Several A-list filmmakers including Antoine Fuqua, Luc Besson as well as John McTiernan, who helmed the classic 1988 original, had evinced interest in the project.
Review
Die Hard 4.0
Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long
Direction: Len Wiseman
Rating: ***
It's been 12 years since he saved New York from a bunch of terrorists. Older but resourceful as ever, super-cop John McClane (Willis, reprising his iconic role) is back in kick-butt mode for the fourth installment of the blockbuster 'Die Hard' series.
Several A-list filmmakers including Antoine Fuqua, Luc Besson as well as John McTiernan, who helmed the classic 1988 original, had evinced interest in the project. Eventually, Len Wiseman, who directed the slick vampire flick 'Underworld', clinched the assignment.
The plot, which brings the daredevil detective into the digital, post-9/11 age, demands a suspension of disbelief. This time around, the tongue-in-cheek banter is hit-or-miss, but the nonstop high-octane action still packs a visceral jolt. Despite the lack of novelty, we are fairly engrossed in the travails of a lone lawman striving to overcome the death-defying odds.
Once again, McClane finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Assigned to pick up a young hacker (Long) for questioning, he becomes embroiled in a plot to plunge the country into chaos by wiping out its entire computer network. The mastermind cyber-terrorist (Timothy Olyphant), a disgruntled former government agent, must be stopped pronto.
That's easier done than said as the one-man demolition force flashes his fists of fury, besides gunning down adversaries with cool precision. The body count resembles a battlefield.
Abetted by the wise-cracking young geek, McClane also rescues his daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from the clutches of the kill-crazy baddies. Predictably, the disparate pair emerges unscathed to ensure yet another implausible ending. Typically, too, both the local police and the FBI are depicted as ineffectual.
It is to Willis's credit that he invests the one-dimensional character with a comic, manic edge. As his reluctant partner, newcomer Justin Long is an ideal counterpoint. While he is not in the league of Alan Rickman ('Die Hard') or Jeremy Irons ('Die Hard with a Vengeance'), Timothy Olyphant makes for a sufficiently sinister villain.
A spectacle of brainless brawn, 'Die Hard 4.0' offers two hours of slam-bang entertainment. Enjoy.
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