Computer lunatic and his crack team of muscle and egg-heads cause pandemonium.

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2007)

Action-packed as usual, but oddly unsatisfying.
My problem: The sh*t hits the fan too quickly and we are not properly re-introduced to McClane. Here's an old friend we haven't seen in a long time and we don't get a chance to say hello, so to speak, and see how his life has been and what he's been up to lately. Where does he live? How does he live? Who are his friends? -You know, stuff like that. A major blunder in the making of this movie, I think. A proper re-introduction would have re-connected us to the guy; made us sympathize with him and care about him more.
Another reason I couldn't re-connect was that McClane seems to have lost his innocence: Ordinary "Joe Shmoe" (a cop) with no special training or affiliation who accidentally finds himself in the midst of something a lot bigger than himself that he's forced to deal with. He's one of us. And like we would be, he's scared to death but deals with it by being a wise-ass. Mclaine in this movie seems more like a "veteran" and though he confides that he's afraid I didn't believe it. In fact, the evil mastermind seemed more scared of him.
So I didn't care about McClane as much as I should have. The real star of the movie as far as I'm concerned were the terrific stunts and explosions. All of that was good eye-candy. Speaking of eye-candy, another thing that would have made this movie better for me was if the good looking kick-ass Asian chick in her snug black outfit had been given a larger role. In fact drop the guy who plays the evil computer mastermind and make her the mastermind. The free-runner guy -or "monkey man"- could be her number 2. He was pretty good.
I give this movie 7 stars for the action and stunts. Could have gotten 2 more with better story telling. Finally -this is a side issue, I know- I have to ask the question: Do macho guys have "sons" anymore? A trend started in Hollywood possibly with 1985's Commando wherein the macho hero always has a daughter. In fact, now that I think about it, it is usually a daughter in the movies these days and not a son. One reason, I suspect, is that it knocks some of the hard edges off our macho hero. Modern women instead of feeling threatened can say "Look, he has a daughter who he adores and is protective of. This must mean he's sensitive and likes women." The other reason I guess is the woman (or girl)-in-peril thing which is more interesting to us than man (or boy)-in-peril. In fact I have come up with what I call our "society's sympathetic order". First children, then the elderly, then women, then animals, and then men. How did I come up with this? I imagined a sinking ship. Love, Boloxxxi.