Maybe Ten Years Too Late

Rating: 6/10 (26 January 2010)

Hollywood isn't a place famous for its imagination and why should it be ? Movies are made to make money for the studios and if the start hemorrhaging money that means , producers , writer , directors and stars sitting around their swimming pools crying in to their cocktails knowing that they're condemned to live life topping up their suntan and no longer seeing their name appear on movie credit sequences . In other words Hollywood and its cronies like to play things safe hence studios churning out sequels and films that feel entirely similar to films you saw last year . DIE HARD 4 is a good example of this type of movie . Unfortunately you're left with the feeling you saw it over a decade a go not last year
The plot takes much of the blame . A computer genius hacks in to the government's system and creates a small taste of hell and if he doesn't get a large amount of loot from the authorities he's going to arrange it that America has the same technological level as Neanderthal man . The problem with this scenario is that it we've seen it all before in films like THE NET and GOLDENEYE . The plot is far better suited to a film released in 1997 rather than 2007 . Even then the action blockbuster was becoming rather stale and over saturated with such " stars " as Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme carving out a niche for themselves . Having a big name like Bruce Willis playing a wise cracking violent good gu
y in a film full of explosions and stunts doesn't seal success anymore That said DIE HARD 4 has a certain nostalgia to it . Bruce Willis after showing his acting credentials in the likes of THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE returns as John Mclane to remind us why he used to be a famous action star . There might be some slight cynicism he's just returning to pick up a bumper pay cheque since his career had been floundering for a few years but despite this McLane is a much more human superman compared to say Arnie in TERMINATOR 3 a film that shows just how anachronistic late 1980s blockbusters are transplanted in to the early 21st Century