Another Day Saving The World (Die Hard 4.0 (DVD))

Member Name: spencer_hawken

Product:	Die Hard 4.0 (DVD)
Date:	21/01/08 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better than the second and third Die Hard outings

Disadvantages: Creates a difficult path for other action movies to follow

Oh how I laugh! I have today had the good fortune to read some reviews that stated Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free Die Hard as it's called in the other half of the world) is incredibly far fetched! HELLO!!!! Lets analyse this a bit; John McClane having taken on three of the worlds deadliest gangs in the previous three films takes on a forth! The same John McClane that saved all those people in Nagatomi Plaza, the same John McClane that battled mercenaries trying to take over an airport and a selection of planes; and the very same John McClane that stopped a madman blowing up New York! Of course it's far fetched and if you have seen the previous 3 movies then that should be a given! And let's face it we watch movies to escape, we like adventure, we like far fetched stories, if we never we'd just head off down to our nearest corner store looking for action.
Die Hard 4.0 does have certain realistic qualities; its plot follows a madman, (surprise! Surprise!) Who plans to teach America a lesson my shutting it down, taking away its money, its phones, its electric, its gas, and its water supply. If you had the knowledge and wanted to make an impact, wouldn't you do the same? I personally feel the public response to these lifelines being cut off one by one is pretty much damn near accurate, and that reaction is firstly not to get it, then to panic.

As with the previous Die Hard instalments, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is not alone; this time he is joined by Matt Farrell (Justin Long) a kid who is partially the cause for all the havoc that America faces on this fateful day. Matt is a computer hacker, who at the start of the movie is simply hacking a code in exchange for money, unbeknown to him of course is the massive effect his and others actions have. Having been collected for interrogation by John, the two are immediately thrown into the line of fire, as the nasty forces that hired Matt need to remove their commodity from the equation.

Die Hard 4.0 is without a doubt the most action packed movie of the year, and I'd probably go as far as to say the most action packed movie of the new Millennium (so far). This rollercoaster movie starts with aggressive action and continues for the movies 2 hour duration, its repeated punches are not unlike being back at school and receiving a "dead arm". And the magnificent thing about this movie is that it only turns to computer generated special effects when it really has to, the rest of the movies effects are performed live action, or by models. Personally I feel we put too much time into CGI effects and not so much into the convincing effects of yesteryear. So much fuss was made about the bridge destruction in War Of The Worlds; well here is another one, this time ten times the size. There was not one time during the movie that I felt it was battling against inferior effects, even when Bruce Willis takes on a fighter jet. Die Hard 4.0 reminds me very much of the James Bond movies of the Roger Moore era, in particular A View To A Kill. With previous Die Hard movies, John McClane was put in situations what allowed little diversity, here he meets a combination of his previous encounters and has some brand new threats to deal with too. And this is where the comparison to A View To A Kill comes in, that movie was incredibly varied, and this one is exactly the same. Add to this the ruthlessness of its central bad guy, played pretty well by Timothy Olyphant.

Our three heroic leads come in the form of Bruce Willis, Justin Long, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Lucy McClane); and all three are pretty good at what they do, following in the wake of Stallone Bruce Willis cements his hard man image and will without a doubt step clear of his recent wilderness years and return with a whole string of action blockbusters. Justin Long finally manages to shake off his Jeepers Creepers image, and stand as an occasionally strong but ultimately comedy based role. And relative newcomer Winstead takes some McClane and Willis traits creating a fantastically aggressive young woman, the sort that McClane would be proud to declare as his daughter. This threesome work really well together and I'd be greatly surprised if in a few years we did not see another Die Hard movie featuring all three.
Kevin Smith turns up as Warlock a computer whizz with his hands on every technological pulse. From the build up, you realised that Warlock was not going to be any old actor, you understood this was going to make you go "oh its him" unfortunately a more impressive actor might have taken the story to a different level, as it is it develops into a "oh its Silent Bob" kind of thing.

The usual cry of Die Hard 4.0 will look better on the big screen than it does on the small screen, will reverberate around for a bit. But sorry it works just as well in the comfort of your own living room, and unless you have a special monthly pass, it's certainly a cheaper option to watch it at home. I never for one minute wished I was watching the movie at the cinema, I enjoyed it sat in front of my 32 inch screen, and even enjoyed watching portions on my bedroom portable. The film is too big to be confined by the limits of your TV screen, it absorbs you and sucks you in, and there is too much going on to worry about screen size.

Now it might sound like I'm saying this is the best movie ever made, in my eyes its certainly not, I prefer my movies a little more full bodied. The story is reasonably well thought out, incredibly action packed, and all of the characters (even the bad guys) are likeable ones. So from an all round entertainment value this works marvellously. Will we be talking about Die Hard 4.0 in 50 years time? I very much doubt it, the level of expectation that Die Hard delivers this time round, means that the next big blockbuster action movie will have to deliver more, or else be viewed as a poor relative. And I guess that will be Die Hard 4.0's legacy, that it created a path that was very difficult to follow.

Summary: Best Die Hard movie since 88