‘Yippie-kai-yay’ is one of those timeless movie phrases that NYPD detective John McClane has been blustering in bad guys’ ears for nigh on 20 years now.
He said it in 1988 at Alan Rickman, he said it in 1990 to John Amos and for what was thought to be the last time in 1995 with Samuel ‘Snakes on a Plane’ Jackson. Yet Bruce Willis is back and as bad as ever 12 years later as the cop who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Die Hard movies are hailed by many fans and critics alike as one of the ‘father’ action franchises from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Die Hard gave the world a new kind of action hero. John McClane was not a prime physical specimen like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator or Commando, or like Sly Stallone in the Rambo franchise.
McClane was a downbeat cop. He drank, he swore, he smoked. He was your average guy that wouldn’t have been out of place as an extra in the Terminator movies. He was the unluckiest guy in the world and movie-goers worldwide loved him for it.
In Die Hard 4.0 McClane has to take on a gang of cyber terrorists who are hell bent on sending the USA back too the stone age. McClane is given the ‘simple’ job of escorting Farrell, a hacker, to the FBI’s cyber division following a ‘digital attack’ on their computer network and infrastructure. This ‘simple’ job soon turns into another one of McClane’s bad days and before you know it he’s America’s last hope against an digitally enforced Armaggedon.
Justin Long plays McClane’s makeshift sidekick, Matt Farrell, this time around and provides some well-placed comic relief to some of the film’s most intense action sequences. The concept of ‘digital terrorism’ has been done before in movies, but not quite as well as it is here.
Some of the set pieces and ideas that played out on the screen were totally unique, well thought out and actually believable. Director Len Wiseman really made the concept of ‘digital terrorism’ come to life in a way that has not been done before on the silver screen.
One of the film’s most memorable scenes involves the terrorists pursuing McClane and Farrell into a closed tunnel. Without giving away too much, the scene consists of a lot of guns, a helicopter, a police car, a suddenly darkened tunnel, about 200 civilian cars travelling at over 60 mph and a John McClane with no bullets. Least too say this scene was amazing and is just one of the many great action sequences in this movie.
All actors are fine, there is not one bad performance here. Timothy Olyphant is well placed, as the movie’s villain, but Alan Rickman needn’t worry. Olyphant is evil, but not on the same level as the Severus Snape actor from the 1988 original.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Lucy, McClane’s daughter and is sufficient in her role, but is much underused until the last forty-five minutes of the movie.
Other notable performances come from Cliff Curtis (Sunshine) as the FBI Agent Bowman and Maggie Q (Rush Hour 2, Mission Impossible III) as Mai Linh.
Kevin Smith (Clerks, Daredevil, Dogma) also puts in a great cameo performance as Farrell’s hacker buddy Warlock/Freddie.
Bruce Willis puts in one of his finest performances yet as McClane and really shows that, despite his age, he is still one of the definitive action heroes. Die hard 4.0 is out in cinemas nationwide.
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