Dir. Len Wiseman, US, 2007, 129mins
Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Mary Elizabeth Winstead,
Maggie Q,
Cliff Curtis
Review by Matthew Rodgers
In between the hard bodied hyper masculine Reganite action heroes of Commando and Rambo, and the androgynous balletic action style of The Matrix and Mission Impossible II came a move towards the emotional hero more concerned with restoring, or finding his role in the patriarchal family order. One such man was John McClane who stormed the Nakatomi tower in 1988 to reclaim his masculinity from his estranged wife and establish his place as the most iconic action hero in cinematic history. It’s now twenty years and two sequels of varying quality later and in the midst of this year’s nostalgia renaissance (think Rocky Balboa and the forthcoming Transformers) Bruce Willis is back doing what he does best in a PG-13 Die Hard movie, without a white vest or director John McTiernan. This cowboy’s world has most definitely changed.
What hasn’t is the fact that McClane still won’t win any awards for family man of the year or employee of the month as we are dropped post-credits into an argument with his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) when he is meant to be on the job. Confined to a patrol car McClane is unwittingly drawn into a nationwide terrorist attack during the July 4th weekend that differs from anything he has faced previously. This time there won’t be a Hans Gruber to wisecrack to, but a “cyber” threat that will expose all of McClane’s old school tactics. As Timothy Olyphant’s bad guy Gabriel puts it; “John, you’re a Timex watch in a digital age”.
Die Hard 4.0 (changed from its awful stateside title Live Free or Die Hard) immediately strikes you as a different monster to the previous instalments. The surface aesthetics are understandably down to the change of helmer with Underworld’s Len Wiseman giving proceedings a glossier coca cola advert sheen. Obviously a competent director, any worries that he was going to translate the vacuous style over substance technique that affected those films to the world of Die Hard can be shot down in flames, because although he is better with set pieces than script meetings this is still an accomplished actioner. Plaudits must be given for the minimal use of CGI in the major stunt work; it’s refreshing to see breathtaking large scale sequences in which the sets are actually real.
Technically a greatest hits compilation of the original trilogy, 4.0 has more in common with 24 than the claustrophobic, tension riddled previous instalments. There is the factory scene that is reminiscent of McClane crawling around the confined spaces in Die Hard, the helicopter chase of the opening third that evokes memories of the cat and mouse games of With a Vengeance and the ridiculously OTT but fun misstep of the Mclane on a Plane that echoes Die Harder. The problem is that even with these similar scenes 4.0 is never as accomplished as McTiernan’s films.
Being part of a franchise can sometimes lead to criticism by comparison when the film stands perfectly on its own but 4.0 must be judged in this way. Timothy Olyphant’s villain comes across as little more than petulant and although the computer threat allows a different spin on McClane’s dated methods it neutralises some of his effectiveness as the unstoppably faltered hero he once was. Giving him a side-kick in the guise of the talented Justin Long (Accepted, Dodgeball) is also hit and miss; its not Long’s fault because he is given some very funny lines but Willis is always better as the loner fighting against the odds and topping Samuel L. Jackson’s Zeus was never going to be easy.
Anytime you feel that 4.0 is slipping away from being another part of the definitive action series in modern cinema you can always rely on Bruce Willis to envelop the screen with all of the sardonic one-liners that has made McClane his signature role for the past twenty years. Under-rated for years with superb performances in 12 Monkeys and The Sixth Sense the sense of fun at returning to the character is beneficially infectious to the enjoyment of Die Hard 4.0.
McClane’s fourth outing remains a balls-to-the-wall action film that deserves to pack out the multiplexes in this silly season even it if has lost some of the grittier characteristics of days gone by and substituted it for spectacle. Die Hard 4.0 remains a very good action movie; it’s just not a particularly good Die Hard one.
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