John McClane saves modern cinema

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2007)

Something clicked in my chest when I saw John McClane on the big screen again after so long. He's older, sure, a bit rounder and balder, but that's him alright. I did not expect much from this movie after watching the trailer, and I definitely did not believe I would say what I am about to utter: this movie delivers. Not only that, it's the best Die Hard since the first one. I wouldn't say it's better than the first one, but it's right up there. Hats off to the director and of course to Bruce himself - I did not think they had it in them. There's a trend of these 80s action heroes coming back for another round of bloodshed, and I welcome them with open arms. I missed watching a good action movie that doesn't try to convey some kind of half-assed, self-righteous message and has a good lead actor instead of a guy who looks good and always has nice hair after a gunfight. I don't know where it happened, I can't pinpoint the location or exact time, but at some point action movies died a little. I'm not saying there haven't been good ones, because there have been, but they're different: action movies these days have to be clever, too full of nonsense. There cannot be simple bad guys - they have to be deep characters with a strong motivation for their actions. If the movie doesn't have 3 interlacing plot lines and a lead who has won an Oscar, it is shunned. We need an old hero to remind us what action movies are all about: Good guys and bad guys, the bad guys get dead and the hero gets the girl. It's not too much to understand, but it is amazing to see. And to all who say "oh, I just turned my brain off when I went in and had a blast", I say go turn your brain back on, think for a while, and watch the movie again. You don't use your brain only for dramatic dialogue or a complex plot. Your brain processes images and sounds. To get a movie to envelop you and engage you and suck you into a car-chase, a gunfight, a fistfight, or to get you to cheer for the good guy and to feel good when the bad guy snuffs it  that's hard work. It's extremely hard to get that kind of involvement in action films. That's what we forgot at somewhere, and I'm so happy the makers of this film decided to bring this oldschool movie to us and not change it to fit our namby-pamby standards. This movie was just right. They kept to the roots of Die Hard, meaning the witty repartee and hardcore, bloody action, but they did not just copy and paste a story. The movie's plot actually looks in on itself, how an old hero is brought to a different world. The result is funny and action-packed. The script is very well written (for a Die Hard movie) and everything, from action to characters feels right. Timothy Olyphant, while fairly good as the villain, doesn't match up to any of the previous villains  he's a mean guy but ultimately he's a computer geek, and I guess it's just not as threatening. Willis is at his prime, though, despite what you might think, and he portrays McClane as if he'd never stopped. Justing Long is a worthy side-kick and watching him and McClane work together provides some of the best scenes in the film. What I can say bothered me a bit is the pacing. For some reason the movie felt to be moving forward too fast. But that's a minor concern, and the movie is well-worth watching.
And again, I must give a standing ovation to the film makers. After so many disappointing sequels and remakes in the last few years, these guys actually got it right. John McClane is back! Yippee kye aye -(you know the rest).