Die Hard 4.0 [Blu-ray] [2007]

This is, as you've guessed, the 4th outing for John McClaine in what has been, to say the least, a hectic 20 years for him! Fighting bad guys in a giant apartment, at an aircraft terminal, in the city, and now... well, it all gets a pinch of the modern age.
The plot is particularly topical with the way the world is now, and proves the vulnerability of letting networking/computer system have such a large control on the way we live our lives. The story is simple enough - yet another group of terrorists believe they can rob us of our money by playing around with McClaine, as this time round he goes in search of a young man who has taken the work of previous computer hackers (unknowingly to them...) so that he may open up the U.S's Social Security network, and take everybody's financial details. As ever though, McClaine has a habit of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.. and so when he's called upon to simply find a suspect and deliver him to Police, he realises that the young boy himself created one of the pieces of software that's being used to hack into the Government files..
And so, off Brucey goes to rage war on his hunt for whoever is planning to steal our precious information. But things get worse when his daughter is kidnapped by them. Then its personal!
It's only fair really to compare this to the previous films - it is part of a quadrilogy, after all. And in that case, I feel this film lacks the substance and tense moments that the 1st and outing had, where a more sinister musical score and better choice of villain made the 2 films a combination of great acting, and edge of seat moments. This modern outing however, falls in that it's just purely non-stop action. What's wrong with that you're probably wondering.
In all respect, it doesn't allow the film to build up suspense like the previous films did. But this may not bother many who saw this film, it is afterall, just a high octane action film. It's also had more of the 'Hollywood' input pumped into it, so my only advice is to literally disengage your brain as the Fighter Jet vs. Bruce in the tanker scene comes up, for this is the first time i've seen a massive fighter jet creep through a standard, slim bridge, beautifully controlled under intense pressure, and then still fail to hit Bruce in his tanker from 2 yards away... then watching the jet monouvere through the bridge like a stroll in the park... I don't think i've seen a more laughable moment since Willis said "I've got 6 words for you.... damn glad to see ya boy!" in the patriotic Armageddon.
With the laughs over at this point, you realise this really in affect is just 'another' modern film. Yes, massive sums of money were used to make it, but that doesn't mean its all to a good cause. I don't want to sound like i'm slating this movie - it's great, but if you're looking for the younger John McClaine who creeps around vent shafts, not knowing who's around the corner, you're far from it.

As an all-rounder, its a fantastic action movie that'll keep you hooked, the only downside is not living up to its former films. 8/10

We were a bit wary before we watched this. Die Hards 1 and 2 were excellent but by 3 is was all getting a bit tired and run of the mill. No need to worry; even after all this time 4.0 is seriously entertaining. Some of the action scenes are so fast and hard and in-yer-face that you get breathless just watching it.
The script is plausible (cyber-terrorists bring the USA to a grinding halt for their own devious means), and John McClane has to save the day again. He also has to save a geeky hacker who might be able to unravel the online mayhem, and he has to save his grown up daughter too.

There's guns, there's shooting, there's quick-cut running and driving and shouting and -- heck, there's even a scene where Bruce takes out a helicopter (in mid air) with a car. 'My gun was out of bullets' he says, smirking.
There's plenty of one-liners, punchy dialouge and it all rattles by at a fair old pace. Bruce Willis plays the role well, too; you believe in his age and you can believe that he's just about taking the punishment. Although he doesn't strip down to his vest this time!

Great action movie, nothing too taxing for the brain cells, nothing too scary for younger kids. There's some stand-out fight scenes (especially with the guy who climbs a ventilation shaft like he's some kind of rabbit, and the karate kicking bad girl) and plenty of 'wow!' moments.
Afterwards, you might wonder about some of the plot twists -- but don't think about it too hard. Just sit back and enjoy it.

All of the die hard sequels cower in the shadow of the first, great, movie, but this one more than the others. I kept thinking about the first film - the great characterisation, in fact the first one is all about that: the hero who will not give in when he should, the villain who is the same.

There is really so little connection here with the original elements that made the first film so great. The film makers are reduced to the occasional visual reference or homage to DH1. It came across to me as basically a so-so buddy movie. I think a lot things could have been sorted out thad they got the villain right, but for some reason they decided to make him one of the most inactive, passive baddies I've ever seen. Comparing him to Gruber in the first film, you start to get a sense of the problem. All the talk in the world about someone's evil genius is much less impressive than actually seeing that genius in action. Only at the end does that point get picked up, and for me it was too late by then.

Do I sound sour? There were some great moments, true, and Kevin Smith's cameo was fun, but...
For all the action, and there was a lot of it - and I'm sure most of the fifteen year old boys watching would have been happy, to me it was just too much like Mission Impossible II - all the great looking action CGI in the world isn't going to save weak writing. I kept comparing the moment when JM ends up jumping from a falling truck onto the tail of a fighter jet, to that moment in the first film where he has to jump off the building, and ties a fire hose around his waist. That seemed to spell out the difference to me. This film had the visuals, it just didn't have as much heart.

Worth a look, but I'm hanging on to my box-set of the first three films.