Die Hard With A Vengeance

Once again my love for DVR's continues because I was able to recprd this movie playing on G4 during the middle of the night. Of course the other huge benefit is that with it being on tv it was edited. This third installment of the Die Hard series re-rights the series after the second installment. The first step they did in this was in bringing back the original director John McTiernan.

McTiernan was great in the first film, making everything feel tense and claustrophobic. Here he has the whole of NYC to run across and the camera shows this new found freedom. In action scenes the camera swings wildly round and zooms into focus on the action. During scenes set in offices etc containing a lot of dialogue the camera slowly prowls round like it's dieing to rush off to the next action scene. It's the opposite to the style in the first film and again makes this feels different enough to be a film in it's own right.

The chemistry between Willis and Jackson is great and brings a lot of the comedy to the film, there is a lot of racial humor between the two but Jackson does a great job of being more then the "black sidekick" of most films. Part of what allows the chemistry to be so good is the avoidance of the baggage that most series continue to carry, by eliminating the repeating characters. The fresh active feel to this movie really gives it life and lifts the series out of the hole that the second film had threatened to put it.

Of course with an action flick like this it is very important to be able to have a suspension of disbelief. Some of the scenes are a little forced and the plot doesn't always join together easily, but many iffy bits can be overlooked if you focus on the action. The most effective thing that returns from the first film is the musical score. In the first film the score used variations on Christmas music to dramatic effect, here the score uses music well to add tension and comedy in a different way.
 
Spoiler Alert in a way, the film is full of nice twists and turns towards the end, but unfortunately the conclusion in Canada just does not feel like it fits in with the rest of the movie. And after researching I found out that originally the conclusion was set differently, but unfortunately it was changed because of the recent Oklahoma bombing.
 
Other then that this is a great addition to the Die Hard series. I am giving this two and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. Well worth the rent or if you happen to see it on TV give it a view. However just so everyone knows if you rent it it is rated R. 
 
-The Movie Man-