Funny revisit to action films before digitalization

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2015)

Do not expect a film that is going to revolutionize your ideology, your spirituality, your religion, or even your political beliefs. It is an action film that is supposed to entertain you and nothing else, and yet
It starts with some nice Christmas party in some high rise office block in some international super capitalistic business if not corporation. The poor John McLane is coming to Los Angeles from New York to visit his children and wife he has been estranged from for some months with three thousand miles between their two places of residence.
The whole tower block is taken over by some German terrorists just after John McLane has arrived and the whole film will be his action in order to get rid of the terrorists, to save the hostages and to save his own wife.
The film shows how rotten some apples in the basket can be. Even one is able to sell his own colleagues to get a coke in a glass, hardly more. In fact he won't even be able to drink it because once he has given some leverage to the terrorists they just thank him for the rest of his eternal life.
But what's best in this film is the action and the visual effects. No digitalized special effects and it looks real, rough, hard. The very good final product is reached thanks to the editing of the film. It makes it so fast that it becomes breath-taking and at times it is hilarious because some of the situations look so hectic, so extreme, and yet they are nothing but an illusion and it is enjoyable.
It is also enjoyable to see LAPD officers, inspectors or whatever they may call them down there being smashed up, the FBI being fooled and ridiculed, the media being unworthy of any trust, and only two little black men coming on top, a plain motorized street cop who manages to raise the alarm and a little black limousine chauffeur who manages to block the escape of the last terrorists. That makes you feel happy and warm in the heart. The little ones are the heroes of the film.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU