Die Hard, But No Need To Watch Too Hard (Die Hard 4.0 (DVD))

Member Name: Zak87

Product:	Die Hard 4.0 (DVD)
Date:	10/11/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Explosions! Car Crashes! Falling elevator shafts!

Disadvantages: Little or no plot, but who's keeping track anyway?

Die Hard 4.0 is the third sequel to the seminal work of the action genre, Die Hard. While favouring action over plot, the film provides enough predictable explosions and gun fights to keep fans of the first three films happy, it is also well-developed enough to put it at the peak of action movies.

The film focuses on the efforts of a group of computer hackers who attempt to bring the USA to a stand-still on Independence Day through targeting several key elements of its infrastructure. Police detective John McClane, is forced to accompany Matt Farrell (Justin Long), who was involved in early stages of the plot, as the two attempt to save America from total implosion.

Bruce Willis reprises his role as John McClane, the troubled yet heroic cop who is dragged away from his everyday police duties (one imagines including walking his beat, spinning a truncheon, etc.) to, once again, save the world from terrorists. Willis does what he does best: stopping the bad guys in the loudest, most audacious way possible, while cracking one-liners which would normally be considered highly inappropriate. Although noticeably older than in previous films, he proves that he can still do justice to the role with a solid performance, perhaps the only thing that is worth mentioning apart from the action sequences. Long is competent as the accompanying computer hacker, but will always play second fiddle to Willis and the CGI.

The action sequences are, as we would expect, visually stunning. While there are good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combats, vastly expansive vehicle collisions (such as the much publicised "car-being-driven-into-a-helicopter" scene) show a little something different from the Die Hard franchises' competitors. The action is well-thought out, and certainly delivers on fan's expectations.

The plot...well, the plot isn't important. It's merely a lot of computing mumbo-jumbo which, for all I know, could be plausible or not. It really should be a stepping stone for Bruce Willis to blow stuff up, as always.

So I rated this film 4 stars. Quite an achievement, given that I normally wouldn't even think of giving an action movie of this sort more than 3. Die Hard 4.0, though, despite being as far from a clever, plot-driven film as possible, delivers in all the areas it aims at. All the elements coming together perfectly demonstrate just how far above the norm of fast-paced action films this really is.

Perhaps not as good as the first three, but it comes very close.

Summary: Vastly superior to lookalikes in the genre.