"You are about to have a very bad day."

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2015)

Relentless and over the top action that takes the term 'implausible' to the limit, this third film in the Die Hard franchise is just the ticket if you're up for some mindless movie mania. I thought it was kind of cool the way the film makers had Alan Rickman drop in from the original "Die Hard" flick, and having Bruce Willis trade barbs with Samuel L. Jackson as things got rolling made for an entertaining 'almost buddy' team-up. I particularly found it interesting the way McClane (Willis) reversed the racist angle on Zeus Carver (Jackson) during the three gallon/five gallon scene. It was done without being racist itself, and not everyone could get away with it the way McClane did. It was near the end of the movie when I was about to give up on McClane's t-shirt changing color the way it did in the first film, but almost as soon as the thought crossed my mind, it was approaching a dark green with only the very top of the tee a dull white color on both of McClane's shoulders. The only thing that takes the edge off these action films made prior to 9/11 is the sobering image of the Twin Towers, this time clearly visible in an early scene when McClane is on the subway train. Watching today almost twenty years after the film was originally made, there's added significance to the film's plot in which the German gangsters were working freelance for the Iranians.