Good 3rd installment of the series

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2004)

I always enjoy watching the Die Hard series, and with Die Hard 3 you get the rare third installment of a series that is really strong enough to stand on its own. You could have never seen the first two movies of the trilogy and still get an understanding of McClanes character and why Simon wants to kill him. In fact, McClanes attitude is such you may not blame anyone all that much for wanting to kill him at least at the beginning of the movie. He's a drunk, his wife has left him, again, and he's suspended from his job as a police detective. The cast is strong, though the acting is not brilliant some of it does stand out and this is one of Jeremy Irons classic roles perfectly cast as a smart, riddle spouting villain. Sam Jackson plays the sidekick role with a sharp tongue and is as enjoyable, as he usually is in most of his movies.
The plot is interesting and somewhat clever. They could have just thrown out another canned movie in the mold of the first 2 but instead made it into a game of sorts that the audience could get into with the riddles (I was almost shouting the answer to the 2 water jugs riddle when I first saw it). The idea that the Federal Reserve Bank with all that gold being left relatively unguarded by the police was a stretch, the FBI at least would have ensured its security. A minor plot hole though that doesn't take away from the enjoyability of the film (well, maybe not considering how inept our law enforement can be in this country). All in all, you don't have to stretch your imagination to believe the plot and thats a plus for an action movie trying to appeal to the average moviegoer.
Die Hard With A Vengeance is an entertaining action film with a good cast and plot. Considering that most action movies simply go for formula and big hype to drive their box office, its nice to see movies like this one. 7/ 10.