Ageing Bruce gets a blue rinse

Rating: 7/10 (21 August 2007)

This latest Die Hard instalment is shot through with a blue filter, perhaps to hide the formulaic nature of it.
I'm being unfair, I mostly found this a gripping action flick. I enjoyed the banter between Bruce and the young actor, but I miss Bruce being a lone guy up against it. This is more a buddy thriller. Then again, even in the first film he had the black cop on the walkie talkie outside.
Credibility went out the window as soon as Bruce chose to jump out of a speeding car onto concrete to fling it into a helicopter. Reality would see his brains smashed across the road. It's similar to a scene in Casino Royale when Craig flings himself off a baggage handler onto a runway. I know these guys are bulked up but still...
Sadly the intrigue of the movie fell away. The villain's McGuffin (plot premise) I couldn't quite fathom. He aimed to show the weakness of the US systems, but how much money was he trying to nick? Any at all, or was that a bluff? At times I almost sympathised with him. He wasn't out to blow up Congress, that was just a 'what if' scenario. And when he doesn't off McClane's daughter immediately, we can see this is a fun/silly action film.
Much in the manner, in fact, of True Lies. Except, we can't have the fundamentalists as villains in a film like this, after all, they did take out the Twin Towers and are consequently no fun any more. Wait for Michael Mann's new film if you want a take on that.
Fun stuff, but I'd mostly forgotten it by the time I was home. It's no Jason Bourne.