hards. #1 (the high rise one) : A. #2 (the airport one) = A+. #3 (dump trucks and tunnels) = B. So perhaps my expectations were set too high for LFoDH. Or maybe the scriptwriters have run out of ideas how to lacerate and contuse Willis, so rock-em sock-em stunts are subbed instead. In any event, this movie was a letdown. It's time to either replace the writers, or else let this series quietly expire.
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