Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Regardless of what you might think of Bruce Willis, he really does excel in this series of films and John McClane, the all action policeman is the perfect role for him.

This time his sidekick is the guru of the action film, Samuel L. Jackson, the owner of an electrical store, as he goes up against the ever excellent Jeremy irons, who can play a bad guy like few others.

Irons is executing the greatest heist ever, and the shots throughout the film are spectacular. The lack of any half decent script is completely masked by explosions, but what else would you expect?

Fmovies: I have to say that I was really impressed with this Die Hard film, the trilogy has just been an awesome one. This time we have a new partner, Samuel L. Jackson, who works so well with Bruce, they have such a great chemistry as partners in the film. Die Hard: With a Vengeance is a worthy sequel of the original Die Hard. It has great action, a terrific story, and in some ways it's just a fun comedy. I loved how John just wouldn't stop complaining about the aspirin since he has a hang over from the night before. Especially his line when he finally gets aspirin from the main villain, it was just priceless. I think you'll definitely love this Die Hard if you are a fan.

John is no longer at base one in life, he's actually farther behind I think, he's pretty much lost everything since his nasty drinking problem. He's suffering from a bad hang over this one morning and things get worse when he is threatened by an unknown villain to stand in the middle of the worst ghetto city wearing an offensive poster, right as he's about to get his butt killed, Zeus, a shop owner helps him out, but ends up getting involved. It turns out that the villain is Hans Gruber's brother, Simon Gruber, who is about to do everything his brother supposedly did wrong and will get the money. But John is going to make sure that he puts the Gruber name to shame.

Die Hard: With a Vengeance is an excellent action movie, it was a lot of fun and I couldn't believe how well it was made. Sam and Bruce are just perfect together. Jeremy Irons could not be more perfect for the role of Simon, he and Alan are so much alike where they have the most awesome voices for super bad villains. Yes, a little typecast for being a British villain, but it's all good, I think. I highly recommend Die Hard: With a Veneance, it's a great movie and a great end to the trilogy.

9/10

Die Hard With A Vengence is a near-perfect summer movie. This franchise effort is a gleeful no-brainer with nonstop action. It gives some additional perverse pleasure, as we get to watch smartypants Bruce Willis get smacked around for 112 minutes. In this third outing with John McClane, we are faced with yet another mad bomber on the loose. Jeremy Irons plays Simon, a nasty piece of Eurotrash who has a score to settle with Detective McClane. Simon's bombing game comes complete with crafty riddles, which must be solved in a specified time or everything goes boom. McClane has no choice but to play. Along the way, he picks up an unlikely accomplice named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), a Harlem shopkeeper. Together they tear all over New York trying to head off disaster. Sure, it's all perfectly preposterous, but DIE HARD 3 has been directed with breathless intensity by John McTiernan, who certainly has a way with wrecking things. Was he very destructive as a child? Loved the spectacular subway crash, John. That hair-raising taxi ride through Central Park wasn't bad, either. Don't forget to fasten your seat belts for this ride.

Die Hard with a Vengeance fmovies. Someone calling himself Simon detonates several bombs in the centre of New York City. He then sets a series of dangerous tasks for Officer John McClane to achieve or he will detonate more. McClane sets out to meet the demands of the terrorists with bystander Zeus Carver in tow.

This is the third in the Die Hard series and it makes an immediate improvement on the second by bringing back the original director John McTiernan. Here the film doesn't try to repeat the formula of the first film (terrorists/wife/rescue) but instead takes on a whole new plot while still tying it into the first film. The second movie tried to repeat the first film's plot but set in an airport, here the different angle makes this feel a lot fresher and feel like a movie in itself. The tie-in to the first film is clever and not too much of a stretch of the imagination - happily this is not the reason for the action itself - instead the terrorist's main aim is the gold held in vaults in the Federal Reserve on Wall Street, but the game with McClane is a special treat.

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.

Usually film series can get a lot of baggage (watch Lethal Weapon 4 for proof), but here all the repeat characters are dropped, even McClane's wife only features as a voice on the phone. And that works well here and the only characters that are brought back here are McClane (of course) and Hans Gruber (in a flashback). This frees the film up to basically go where it wants without having to squeeze in old characters the way the second film did. However it links the films by having Simon Gruber taking supposed revenge for the death of his brother. 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.

The chemistry between Willis and Jackson is great and lends a lot of comedy to the film, there's lot of racial humour between the two and Jackson is more than the "black sidekick" that exists in many films. Irons continues the fine tradition of English actors playing Hollywood villains and is good for the most. His ticks and stutters stop him being anywhere near as good as Rickman was in the original role but he's still good. Willis gets good support from the likes of Graham Greene, Larry Bryggman and Colleen Camp as fellow cops but really him and Jackson carry the show.

Some of the scenes are a little forced and the plot doesn't always join together easily (a scene where Willis is fired out of a water pipe just as Jackson happens to drive by is a little too convenient) 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. It's difficult to put into words but this effect was missing from the second film.

The film has a hatful of

This is definitely the grittiest of all the 3 Die Hard films. John Mclane is now a drunk, he's separated from his family, living in New York, and to make matters worse a terrorist calling himself "Simon" is out for revenge on Mclane. Mclane, and everyone else, has absolutely no idea why.

The first 2 films are superior to this one since this has a lot of changes from the mood that made the others so great. First off, it's not set on Christmas. No biggie though. Secondly, there are too many complications and twists to the plot. You almost have to take notes. And thirdly, the biggest change is that it's now turned into a buddy movie to the style of Lethal Weapon, since Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus unwillingly teams up with John Mclane. They're complete opposites, they argue, and they become friends. That sort of stuff.

Die Hard: With A Vengeance still stays true to it's amazing action scenes, though. There's plenty of explosions, there's floods, and overall general destruction. It's a different kind of movie, yes. But it's a good different kind of movie.

My rating: 9/10

Someone's got a thing for John McClane. Bombs are going off around New York and if McClane doesn't do what Simon says, more things will go boom. Along for the ride with the always watchable Bruce Willis is Samuel L. Jackson, a electronics store owner who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. These two are off all over Manhattan figuring out Simon's little riddles. Jeremy Irons is perfectly cast as the intelligent Simon. He's shrewd, charming and knows how to get a job done. Back in the director's chair is John McTiernan, overseeing the mayhem. The action sequences are bigger, louder and wilder than before. Car chases, shoot outs, and a really neat sequence involving a ship, a bridge and a truck highlight this action lovers delight. So, buckle up, turn up the sound and get ready for a hell of a ride. New York is about to go boom!