Just imagine if it were R Rated....

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2007)

PG-13, nothing sends shivers down my spine the way this rating does. When I learned that this movie had this curse upon it, I had to reduce my expectations, in the "year of the sequels" good movies are hard to come by and there was no-way a PG-13 rated action movie was going to be up-to the mark right??!!!.
WRONG.
This movie was awesome, I'm a fan of the big summer blockbuster and firmly believe that movies like independence day and especially Jurassic Park deserve a mention in the Top 250 as they will be remembered and enjoyed much more than most movies on the list, honestly which of us have seen Citzen Kane, I did and thought it was OK.
This movie has just upped the bar for PG-13 rated movies, I would like to go out on a limb and say it has nearly matched the levels of classics like JP and Ind. Day.(although they had less action) especially if you consider it is a sequel.
The stunts were real, CG was at a minimum (Except for the F-35 track where some scenes were quite fake), the action was as brutal as can be for the rating (you can shoot as many time as you want just no blood the MPAA just fell another 2 notches in my respect list).
The movie was long but it never felt like it, there were actually characters that were not stereotyped (no blacks, Asians, or Hispanics that seems misplaced), it was FUNNY, it was EXCITING,maybe even THOUGHT PROVOKING, all this even though it was a sequel.
Len Wiseman has earned back all the respect he lost for the disappointing underworld evolution. For making a technically superb film. (editing was suspect because of what it think will be the unrated directors cut which will surely be on DVD).
Some of the memorable albeit over the top scenes are the F-35 track, the subway, and the power factory.
Logic has been compromised and any attempts to justify event, action sequences will only lead trouble, going along with the ride will only lead to happiness.
So why am I whining?.
Can you imagine what this movie would be like if it were R rated?.
John Mclane is sanitised form of his former self, from a chain smoking, wise-ass, foul mouthed cop he has become a divorced struggling father who i don't even think says bullshit.
There's no Yippy Kay Motherf#$$er when the villain dies in this movie.
The villain did a good job but was no Hans Gruber , no cold blooded killing, maiming, no abusing, he actually looked like a poster boy more than anything else.
And villains cant be totally bad nowadays can they, they have to have a heart and some justification for what they're doing, disgusting.
Another complain I have is the graphic intensive computers and Hacking shown, come-on any engineer knows that no aspects of computers looks so pleasing, all these graphics actually make the move seem less real, they makers have to see movies of yesteryear's like Alien,The Thing or Sphere to see how scary and real a simple Dot Matrix screen can be.
Despite the shedding of many stereotypes the rebellious teen and the geeky hacker rear their ugly head.
The product placements especially of the nokia phones was quite annoying, The Palms were much more subtle and more appreciated than the in your face nokia ads.
The fact is even though this movie maxes out as a PG-13 movie and a sequel an R-rating would have easily justified its place in the Top 250 movies of all time.
Or maybe at 24 I'm already to old for the new breed of big-budget action movies and the days of the simple action movie are truly behind us.
Watch this movie especially if your a fan of blockbuster cinema my cousin who liked his Die Hard when it was harder was quite disappointed with the over the top action sequences and teeny bopper humour.
ITS A MUST WATCH WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS EVEN IS THERE IS MERELY TOLERANCE TO BLOCKBUSTER CINEMA (EVEN DRAMA HUNGRY CRITICS WILL LIKE THIS FILM).
Expect and you will still receive.
-s purists(like me) will find many reasons to whine , PG-13, lacklustre villain, sanitised John Mclane, Plot holes.
+/-s good family viewing, suitable to large audiences .
+s lots of over the top and real action sequences , as good as can get PG-13 action, a great sequel, actually meets/exceeds expectations despite the rating.
total 8-8.5/10 (My original rating of this movie was an 8.(considering its the best PG-13 action movie i remember seeing), but I have purposefully given it a rating of 7 in the hope of pulling down the already inflated ratings this movie is ahead of even the original die-hard on the Top 250 wtf .I assume that this is a combination of the fact this is not only the best movie of this summer but also the best sequel in a long time, the rat movie breaking into the top 100 shows that thanks to the ordinary movies this year people mistake even very good for the best).