Action romp

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2009)

John McTiernan returned for the third installment, Jon Hensleigh did a bang-up screenplay and Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson make a wonderfully hysterical odd couple in a movie that never stops to take a breath. Not once. The Germans are back, this time with a plan to steal gold from the Federal Reserve on New York. To accomplish this, they lead McClane and the NYPD on a merry chase around Manhattan as various things are blown up, including a subway car (created using a spectacular physical special effect, much studied over the years and later turned into a "ride" at Universal Studios). McClane and his newfound buddy, a Harlem store owner not fond of whites, survive innumerable obstacles to finally track down the bad guys, led by the brother of the main bad guy McClane killed in DIE HARD. Jeremy Irons goes slumming as the baddie here. The movie is full of impossible heroics, but who cares? Wisely, Hensleigh and McTiernan chose to treat the god-awful DIE HARD 2 as if it never existed and directly linked DH3 to DH. The one false note is the total absence of Mrs. McClane. Bonnie Bedelia at the very least deserved a cameo. There are several shots of the World Trade Ceter towers, which hurts the heart today. Otherwise, McTiernan makes great use of NYC locations, including an eye-popping, heart-stopping, running gun battle along the Saw Mill Parkway. And there's just enough humor to keep things from getting too grim and completely out of hand. Watching Bruce Willis get knocked around by a flood in a water tunnel is the film's highlight. By the by, I have often wondered if the German language version of the movie turned the bad guys into Frenchies or Brits.