An action packing, C.G.I lacking ,tongue-in-cheek treat! (Die Hard 4.0 (DVD))

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Die Hard 4.0 (DVD)
Date:	07/11/07 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mocking and fun

Disadvantages: Bruce is getting old girls

With the War on Terror coming to a screeching halt in America it’s only erroneous arrests and propaganda keeping it going to justify their wars in Muslim lands, leaving it to Hollywood to keep Americas fear alive.
With crinkly old Harrison Ford talking about another Raiders movie in the Middle East, post 911 has seen the great action hero’s of the eighties and nineties return with patriotic sequels of their great movie franchise to feed the Stars And Stripes macho fight back. Stallone essentially redid Rocky and called it Rocky Balboa, hoping we wouldn’t notice, whilst Arnie became Governor Schwarzenegger of the back of the Terminator 3 box-office. So why should cinemas greatest balding action hero in Bruce Willis not get in on the action, his iconic working class hero NY cop in John MaClane once again up on the big screen against extreme odds to save the day. Live Free or Die Hard, an appropriate jingoistic title, has been well worth the wait. With that ironic retro feel to it and Willis mocking humor it has to be second only to ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ for the action hit of the year.

One or two broadsheet critics got a bit sniffy about it here in the U.K. because it was deemed somewhat preposterous and implausible at times, the infamous helicopter stunt and example of. But it’s a movie! It’s meant to be outrageous and silly. It’s Die Hard Four, for Christ sake. The clue is in the title! Every action movie has to have an exploding helicopter guys John McLane is back and this is the must see action rental so far this autumn season.

-The Plot-

It’s the evening of July the 4th, Independence Day, and after a bit of fatherly concern from Detective MaClane to his daughter Lucy (actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the only other actor from the first Die Hard movie to feature in the latest one), he is called away to pick up a computer geek for the F.B.I. This assignment allows the movie to get going early on as both he and the geek are soon targets of highly trained assassins, shooting up the kid’s apartment. It seems Mat Farrell (Justin Long) and seven other hackers are targets of international terrorists and will stop at nothing to get to their ultimate goal. With all the other nerds blown to pieces by C4 explosives hidden in their PCs ( how highly intelligent hackers didn’t notice two blocks of plastic explosives marked as ‘C4’ in their base units is another story), Willis has to get his increasingly valuable human cargo to F.B.I. Headquarters in Washington DC sharpish, before the black helicopters get them.

But as well all know McLane doesn’t die hard and when the terrorists begin to electronically clog up the city, Italian Job style, causing chaos to the East Coast as major utilities and traffic systems are shutdown, the Nakatomi Plaza and Washington Dulles Airport heroics will fade into insignificance if he gets out of this pickle alive. It seems the key to his survival and beating the bad guys is the kid and his remaining hacker friend ‘Warlock’ (Kevin ‘Clerks’ Smith all of people).

With head cyber terrorist Gabriel (Tim Olyphant) and his sexy sidekick Mai Lon (Maggie Q) and her team getting nearer and nearer to the goal of shutting down the whole of America, the hackers so called and mythical ‘Fire Sale’, the clock is ticking for McLane to once again beat the impossible odds and save the day. But what are the terrorists real motives?

-The thinking on-

As silly as this is at times it’s just the best fun, high octane action the way it should be. With a refreshing distinct lack of C.G.I on show here and the directors budget enabling him to destroy a real helicopter with a real car you have to say its retro feel is its appeal. I think those invisible cars in James Bond and crowded Star Wars battle scenes has spoilt action cinema some in recent years.
For the third big action film this year those French guys who do those amazing jumping
off buildings in the opening scenes and it’s that type of danger stunt that gets you interested in the genre once again, a rawness and risk returning. You do wonder if the Blue-Screen stuntmen have a separate union to the proper ones now.

It’s great to see Willis grunt his way through the two hours of tight scrapes once again and dodge every fireball and bullet, an endless supply of slugs in his tiny magazine. I’m afraid the vest has gone ladies and most of the hair, but Willis is till sexy on screen. The vulnerable guy angle of the first two films has gone as he is now a fully fledged indestructible hero here like Sly and Army in their prime and that means the movie must be more ironic and self mocking to get away with it, which it does do with spades. Willis and co constantly refer to the previous movies in the film with a wink to camera. Rent it and enjoy it guys. It’s definitely one for the cold winter evenings and a few mates around. Girls, you keep the boys in beers and Pringles and get on top of that pile or ironing.

= = = The Special Features = = =

-Audio Commentary-

Quite a fun and talky one here with director Len Wiseman, editor Nicolas De Lets and Bruce Willis. It’s always a laugh when the big stars do one as they like to take the p*ss and you get a feel of the performers real personalities.

-Deleted Scenes-

Four in total

-Gag Reel-

Straight forward bloopers...I forgot my lines etc...

-Music Vidz-

A mock rock band called ‘Gunz 2 Nite’ sing an awful song.

-Behind the Scenes of Die Hard 4-

Not a bad one with everyone enjoying being on set and reviving McLane.

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Summary: Theres money in sequels