REVIEW: Die Hard 4.02

So, I just came back from watching the fourth installment of the Die Hard movie franchise. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for quite some time now, and I had pretty high expectations when I saw the movie. Remember that there may be some spoilers in the review.

So, what’s the story this time? Well, it’s fourth of July and John McClane has to save the day yet again when terrorists begin a digital attack on the United States infrastructure which starts shutting down the whole country. When hackers all around the country are killed, McClane (Willis) has to transport one of the top “black-hat” hackers (played by no other than “I’m a Mac” Justin Long) to the FBI for interrogation and safe-keeping. I really enjoyed the whole movie from start to finish. It’s a great script with lots of memorable scenes, and it features some rock solid acting from everyone involved.

Some of the scenes in the film are (as I said earlier) really, really cool and really inspiring. You don’t get a single moment to catch your breath before the next massive explosion shakes the theater seat. While not being as memorable as the epic bridge scene in Mission Impossible 3, a scene with a SUV in a elevator shaft (!) is extremely exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Bruce Willis reprises his classic role of John McClane, who is now a Senior Detective in the Washington police force. There might have been over 12 years since the last movie, but Bruce is still a complete badass. Dropping great one-liners throughout the movie and finishing off henchmen in the most inventive ways possible is the trademark, that is kept for this movie as well. Justin Long plays the internet hacker who has to be transported through the city (actually, the story is close to the movie “16 Blocks” which also features Bruce Willis, but much better). If you’re a computer/internet geek like me, you have probably seen the Mac ads featuring two guys in a white room. Well, Justin Long plays “Mac” and I really thought that it couldn’t work to have him as the second biggest actor in a movie like this. Well, I was wrong, and he’s just as nerdy, but still fun, as you’d expect him to be. Maggie Q plays another action-related role here (she was one of the IMF agents in MI3) and she’s great! The only problem is she doesn’t really have a lot of screen-time. Timothy Olyphant plays the villain, and I were really interested to see how that was going to work, especially since he plays Agent 47 in the Hitman movie which will come out late October this year. Well, he was great but I still feel that he won’t work as a main-character for a whole movie. Another great thing was that filmmaker Kevin Smith played a small role as a computer hacker! If you don’t know who I’m talking about you NEED to see “Clerks” and “Jay and silent Bob strikes back” now!

The sound and music was really great, the special and visual FX were AMAZING (one scene in particular when a big rig truck is basically shattered from the devastating effect of a F43 jet airplane machinegun). The colour grading was good without attracting to much attention to itself. The cinematography kept you right in the scenes at all times without being to shaky or “documentary”. I still wish more movies were shot in the digital, more realistic way like “Miami Vice” and “Collateral”, but I guess you can’t blame the movie for that. still, it would have been nice to see, and I think it would work really well with what happens in the film.

Now, to the controversy. All other Die Hard movies have been rated R in the US (meaning no-one below 17 years can see it without an adult). So, what in the magical Die Hard formula has been changed, since it was revealed only a few weeks ago that the movie had been edited down to a PG-13 to reach a larger audience? Well, there’s almost no blood in the movie, and a lot of the dialouge has been replaced which in some cases leads to the voices not lining up perfectly with what the actor on the screen is actually saying. For example, it pretty often happens that the most recent line in the Die Hard movies: F*ck, is replaced by: Damn! It doesn’t really change how good the movie is or isn’t, but it still drops it a point on the nostalgia scale. I can’t wait for the inevitable unrated DVD (or Blu-Ray ) with all the blood, violence and language edited back in.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. While not being the perfect action movie (like the original first two Die Hard movies, which I loved), it’s still a very, very good action movie that I don’t think will leave anyone dissapointed!

Verdict: 8 out of 10

P.S. Another extremely annoying thing was the fact that right behing me in the theater sat about five 14 or 15 year-olds constantly commenting every single aspect of the movie in a negative way, or saying “NO!” whenever something unrealistic happened (it’s a Die Hard movie, damn it!). I was pretty close to turn around and tell them to shut up, but I restrained myself to only turning around slightly and stared at one of them, which also worked. Jerks.