Die Hard 4.0

USA, 2007

Director:

Len Wiseman

Starring:

Matt: D+

Adam: B

ADAM:

Firstly why is this called Live Free Or Die Hard in the States but Die Hard 4.0 here? The US title is stupid, but ours is little better. Die Hard 4 is rather uninspired but just fine. Would less people have gone to see, say, Shrek the Third if it was plain old Shrek 3? Coming up with a witty (and I use witty in the loosest possible sense of the word) title does not get you more box office. I'd guess 55% of the business for this film are fans of the first 3. Another 40% is the summer popcorn movie crowd that love car chases and explosions. Maybe 5% are big Bruce Willis fans that watch him in anything. I severely doubt there's a big demographic of computer geeks that have been swayed by seeing this because the "point zero" on the end of a perfectly good title has them salivating at the prospect of a movie made for them.

The US title (Live Free or Die Hard) is little better. Is it a choice? Live free or die hard? I'll take live free. Not a difficult choice (I'm reminded of Eddie Izzard's cake or death routine.)

Anyway I was disappointed to read the D+ review of my colleague, but the first film is so good that it secured a place in my top 25. It's absolutely perfect at what it sets out to do. The original Die Hard is the Citizen Kane of action films. Hell, it's better than Citizen Kane in my book. I'm not adverse to putting a popcorn film high in my film pantheon if it is done right. I always think a film should be judged on its own merits, based on how entertained you are whilst watching it. Great films can educate or inspire as well as entertain - see my high placing for An Inconvenient Truth last year - but surely entertainment is the bottom line? Die Hard is wonderful entertainment and the 24th best film ever (of the thousand or so that I've seen at least!) so if this 3rd sequel was half as good fun, then I would be in for a treat.

Apparently this film was adapted for the Die Hard franchise from a thriller knocking around Hollywood for a few years. It does show a little. The one location feel of the first two installments is gone, and the more sprawling feel of the third is back. Since Die Hard With a Vengeance was pretty dreadful, that may well have been a mistake. And in terms of plot it probably is. It's fairly hard to convince us that John McClane would be so far ahead of the entire FBI, NSA, Army and whatnot, that he'd ever be in the position to have to handle the whole thing on his own. Clearly we didn't have this problem in the first film, where he was trapped inside a building with the bad guys, and no matter what the officials tried to do, you always were convinced by the need for McClane to do it himself - not so here.

But the director, Len Wiseman, obviously wasn't that worried as he had a few spectacular sequences up his sleeve to make you forgive the plot absurdities. And you really would be hard pushed to not find something you'd wan to see. How about man vs woman on a dangling 4x4 in an elevator shaft for starters? Not convinced? Then how about car vs helicopter? No? Then Truck vs Jet Fighter? I have to say I particularly liked the sequence where Willis manged to stay on his feet as the jet fighter spiralled out of control before timing a perfect jump to the safety of an exploded elevated highway which had fallen to create some sort of ramp which he could use to slide down, out of harms way from expanding flames. Now you didn't get to see that in Citizen Kane did you?

If you go expected this to be good as the first then bad luck. It isn't. Timothy Olyphant (brilliant in the awesome Go) is a capable villain but no Alan Rickman - but then who is? Justin Long and Maggie Q are both dependable but this is Willis' film and it's great to see John McClane back in action, even if every Bruce Willis performace is pretty much John McClane.

So this isn't as good as the first, and may not even be as good as the second, but it's a darn sight better than that crap with Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons and is waaaaaaaaaaay better than other summer tentpoles like the third Pirates film, which will probably gross at least 4 times as much. I liked it. It's not the 240th best film ever, but I liked it.

MATT:

Rainy (sorry, monsoonesque) afternoon and some spare time, so why not? I was interested in the character in childhood so it also held some appeal to see how it all ends (we pray). And while not setting the world on fire, nor deserving of any oscar nominations, and possessing an uncountable number of plot holes and narrative flaws, it doesn't - quite - plumb the absolute depths.

However, there are a lot of negatives. Some of of narrative flaws are excruciating - the initial 'attack' by terrorists is to cause traffic chaos (a la Italian Job), bringing Washington D.C. to gridlock and YET despite having been forced to get out of his car and walk moments earlier, good old John McClane is shortly seen racing a helicopter through suddenly deserted streets. This kind of thing really bugs me. And the film asks you to suspend belief in a way the original never even dreamt of. For example, McClane tackles an F-15 on a motorway with a truck. And wins. Awful. And some of the set pieces are so unneccessary that the film really begins to drag an hour and a half in. I won't get started on the plot.

The best thing about the film is its performances. Willis is dependable, though not at the levels he was in The Sixth Sense (B) and Unbreakable (B+) and, arguably, elsewhere, and Timothy Olyphant is good as the villain. However, the star of the show is that one time member of the Warren Cheswick Experience, Justin Long, a subtle and funny guy who is deserving of a good career. Maggie Q is underused but otherwise the supporting cast is pretty good, and look for a quality little cameo by Kevin Smith.

I've just been on IMDB and, after 17, 000 odd votes, this is currently the 240th greatest film OF ALL TIME. I kid you not. Quite how that's happened I don't know. It's borderline okay, but doesn't touch the decent action films (Bourne 1, for example). So, to the 240th GREATEST FILM OF ALL TIME, i give a D+