3 reviews

If you are looking for action Die Hard 4.0 will satisfy you ! Some actions in the movie are very impressive!

But I must recognise that the main character lost his soul ... It's as if he sold it to buy some more action...

Bruce Willis is no longer funny like in the other Die Hard but if you love action it's worth it!

Leon 15 Aug 2007

Bruce Willis starts and finishes Die Hard 4.0 covered in blood. What were we expecting ?
Unfortunately, this Die Hard doesn’t have the originality or claustrophobia of the first film, or the Smart Alec return to form of the third. There are slick villains and an attempt at equal opportunities action, but the witty dialogue’s missing. The result is that John McClane doesn’t seem quite himself and a sidekick has to add the film’s warmth. It leaves you longing for Jeremy Irons or Alan Rickman, or at least a dose of Prozac for Willis’ character.
Designed for an American Independence Day audience, the film seems to have something to say about the post 9/11 world and our increasing reliance on computers, but makes few conclusions and doesn’t really want to match the ‘what if’ impact of the Terminator films anyway. Instead there’s plenty of action – almost too much, imprecisely shot and edited – and some credulity-defying stunts (which might be what you want from a Die Hard film). Die Hard 4.0 isn’t a damp squib; the film is enjoyable and the story interesting, but it isn’t as much fun as its predecessors.

Big ass Lunar 8 Jul 2007

Die Hard 4.0 or, if you see this in America, Live Free or Die Hard (cringe), is just about tolerable as brainless summer junk, and I'd rather be tied to a chair to sit through this than any of the other wretched sequels that have blighted cinemas this season, but it's easily the weakest of the series.

The omens in the opening credits are not good. Willis is the only 'name' in the cast - no scenery chewing for an Alan Rickman or a Jeremy Irons this time round - and bad guy duties are left to someone called Timothy Olyphant (who duly turns out to be hopeless). The screenplay is adapted from a random novel, so this was never conceived as a proper Die Hard film - it's just had the McClane character tacked onto a generic thriller. And the director is someone called Len Wiseman, with only the goth-geek Underworld films to his name.

Worse, the film develops into a tiringly familar mismatched-buddy movie, with Willis looking after a rabbiting young techie who has been targeted by cyber-terrorists. Even more wearying is the inevitable presence of a McClane family member as an imperilled hostage, suitably estranged at the outset to enable a by-the-numbers arc of reconciliation by the end. Are there any good set-pieces? Perhaps two or three, although one of them has a sour misogynistic taint. The intensity of the action and language have been toned down to get a PG-13 rating in the US, though, so don't expect anything too high-octane - this is more like gloopy biodiesel.

Young Offender 4 Jul 2007