Now the franchise is wearing a little thin

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2011)

Honestly, I did not like this movie. It is enjoyable right up until the subway incident and then it begins to go down hill. When I first saw it I thought that is was dull. The second time I saw it I thought a little better but the first two movies are much better. The director, John McTiernan, who is know for his action movies, and the creator of the original movie.
This movie is well received by some critics, but not by me. The plot in the movie has its twists and is interesting, but the final confrontation is incredibly disappointing and left me feeling rather disappointed at the movie. The stunt scenes aren't really that fantastic, though the opening explosion is quite impressive. Simply we have a little light music, and everything is normal in New York City when a bomb explodes in a department store. Then they say it goes for a roller coaster ride of action, and it is in a way. We have a cab driving through the middle of Central Park, a wall of water chasing a truck down a tunnel, and two men jumping from a bridge onto a ship. As with Tiernan, there is the fair share of explosions as well. In Die Hard they blow up a building, in Die Hard II they blow up three planes and in this one they do it in a subway train and a ship. This movie is basically all about explosions.
McClaine (Bruce Willis) is the main hero and he inadvertently picks up a sidekick Zeus. They meet in an interesting way. The bad guy Simon (Jeremy Irons) gets John McClaine to walk through Harlem wearing a sign that says "I hate Negroes". That is something that most sane people would not do. Zeus, who doesn't particularly like white men, ends up saving McClaine and joining him on his deadly game of Simon Says. As is also typical of Die Hard movies, McClaine finishes the movie cut, bruised, and very dirty. He also ends up making up with his wife, though in this one she is absent from the action, while she was in the middle of it in the previous two.
Die Hard With a Vengeance is a reasonable movie, but I wouldn't put it among the list of great ones.