Yippie Kay Yay Mother- No! No swearing for you McClane.

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2007)

McClane is back, but not better than ever. After a twelve year hiatus, Bruce Willis returns with less hair, less violence and less believability. The film begins promisingly, with a grizzled McClane observed to be tailing his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) on a date, receiving a routine call to pick up a suspect (Justin Long) in an FBI case, bad guys subsequently popping out of the woodwork all over the place, leading to a high body count and millions of dollars worth of damage. Willis slips back into his signature role with ease, bringing to McClane a sense of bitterness and resentment not present in the previous three films, probably induced by his divorce, estrangement from his children and general world-weariness. This portrayal continues throughout the film and brings a new edge to his character and therefore to the story.
The antagonists are introduced mainly through a plethora of scenes involving them typing on keyboards, wearing headsets and looking at computer screens. Riveting. There is no underlying menace present in a single one of these 'cyber-terrorists,' as there was with Alan Rickman and his band of deutsche Soldaten in the original. There is never a sense that McClane is actually in danger once the action starts, the exception to this being Maggie Q's character in the gas refinery who unfortunately meets a premature end (she was much more interesting than that Parkour guy.) Even the main villain, Timothy Olyphant, having mastered the cold, steely-eyed stare necessary for world domination, deliberates so much over killing McClane's daughter (even though McClane mocks Olyphant for "ramming an SUV" up his girlfriend/wife's ass, killing her horribly) that it is difficult to feel as though McClane is under threat. Another antagonist, in the form of a fighter jet, leads to the film's most improbable set piece, in which McClane is forced to jump from the lorry which he is driving onto the wing of the plane to escape a soon-to-be-rubble multi story car park. He then literally surfs on the jet's wing until it nears the ground, at which point he neatly jump off, rolls and walks away unscathed as the plane explodes. It's more XXX than Die Hard, which is clearly not a good thing.
However the other action sequences are excellent, encompassing elements from all the previous three films. The apartment shootout is reminiscent of the claustrophobic atmosphere prevalent throughout the first, the demolition of the gas refinery reminds one of the wide scale destruction in the second and the two instances in which McClane disposes of a helicopter is evocative of the third. Also, the constant reuse of dialogue such as "Buckle up" and "Just hang on!" serve as reminders in themselves. This is not a bad thing, as it makes Die Hard 4.0 feel as though it belongs with the others.
Regarding the supporting cast, Justin Long seems to thoroughly enjoy his role, receiving some of the best dialogue in the film, though he can get a little annoying during the action scenes. Plus, we don't need to see him working furiously at his computer while McClane is kicking ass. Nobody prefers a download screen to badassery. Mary Elizabeth Winstead has a small role but she does the best she can under this limitation. I would say she's more there to take over the babe role after Maggie Q meets her end, but she also manages to help out her father in the end by shooting a baddie in the foot. Kevin Smith plays a great role as a computer hacker living in his mother's basement, who at one point enquires to Long, "Why did you bring a cop to my command centre?" and only after being screamed at by McClane through a CB radio, grudgingly assists him to prevent his daughter from being killed. He's like Argyle in the original, totally pointless but excellent.
Overall there are enough real stunts, explosions and deaths in Die Hard 4.0 to warrant it a place amongst the series and, though at times it can seem like an elongated episode of 24, delivers enough action and one-liners, making it worth the wait for any Die Hard fan. Yippie Kay Yay, Motherfu- BAM!