YES! I AM BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! LET’S DO THIS! JOHN McCLANE! YIPPIE-KAI-YAY MOTHERFUCKER!
McClane has fallen on hard times; after moving to New York City and breaking up with his wife, he’s developed a drinking problem and has been suspended from the NYPD. However, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Simon (Jeremy Irons), a terrorist bomber who has been using McClane as his contact as he plants a series of bombs in public places and gives McClane inane “clues” to their whereabouts in the form of riddles and bizarre games. McClane soon discovers he’s been involved in Simon’s scheme as part of a personal grudge; while associated with an international terrorist group, Simon is also the brother of the man McClane threw off the side of a skyscraper several years back (in the original Die Hard). Now McClane, with the help of a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), has to find out where Simon has planted the bombs, guess where he’ll strike next, and try to find his base of operations before more bombs go off and thousands of people die. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
I am not going to lie, I would totally watch a Die Hard movie every year if they came out with one. I love seeing John McClane just whoop as a suped up every man as he just kicks ass and defeats shitty terrorist organizations. The latest movie, “A Good Day To Die Hard” might just be a rehash of shit, but damnit I will totally go see it cause it comes out during my birthday week. So you can be damn sure I will be there to watch McClane save the world this time.
Anyways, I digress from the actual movie today, but suffice to say, it’s fucking awesome. Die Hard With a Vengeance is a rollicking time with Willis and Jackson as a dysfunctional buddy cop duo while they avoid explosions and stop Hans Gruber’s brother or something. Jeremy Irons can never replace Alan Rickman as the penultimate villain, but he a bang up job playing the heel in this movie, Simon. Everything is escalated in this movie in terms of action, explosions, and body count. I have always enjoyed the solid action and affable lead in the Die Hard series. There is something interesting about a wise cracking, every man hero who has drinking problems, but manages to still be a bad ass and dispatch enemies with relative ease. Sam Jackson is a welcome addition to the movie as his character Zeus is more of a counter balance to McClane in that he is just not trusting of the white man.
Die Hard With a Vengeance might not have gotten solid reviews, but for me this is just another solid action film and another great entry to the series. They are continuously trying to up the ante in the franchise where the stakes are bigger, the explosions are massive and the action set pieces are frenetic and great to watch. It will never touch the classic christmas movie that is Die Hard, but this third entry adds in a sidekick and a good villain in the form of Jeremy Irons. The plot itself is big and needlessly complicated, trying to be smarter than it should be, but you kind of forget about it when you just let the action unfold. That is a good testament to the enjoyment of the McClane character and Bruce Willis just being Bruce Willis. Sam Jackson just yells and acts like Sam Jackson, but he is on the level with Willis in terms of awesomeness.
I absolutely enjoy the series as it is just solid action movies and the level of ridiculousness keeps getting elevated to the point where I expect the series to have John McClane save the moon or something. I mean he saved Nakatomi Plaza, he saved the airport, he saved New York and then he saved America. Now we see him in the latest outing saving Europe cause they need the help. It’s only logical that he saves the world and then space. I for one will be there for that movie if it happens.
Damn it’s good to be back!