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Obviously the original is amazing and not just a great action film, not just a great heist film, but a great FILM. John McClane was a revelation. Joe Regular Dude. "God, please don't let me die" still resonates when he's about to leap off the side of the Nakatomi building.
Die Hard 2 (I never call it Die Harder because that was never the title of the film proper) is a nifty sequel. It's got a great self awareness that charmed the hell out of me. "How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?!" It was very much a product of 90's action movie excess (the throat slitting scene still comes across as too real and too brutal). And there are no less than 50 f-bombs in this film. I counted them. That's an average of one every two minutes. But it's fun and a nice follow up. But already, the "regular guy in over his head and scared to die" was fading away.
Die Hard with a Vengeance is special to me. Being a New Yorker, I totally appreciated this movie. No other thriller since The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 was as "New York." But we traded Reginald Veljohnson for Sam Jackson, but he's at least on par with McClane. But, at this point, McClane is surviving falls onto metal storage containers and "surfing the aqueduct." I like it, but the series was losing steam
Live Free of Die Hard is a fun flick, but PG-13??!!! From Renny Harlin to Len Weisman in the same series. It doesn't feel like Die Hard anymore. Joh is jumping out of speeding cars and F-35s and not dying.
And now he's just saying "Yippe Kai Yay, mother fucker" because it's his catchphrase. The first movie made sense because that's where it started. DHWAV - fine, Han's brother ate it, so fine. DH2, pushing it, but it was such a retread, why not? Now, tho, it's just expected and since it's PG-13, they obscured it with the gunshot. That was like losing your erection before you ejaculate. All that effort for nothing.
Finally, A Good Day to Die Hard: it's all action and no plot. It's 90 minutes. It's got unmemorable villains. It has Jai Courtney. McClane is just a douchebag. Superhuman and just a total dick. You don't like the guy at all. Worse, he's not funny! The only thing really going for this film is that it's rated R again and it's Marco Beltrami's best action score. I mean, shit, it's ripsnorting.
I would love to see on emore Die Hard film in the h opes they get the character right again at last. But meh.
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