DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
A film review by Jeffrey Haber
Copyright 1996 Jeffrey Haber
** (out of ****)
Having enjoyed the first two "Die Hard" installments, I was really looking forward to this new sequel. With John McTiernan returning to the director's chair and Jeremy Irons and Samuel L. Jackson in the cast, my hopes were high. But what a huge disappointment it turn out to be.
The movie stars Bruce Willis as John McClane, the blue-collar hero who always seems to be up against impossible odds. This time, we find him separated from his wife, down on his luck, and back with the New York Police Department. McClane's precinct gets a call from a mysterious German named Simon (Jeremy Irons) who turns out to be the brother of Hans Gruber, the terrorist from the first film. Simon has already blown up a department store, and threatens to go ahead with more bombings unless McClane goes to Harlem wearing a racist sign. McClane obeys, and is reluctantly saved by a white-hating electronics store owner, Zeus Carver (Jackson). For most of the film, Simon phones in cryptic riddles and leads McClane and Zeus on a wild chase around Manhattan to diffuse bombs at various locations, including parks, subways, and schools. All of this, however, is designed to keep the cops occupied while Simon's gang steals $100 billion from the Federal Reserve vault.
One of the problems with "DHWAV" is that it never really generates any tension between McClane and the bad guys. Unlike the first two films, there are surprisingly few gunfights and hand-to-hand fisticuffs; even those that do appear in the film are awkwardly shot (annoying, jerky camera movements are used in some of the scenes). Most of the action comes from generic explosions and car crashes, and after seeing this for a while, it no longer holds up as a source of excitement.
Jonathan Hensleigh's script needed a serious rewrite. There are acres of plot holes (where did Simon's army come from? How did they break into the Federal Reserve so easily?), the ending is conveniently slapped on, and the characters are poorly conceived. McClane loses a lot of his likability; the script unwisely gives him a hangover at the beginning of the film, so instead of the street-smart, take-charge character from the first two movies, we are given a sluggish, slow-footed McClane. Meanwhile, Samuel Jackson's role is written as a wide-eyed, disbelieving black guy who can't stand the white cop he must work with. The relationship plays out like a bad ripoff of the Mel Gibson/Danny Glover "Lethal Weapon" tandem.
Could "DHWAV" have been done better? Absolutely, and that's the shame of it all. Considering the talent involved and the previous history of the "Die Hard" films, it's disconcerting to see such a bomb go off.
-- Jeff Haber dasher@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
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