Four out of
Five stars
Running time:
129 mins
Hugely enjoyable action flick that delivers likeable characters, a decent plot, plenty of wisecracks and more breathtakingly ridiculous stunts than you'll know what to do with.
What's it all about?
It's been twelve quiet years since John McClane's (Bruce Willis) last action-packed adventure and these days all he wants to do is hold down his job as a New York cop and keep an eye on his estranged college-age daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). However, when McClane is asked to escort wisecracking superhacker Matt (Justin Long) to FBI headquarters, he finds himself slap-bang in the middle of another terrorist attack as hired goons attempt to blow up Matt's apartment.
This time around, the leader of the terrorists turns out to be Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), who's organising a fire sale
cyber-attack on the infrastructure of the United States (so called because everything must go). With electricity and other services shutting down across the country, it's up to McClane and Matt to bring Gabriel down, by any means necessary.
The Good
Director Len Wiseman (Underworld) keeps things moving at a suitably breakneck pace throughout and orchestrates several terrific action sequences including a frankly ridiculous (but no less enjoyable) fight between a Harrier jet and a truck on a collapsing motorway and, joyously, a bit where McClane takes out a helicopter by launching a police car at it. (I was out of bullets, he sheepishly declares).
Willis is on top wisecracking form and he's ably supported by Long, who's no slouch in the wisecracking department himself. There's also strong support from Winstead (pleasingly feisty), Olyphant (downplaying it to great effect), Kevin Smith (as a basement-bound
hacker) and Maggie Q (as Gabriel's vicious henchwoman).
The Bad
The only problem with the film is the dubbing, which is shockingly bad on occasion, although not bad enough to spoil the film illustrating just how good the film really is.
Worth seeing?
Put simply, Die Hard 4.0 rocks like a bastard and it's easily the best of this summer's blockbusters. Highly recommended.