The return of John McTiernan!!

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2008)

I was pretty thoroughly disappointed with Die Hard 2, but that might have made watching Die Hard 3 even better, because it was so good to see such an immediate and clear improvement over the first sequel. The movie begins in Harlem, where a terrorist has forced John McClane to go wearing a huge sign with a slogan on it that is sure to get him shot in minutes.
The villain is Simon Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, the bad guy from the original movie, and he plays a vicious game of Simon Says with McClane, forcing him to do things that endanger his life. Gruber has detonated a bomb in a department store and asked the frantic police for McClane by name, intending to play games with him and ultimately avenge his brother's death.
Things have not been going well for McClane. He's been suspended from the force, his marriage is falling apart and he's now a full-blown alcoholic. It is only Gruber's personal request for him that brings him back into use from the police force, and Gruber has him running frantically around New York with the unwilling company of store owner Zeus Carver (a brilliant performance from Samuel L. Jackson), who wants nothing to do with McClane but is coerced into going along.
The action is brilliant and the story lives up to the original, with McClane ultimately figuring out that the cat and mouse game that Gruber is forcing him to play is a ploy to distract him and the rest of the police force while Gruber pulls off a much greater crime. A couple of brilliant plot twists and a slew of great performances are a great sign for the Die hard series, which was headed in an unflattering direction after Die Hard 2. See this one!