Good Action, but lacks a bit in respect to the basics

Rating: 4/10 (15 July 2007)

The fourth "Die Hard" movie is certainly OK as a pure action movie. Tons of explosions, cool stuns, etc. And its quite funny, too. And they have Kevin Smith !
The problem I had with it was that I couldn't sympathize with the people in the movie enough, as they totally lacked any deeper characterization. They have no mentionable motives, no habits, and no faults. Besides being sometimes hungry, being interested in girls if they are boy and vice versa, and being angry if you hurt people they love, etc.
In movie one there was a policeman from new york where coming to "fucking California", made fists with his toes, etc. There where a lot of details that describe the people and make them complete and real. The evil guys also had a lot of characterization, and there where a lot of psychological battles going on between them and the cop.
In movie four all these basics are missing. As a result, one never really has any relation to the people on the screen, dialogs are shallow, and many scenes simply don't work.
A final word of criticism: when will Hollywood ever make a movie about computers thats even only decently realistic ? Most people have computers now at home but Hollywood movies continue to be absurd whenever computers are mentioned.
All in all, its a nice mainstream movie, but its certainly not another classic.