Die Hard With a Vengeance: CR #28

I missed the last two weeks...again. Why? Because I'm lazy and I didn't feel like going into detail about the movie I saw, which was "Bullet to the Head". I'd give it a RENTABLE, in case anyone wanted to know. Anyway, this week the 5th Die Hard came out. The general consensus is that it's terrible. So I decided this week to watch one of the good Die Hard movies, and also watch it for the first time. This is my review of...

  





PLOT
John McClane at the beginning of the film has been suspended from the NYPD for, basically, being John McClane. But he's called back into action when a mysterious man by the name of Simon starts threatening to blow up bombs set up all around the city unless McClane can complete some tasks for him. Along the way, McClane picks up a companion in the form of Zeus Carver, an electronics store owner in Harlem. Now Mclane and Zeus need to follow this mad man's orders and find out why he's doing this and why he focuses specifically on Mclane.



 

PROS
This film does what made the original "Die Hard" so iconic, it puts the average Joe in an impossible situation. John McClane isn't a super cop, he's not a terminator, he's a middle-aged guy who keeps getting put into these bad situations. By the end of this film, he's literally covered in his own blood struggling just to walk forward.

What makes this film so memorable is the chemistry between Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. The two play off each other so well and react in believable ways. They both are also extremely likable characters and help make the action scenes even more tense.

Jeremy Irons as the villain Simon is great. He really exudes that evil Russian stereotype very well.

The situations Simon puts the two leads in are very fun and exciting. They all revolve around a riddle and a lot of running. While the film does abandon this formula half way through, it's still fun to see it while it lasts.



CONS
The camera work during some action scenes are not well done. It's very shaky and disorienting, which is not fun for anyone.

The whole "Simon says" angle that was at the beginning of the film is abandoned half way through. While it makes sense why they don't use it, I was still wishing they had stuck to that fun way of getting these characters into situations.




CONCLUSION
While not perfect, and no where near as great as the original "Die Hard", "Die Hard With a Vengeance  is still an awesome enjoyable time that'll have you at the edge or your seat. One of the undeserved underrated actions movies of the 90's, in my opinion.


RATING
WALK TO




Want to read more of my reviews? Well here's the last review I did:http://newandclassicreviews.blogspot.com/2013/01/broken-city-nr-38.html

Want to check out my other stuff? Why not read one of my "You May Not Know" post?
http://newandclassicreviews.blogspot.com/2012/11/azumanga-daioh-you-may-not-know-8.html