I willed it a better review than it deserves

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2008)

Die Hard, Die Harderdo the films keep getting better? Or are they slipping from their success? Die Hard: With a Vengeance seems to favour the latter. Samuel L. Jackson brings a fantastic new dynamic to the films. His ability to add humour in the necessary places to bring that 'awe' sense in action movies certainly adds flavour to the screenplay. Indeed, his obvious friendship with Bruce Willis does seem to be reflected in his performance. However, despite the names and the prizes, Die Hard: With a Vengeance left a lot to be desired. What Die Hard 2 lacked in a script Die Hard: With a Vengeance tried to repair, very unsuccessfully. The childish 'riddles' and 'games' although obviously meant to be satirical and ironic, annoyed me distracting the mind of the 'willing to watch' into a strange sense of boredom, not normally accessed when watching a high budget action movie. Jeremy Irons' portrayal of Simon Gruber fluctuated, his insanity almost too little and too light, unlike his Scar in 'The Lion King'. Add to this the music which irritated me immensely. The typical Noah's Ark song arranged for an orchestra giving a 'deep' and 'sinister' tone was clumsy and distracted me from the film. All of these elements surmounted a complete absurdity throughout the entire film that makes me think Die Hard: With a Vengeance is possibly my least favourite Die Hard film as yet.
Of course, as with any high budget action movie the special effects were commendable. The explosions were big and the shoot-out (where they existed) were frantic. However, the special effects seemed to challenge the absurd, Willis flying 50 feet into the air from a man-hole cover, before regaining his footing and carrying on.
I think I expected more from this movie, I willed it a better review than it deserves. It seems, that Die Hard is long gone in the past and all we are left with now is the memory of John McClane's heroics at the Nakatomi tower.