For sheer action and entertainment, this hits the right spots.

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2007)

The key to understanding and liking these Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movies is to accept that nothing is to be taken seriously. You find yourself laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all, as the invincible John McClane almost single-handedly hunts down and disposes of the bad guys. How about using a car as a projectile to shoot down a helicopter?
Bruce Willis is back as John McClane, pressed into service as the security of our national systems are being hacked in ways they never have before. Behind it all is disgruntled Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel who had designed the data systems, post-9/11, and whose warnings were not taken seriously. So he is out for revenge in his own way, shutting down everything in what hackers call a "fire sale", as in "everything must go." Go into disarray, that is.
Justin Long is known hacker Matt Farrell who McClane attempts to take into the offices for questioning, but they never get there. It soon is clear that some one is out to dispose of Farrell, and it is Gabriel who knows Farrell is the only one who can salvage the nation from the hacking.
So most of the movie is a series of chases and improbable escapes by McClane and Farrell. Very entertaining.
SPOILERS: The "fire sale" was not the goal, just a means to an end. Gabriel knew, from his design, such a massive hacking would trigger a secret data dump into one location, and Gabriel was out for that data. With it he could copy it, then destroy it to cripple the nation, while using the copied data himself for untold wealth. The situation at the end was complicated because Gabriel had McClane's daughter as an unwilling hostage, but in the end she proved to be as tough to kill as was her father. Gabriel and all his men were killed, and after the movie ended we presume systems will be restored.