PG-13.... I barely even noticed.

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2007)

Some sequels that are edited down to a more family friendly rating (I.E. Robocop 3, AVP, and any number of crappy remakes to R-rated films) simply come off as corny by comparison to the more hardcore, F-word five times a minute entries in the series. Generally it's a bad thing for the fans since rather than stay true to the fan base it already has, the studio wants to make the film less violent and more appealing to everyone. However, this particular film didn't miss a beat. I'll be honest I've been watching the Die Hard movies since I was a kid and know them pretty well, and I forgot all about the fact that it was PG-13. The action is truly spectacular with a lot of explosions that actually happen, rather than CGI. Which I thought was great and kind of ironic being that it's a movie about computer terrorists. Yes, it goes more over the top than ever, with McClane escaping death numerous times in even more impossible ways , but it's not meant to be realistic. It's meant to be entertaining, and it certainly achieves that and then some. Bruce Willis is terrific as an older, bitter, seemingly sober John McClane. His reactions to the geeky computer hackers in the film are hilarious. It would have been nice to see the return of older characters in the film, (every sequel talks about his ex-wife but she's never there, and it seemed that the third film was hinting at them getting back together) but it doesn't hurt it too much. Justin Long did very well as the wimpy comic relief, and the bad guys were, well, clever at least. I didn't think Timothy Olyphant lived up to some of the past villains, but he did fine and he caused more destruction than they did. Overall this movie exceeded my expectations and really didn't feel toned down at all. If anything it seemed like they upped the action and violence. The only difference is the missing F-words and it didn't bother me in the least. It's not like they replaced them with "gosh" and "darn". Nope, after all these years McClane is still kickin' ass with the best of them.