It's hard when our favorite action stars strap on the loud gun and massive explosions once again, sometimes even at their rather senior citizen old age. Rambo is coming back, and in return, beating him to the punch is our favorite swearing cowboy saying John McClane.
It has been over a decade since we last saw McClane fight off terrorist or just guys with a purpose and a vendetta. Like all red-blooded and testostorone filled alpha male, I loved Die Hard. Nothing says merry x-mas than explosions and snuffing out eurotrash german terrorists. The other two were, lets just say, not up to snuff.
So here we are. John is divorced, single, bored and extremely hated by his daughter. However, unknowingly, he is sent to retrieve a computer nerd/hacker for the FBI. It seems that someone is hacking into the FBI servers and they want anyone who either knows who or actually did this,
It doesn't take long for John McClane to be thrown in to absolute havoc when his prisoner, played awkwardly by Justin Long, are running for his life. It seems that this super nerd, played by Tim Olyphant and his super hot ninja like assassin played by Maggie Q, are hiring other hacker-nerds to write code and start killing them off. Thank god that Justin Longs' character is brought in by John McClane, as these two villains send big men with even bigger hardware to seek and destroy these teo.
As usual, McClane frustrates the terrorists by just not dying. Then we find out that Olyphants character was in the FBI, warned them that a computer terrorists could shut down the country and then does it himself to prove a point. He starts a " Fire Sale" and takes over everything connected to a computer. Soon, traffic, utilities and computer networks are taken over by him. In the end, John and his computer geek rescue McClane's daughter, foil the villains and everything is well when the sun comes up on a new day.
In essence, the movie works well. The statement that technology has consumed our lives is very relevant. We cannot go anywhere without the internet or cellphones or computers to help live our lives. Willis is still the wise-cracking cop he has been in all three other Die Hards. He is stoic and no matter what his station is in life, McClane is thrown in these situations. The special effects are amazing and the story at times works well.
What doesn't work is the villains. Timothy Olyphnat is just not a bad guy. Between the preening and the smoldering looks to the cameras and his non-convincing smugness, he is just a joke. Even his martial arts, ninja ass kicking sidekick is more " Wow she is friggin hot!" than " man she is pure evil.". Even Justin Longs character is more annoying than anything else. His conspiracy theory laced diatribes are long in the tooth and short in plot substance. Kevin Smith was great as this uber-nerd king of his own nerd kingdom. The Warlock is just funny.....calling his basement in his moms house his Command Center, reminds me of every computer nerd I have ever met in my life. The movie dragged in certain areas and could of been cut almost 30 minutes.
Is this a good movie? Yes. Is it a good popcorn movie? Yes. Could it of been better......YES! It was good to see them make a better movie than the 2nd and 3rd one, and this was good like the first one....but if I want a real good Die Hard, I'll just pop in my DVD and watch it again.