Try Hard 4.....just a bit too trying...

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2007)

Well, I was reasonably entertained. But most of the entertaining is down to seeing Bruce Willis on screen again. The story, muddle-headed as it is, just makes you shake your head mostly.
As for the action, it's reasonable enough, but hampered by a 13 rating it was never going to have the grit and gore of the earlier films. That said, there are some original scenes (the car into helicopter one, for example) but mostly its tired old stuff we've seen before (and done better) in other movies. The jet attacking vehicles on the freeway seems to have been lifted mostly from True Lies. Our hero even ends up on top of the jet just like Arnie did in True Lies.
Later there was the scene where nobody driving in a suddenly darkened tunnel remembered that their cars had lights..nonsensical junk, but again, I gritted my teeth and, like McClaine, soldiered on. Sadly, thence came the jet scene and my heart sank, accompanied by an uncontrollable rise in my indignation.
And whilst I mention the jet/freeway scene it is with continuing regret that I have to inform you that scriptwriters continue to ignore anything remotely like common sense when writing scenes. Just like with MI:3, here they put a high-tech warmachine into a situation it blatantly doesn't have to be in to accomplish its task. At one point the jet (is the F35 even in service yet?) hovers down and under the freeway to get at its target. Who would have thought a semi-trailer rig would be so difficult to hit? I'd detected the seeds of "Hollywoodism" much earlier on in the movie, what with the standard portrayal of anything to do with hacking being colourful 3D graphics and more screens than a Benidorm beach in high summer. But I'd gritted my teeth, snorted in derision and continued to watch anyway, hoping that was the worst of it.
A great franchise was ruined by this movie because of the idiocy of scene-writers and the greed of the studios.
Luckily for me however, the movie is already fading to a dim memory. It wasn't really that memorable anyhow.
RIP...Die Hard.