Great fun summer buddy action film

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2013)

Number three is this franchise continues to be hugely entertaining, albeit is closer in tone to Renny Harlin's Die Hard 2 than the original. It takes place throughout New York State, as well as having a climax on the Canadian Border. As a result, it lacks the vice like suspense and tension of the first film, and plays much more like a kick-ass crowd pleasing summer action film, which was very much the case with Die Hard 2.
This film very quickly pairs Bruce Willis's McClane character with a shop-keeper with 'chip on his shoulder', Zeus, brilliantly played by Samuel L Jackson. This buddying up of two characters who initially hate each other, and then evolve to support and respect each other is straight out of the Lethal Weapon play-book, and while not as quite as entertaining or as profound as that film, was certainly a much better 'buddy cop' that the Lethal Weapon sequels and most other films in this sub-genre.
The plot is straightforward but fairly clever, and departs from the previous two Die Hard films by massively expanding its scope, but adding tension through pervasive threat of potential bombs going off across this city that full of semi-permanent traffic jams. Unlike Die Hard 2, the references to the first film are far more subtle, except for the fact that the film's antagonist, "Simon", very well played by Jeremy Irons (albeit not at the level that Alan Rickman brought Has Gruber in the original) has a strong connection one of the characters in the original. It builds gradually towards a predictable but exciting climax with a very big explosion. However the visual effects around this explosion are surprisingly low budget and poor quality, albeit masked by quick-cut editing. The films actual ending feels rather tacked on and cheap after this previous climax, and sadly lets the film down as this sequence feels a little disjointed and the pace and feel of this sequence is very different from the rest of the film.
Bruce Willis as again great value as John McClane, and plays his in a surprisingly grounded and more gritty version compared to the more emotional and frightened character in the first one, and one that feels like bit like a working class James Bond super hero rip off in Die Hard 2. His character is the most accessible of the 3 films at this point, and his dry humour certainly bounces of Sam Jackson brilliantly. One wonders if there was improvisation here and the natural chemistry between these characters is fantastic and rivals the interplay between Rickman and Willis from the first film. It gives a humanity to the film which maybe was less emphasised in the previous two films. Certainly the fact that the McClane character has been through the wringer courtesy of the first two films means his character comes off less frightened and has a more jaded but grimly determined attitude this time around. Jackson's Zeus Carver is fascinating as his character is tough, streetwise, cynical, funny and also grimly determined. However is doesn't know how to use weapons, has no law enforcement or military training, yet as the story goes along is never intimidated by the protagonist or his henchman. Incidentally the films draws compelling villains for the rest of Simon Gruber's team, which is particularly effective has the group is much bigger than they key antagonists from the previous two films, and it could be easy to get lost within the plot, but this does not happen.
McTiernan tries to accomplish almost all the action in-camera with traditional stunt-work, and this further establishes the gritty atmosphere of the film. Veteran Hollywood stunt guy Terry Leonard second unit/stunt work deserves considerable credit for refreshing the look of the Die Hard franchise. Peter Menzies's Photography is gritty, though is use of 'shaky cam' in some sequences is quite extreme and yet again the late Michael Kamen's music adds to the proceedings. However the films visual effects are a bit of a mixed bag. They work best when they are at their most subtle (e.g. wire removal) and some of the more obvious visual effects, which was a combined effort by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Buena Vista Imaging, Pacfic Title Digital and Mass Illusion (who did some excellent work on Judge Dredd released the same year) don't always convince, but fortunately the rest of the film is do good it fortunately doesn't pull you out of the experience. To me it seemed like there were similar problems here that also had a similar effect on McTiernan's the Hunt for Red October.
In summary, an excellent and highly enjoyable fun summer film, refreshed by a suitably new gritty take on proceedings, but slightly flawed by a too abrupt and anticlimactic ending and some sub-par visual effects