The only real disappointment is the second film, and even that's entertaining enough.
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Three out of four ain't bad--especially when even the worst of the group is still entertaining, and all four look great in 1080p High Definition. Plus, the four 50GB dual-layered discs come with a bunch of bonus features, all of which adds up to a highly recommended collection for fans of action films or this series. Fans will appreciate that Fox is giving them a choice. You can buy these in a set, or individually.
Die Hard started it all back in 1988, which, Kevin Smith reminds us in an interview he does with Bruce Willis on the fourth disc, was the first action film to give us a bloodied, vulnerable hero. It was the lone Western hero transposed to a landscape dominated by skyscrapers, not Monument Valley rock formations. And it set the tone and paved the way for a number of action films to follow.
In this one New York cop John McLane (Willis) is introduced, as a trip to L.A. to visit his estranged wife and their daughter for Christmas turns into a Christmas Eve nightmare after the Nakatomi building where Holly Gennero McLane (Bonnie Bedelia) works is taken over by terrorists. But McLane catches on and slips away, left shoeless but not gutless to take on the whole lot of them before they can cause real harm. One cop. One building. One heck of a lot of explosions and gunfights. "And who are you," the villain snipes, "just another American who saw too many movies as a child?" "Call me . . . Roy," McLane says, as in Roy Rogers. This John McTiernan-directed film raised the bar for action films and made a star of Willis, who was still filming episodes of "Moonlighting" at the time.
The writing was solid, and though the film revolved around McLane, so was the supporting cast. Alexander Godunov and Alan Rickman were perfect villains, while Sgt. Al Powell played off of McLane well as the sympathetic cop who communicated with him by radiio, and De'voreaux White offered comic relief as McLane's driver, Argyle. "Yippee-ki-yay, mother f---er," McLane says as he wastes the bad guy--a refrain that would be picked up in each of the films to follow. For an action film, this one offered superb stunts and special effects, believable characters, and non-stop tension and adventure. An 8 out of 10.
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) worked for some people, but I was totally put off by the self-consciousness of this sequel. It's Christmas Eve again, and for every plot element that's identical to the first film (i.e., a blatant and unimaginative duplication), there's a self-conscious line that acknowledges the liberal borrowings from the first film. And the villains? Okay, so they take over an airport to negotiate for a captured general involved in drug trafficking, and all the planes overhead are in danger of crashing because of low fuel (including one Mrs. McLane is on). But these guys are so cardboard you could knock them over with a big strong breath.
In this disappointing sequel, McLane is at the airport to pick up his wife. He's apparently made up with her and working in L.A. now. But he sees guys with packages go into a restricted area, and the head dick at the airport (Dennis Franz, as Capt. Lorenzo) won't listen. Naturally, McLane takes it upon himself to investigate, and shoot-out after shoot-out ensues. Fred Thompson is almost as wooden as airport chief Trudeau as he's been on the presidential campaign trail, and so, surprisingly, is John Amos as the head of an "elite" squadron who storm onto the scene and really don't do much for the longest time except strut from here to there as a group. Then there's William Sadler as Col. Stuart, who's at the bottom of it all--and not nearly as compelling a villain as we had in the first film. Yes, there are some excellent special effects, but the self-conscious clumsiness of this sequel is too much in evidence, and the performances add to the disappointment. Willis talks to himself far too much in this film, too, mumbling and grumbling about (yep) those plot similarities. Sorry, guys, but you can't wiggle out of a knock-off plot just by acknowledging it. This one is same-old, same-old. A 5 out of 10 (though I admit that on a different day I might even give it a 6). As I said, it's still entertaining, despite the sameness. Just don't make the mistake of watching it back-to-back after the first one, or it'll really suffer by comparison. Director Renny Harlin is no John McTiernan.
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) I hadn't seen in the theaters, and was relieved to see a more original and complex plot. I was also caught totally off-balance by the humor that this movie has. It's a far funnier film than the others in the series, but I can see why Willis wasn't a fan. Samuel L. Jackson gives such a strong performance as McLane's reluctant civilian "partner" that the focus shifts from lone ranger to buddy flick, along the lines of "Lethal Weapon" or "Running Scared." Purists might side with Willis, but I thought that after a weak sequel it was a smart thing to go in a different direction.
This time, an apparent psycho blows up a section of the city and threatens to do more if John McLane doesn't do exactly as "Simon says." It's a game that finds McLane and Harlem store owner Zeus (Jackson) fighting the clock to get to different locations or else more bombs will go off. As things build to a climax, the stakes get higher. One of the city's public schools will be blown to bits unless McLane and Zeus can solve the riddles and somehow prevent it. And yet it's not just a psychopath at work. The bad guys have another motive, which involves McLane in some pretty dramatic car/truck chases.
Jeremy Irons provides another strong villain as Simon Gruber (brother of the man who was first victimized by McLane's "Yippee-ki-yay"), while Larry Bryggman is credible as Inspector Cobb. I'm sure Willis didn't care much for sharing the spotlight with Jackson, who steals more than a few scenes but pushes Willis to do some of his best acting in the series. An engaging film from start to finish, with enough twists to make it more than a series of stunts and special effects. An 8 out of 10.
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) returns to the seriousness and "mythology" of the first film in the series, with John McLane more the lone loose cannon again. This time it's cyber-terrorism. Before the Feds can bring them in for questioning, seven hackers are blown to bits. McLane is sent to bring one of them in, but the terrorists open fire on them both with automatic weapons, which jump-starts the action. After that, McLane and the hacker (Justin Long, who really plays off Willis well) have to keep out of harm's way while also trying to help the government stop these guys. They're messing with streetlights, Wall Street numbers, personal files, utilities, transportation, and causing as much chaos as if they'd just detonated a "dirty bomb" in the city. It's an intelligent script but a pretty straightforward plot, with Timothy Olyphant (as Thomas Gabriel) and Maggie Q (as Gabriel's girlfriend/henchman) interesting but not nearly as menacing as other villains we've seen. This film is the first in the series NOT to merit an R-rating, but there's still plenty of graphic violence and that infamous catch-phrase.
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