It’s twelve years since his last big screen adventure but John McClane (Willis, minus wife beater and most of his hair) is still the man to call when a bunch of good looking cyber terrorists start causing mayhem across the US.
It’s the 4th July but McClane isn’t celebrating. He’s had yet another argument with his daughter Lucy and has just been given the demeaning assignment of bringing in a young hacker, Matt Farrell (Long), for questioning by the FBI.
Unsurprisingly, this simple task soon turns into an explosive bloodbath that sees Bruce dispatching half a dozen bad guys before most of the audience have settled into their seats.
With Farrell’s help, McClane learns that a cyber attack is underway on the United States computer systems, shutting down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme, Thomas Gabriel (Olyphant), has worked out every modern angle... but he never figured on McClane – the old school “analog” fly in the “digital” ointment.
They say:
Empire: "Yippee-ki-yay! Willis still has the goods. Credit to Wiseman, who keeps the thrills coming and pass the popcorn.”
Guardian: “Willis was entitled to one more kick ass action outing. But please, let this be the last. Anything more would be dying soft.”
Variety: “The sheer quantity of often outrageous stunts should help overcome franchise mustiness to entertain general audiences.”
We say:
Looking more like one of the Mitchell brothers than the wise cracking NYPD cop we first met back in 1988, Bruce Willis’s (52) action hero career seems to have come to an end in this disappointing conclusion to the Die Hard franchise.
Despite including numerous references to the first, and finest, entry in the series, writer Mark Bomback (Godsend) seems to have forgotten what made the original concept so effective.
Rather than confining the action to one isolated area and giving McClane a clear goal, we're dragged all the way across Washington as he attempts to save the world from destruction in an over elaborate James Bond style plot.
Director Len “Underworld” Wiseman shows some flair in the early set pieces (check out the gravity defying elevator shaft punch up), but the final act drags on for nearly 40 minutes with one cartoonish, CGI action sequence piled on top of another.
Also, by making 4.0 the first non R rated entry in the series, the violence and swearing has had to be toned down, removing some of the key traits from McClane’s character.
While there are a few decent throwaway lines (Farrell: You just killed a helicopter with a car! McClean: I was out of bullets), Willis can’t deliver a one liner like he used to and the constant references to the earlier movies only remind us of what we’re missing.
Thankfully, Justin Long makes a surprisingly entertaining new sidekick for Willis (Samuel L Jackson wasn’t asked back), but Olyphant is given little to do as McClane’s nemesis and Maggie Q’s character doesn’t hang around long enough to make an impression.
Unfortunately, the opposite’s true for Willis who should have hung up his gun after episode three.
Extras:
A handful of deleted scenes and a pretty lame commentary. The two disc edition also includes a Making Of documentary but, as you'll know all of McClane's finest moments already, it's not worth the extra money.
CAST
Bruce Willis
Justin Long
Maggie Q
Tim Olyphant
Kevin Smith
Cliff Curtis
DIRECTOR
Len Wiseman
TIME
130 mins
POSTED...
Mon 2 Jul 2007 at 4:28pm
