The biggest surprise of the summer!

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2007)

The signs weren't great. A 4th movie of a series, the last of which was made almost 13 years earlier. With the exception of Bruce Willis, a cast that on paper didn't look to impressive. A director whose Underworld movies were OK, but had too much reliance on CGI.
But...Die Hard 4.0 is an absolute blast!
The plot, sees McClane teaming up with a computer geek to stop terrorists from destroying the computer system of the American government, and making a lot of money out of it.
What follows are some very impressive action sequences, from a shoot-out in Farrell's (Justin Long) apartment, to a car helicopter smash-up, to a chase sequence involving a truck, van and a fighter jet!!
Bruce Willis may be a bit older, but he handles the action set-pieces as if he's never been away from them. But his best moment, for me, is a scene between McLane and Farrell in a car, where he reveals the downside of being the hero. It's a small moment in a big movie that's quite touching.
As for the rest of the cast, I was surprised. With no Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons, or Samuel L Jackson to bounce off, I was concerned as most of the cast are either up-coming (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Justin Long, Maggie Q) or actors better known on TV (Timothy Olyphant - from Deadwood). However Olyphant is quite good as Gabriel, the computer genius behind the plan. While perhaps not as menacing as Rickman or Irons were, it should be pointed out, his character is different. They were terrorists through and through. Gabriel has (he believes) been driven to do what he's doing by the Government. Maggie Q as his second-in- command good too. The fight between her and Willis is surprisingly brutal for a man v woman fight. But she is convincing and can easily hold her own.
Justin Long, who is better known for playing in comedies is quite a surprise here. As Farrell, who gets caught up in something, that he had been involved with creating and then trying to stop it, Long does well and in the little pieces of action he gets involved with again convinces as an action geek! Winstead as McLane's daughter doesn't have much to do until the last third of the movie, but she's a good actress and makes Lucy McClane believable as John McLane's daughter. The rest of the cast do okay, even if not completely memorable.
But the biggest revelation here is actually Len Wiseman. As I said, his 2 Underworld movies had a reliance on CGI, and I was concerned that Die Hard 4.0 would suffer from that, but he's kept the CGI to a minimum here. This movie harks back to when you actually created proper stunts, and you can almost feel and hear the poor stuntmen suffering for their art here at times. Only during the jet fighter sequence did I become concerned about CGI, which is a good thing. Up till then, if there was any, I didn't notice, or simply didn't mind.
In a summer so far where the action movies have either been disappointing or too CGI heavy, it's pleasing to say that Die Hard 4.0 not only blows the competition away, but has livened up what was looking to be a poor summer. This is exciting and funny.