better than #3, as good as #2.....but there is only one #1

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2007)

Well, Bruce Willis is back as the wise-cracking energizer bunny of action movies, John Mclane. Eighties heroes are back in vogue in Tinseltown and the Die Hard franchise is the second to cash in (following Rocky Balbo duhhh). They really stuck to the formula and managed to make a decent action pic that is high-energy, fast-paced and far-fetched (but to quote Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad"). The whole effort has a slight tongue-in-cheek tone, so it is easier to laugh with the ridiculous parts rather than at them. Willis is good and, as in #3, he has a buddy in this one, played by Justin "Hi, I'm a Mac" Long to help with the humor and techno jargon.
The Die Hards have always had high tech master villains and this continues with #4 which could have been called Die Hard 4: When Good Geeks Go Bad! Mclane's personal life is its usual mess when he is asked to pick up a computer hacker, Matt Farrell (Long) for questioning. He gets there just in time to save Farrell's life from some really serious dudes and the chase is on. Now Mclane has to keep Farrell alive while foiling the bad guys from taking control of all the communications and utilities on the east coast.
"When Hackers Attack" is a popular Hollywood theme and we have seen similar stuff in movies like Enemy Of The State and, more recently, "Déjà Vu". Still this movie is not bad and the explosion junkies will main vein it for a satisfying action fix. I am going to tie it with #2 for second place in the Die Hard series. Just don't expect everything to make sense and know that it has a believability rating 'that's frigging impossible'. Art it ain't, but lively it is. Yippee Ki Yay! (this synopsis first appeared on realmoviewreview.com)