It ain't your daddy's Die Hard...

Rating: 9/10 (30 June 2007)

If you are going into this film expecting the same outing as the last three, do yourself a favor and at least keep an open mind. I have loved Die Hard my entire life, it's my favorite action series. I own them all, I grew up with them, I can nigh repeat every line. So of course, I go see this as early as I can on opening day. To put it short: I am not disappointed. The film does what it does extremely well. It preserves the character of McClane albeit watered down for the rating. This 52 year old McClane is a lot more far gone from being a rather clichéd alcoholic on the edge. He is a lonely old man. The one scene that really stuck with me is when Farrell (Justin Long) and McClane are driving to West Virginia and Farrell talks about how he can't handle what's going on, that he's not brave like McClane. McClane says no one throws you a parade for being heroic, you get divorced, your kids hate you and you get to eat a lot of meals alone. He basically boils his life down to a series of incredible moments that put him on the front cover of Time, but never gave him his family. A lot of critics of the series have reacted poorly to this new found drama, but if you really go back and watch the others you'll see it there too. McClane is not Rambo, he is a very normal person caught up in extraordinary situations. And like a normal person, if you get shot at for 20 years, you might not be the happiest camper either. Long was cast well as this character Farrell. He brings obvious comic relief but at the same time gives McClane a pseudo-son figure, which we can only assume that McClane's real son wants nothing to do with him. Lucy McClane was cast well also. And finally the cornerstone of every Die Hard flick is the villain. Olyphant does a very good job as Gabriel who is basically another super-idealist who still has very monetary motives, which McClane points out they're always in it for the money.
Bottom Line: I've seen a lot of crap action movies and this is not one of them. As a film, it is good. As Die Hard, it's worthy of the mantle.