nan | 楠木

Die Hard 4.0 is straight to the point. It’s a fast-paced action thriller that lives up to the series’ proud legacy, and Bruce Willis proves that even in a web2.0 age, he is not someone you want to mess around with.

To say Die Hard is an important action series would be an understatement. Indeed, the original Die Hard arguably changed the landscape of action flicks as well as creating the “siege” formula that would be spawned many, many times.

While the original was confined in one skyscraper (and the restricted space greatly boosted the tension), each of the subsequent sequels  enlarged the space, and therefore created plots that were more and more over-the-top and grandiose. Die Harder was set in an airport; Die Hard with a Vengeance was set in a city; and now in Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free or Die Hard, as it’s US title is called), the entire US is under siege. The more open environment has definitely hindered the tension of the cat-and-mouse games that frequently occur between John Maclane and the bad guys, but it also opens the floor for more frantic action sequences. Which is both good and bad–the ramped-up action scenes are certainly what the audience expects nowadays, but the film has definitely lost a lot of the witty and suspenseful flavour of what made the original such a memorable flick.

The plot, this time around, is that the bad guys, led by an ex-government master hacker, is out to sabotage the entire infrastructure of the US by hacking the systems, and of course make an insane amount of money along the way. Yes, it’s always about the money.

So how does our favourite  cop who’s always at the wrong place at the wrong time figure into all this? Well, Maclane’s now aged another 10 years, and he’s out one night checking up on his daughter and her boyfriend, making sure nothing “off” happens. Of course he ends up infuriating his daughter, and just as he decides to drive home, he gets a dispatch call asking him to pick up a hacker for the FBI. He goes to the hacker’s place, just in time to stop the bad guys from whacking the hacker kid. Instincts tell him something is up, so he steps up to do what must be done… As usual.

And the action is way, way over -the-top. Typical sequences include using a car as a rocket against the bad guys’ chopper, ramming a SUV into an elevator shaft (and getting trapped inside), and dueling it out with a F-35 driving a truck on the highway. And of course there’s multiple showdowns and close combat, with opponents like Maggie Q and Cyril Raffaelli (from Banlieue 13).

The cast, while not stellar, gets the job done. Justin Long is plausible as Maclane’s hacker sidekick. Timothy Olyphant, while incomparable to the great villains of the previous installments (Alan Rickman is truly memorable, Jeremy Irons also very impressive), at least holds his ground. He’s also supported by some other interesting bad guys, namely the aforementioned Maggie Q and Cyril Raffaelli, both of whom are somewhat underused (certainly Raffaelli’s role could have been boosted), and end up being only martial arts experts.

But that doesn’t really matter, since this is Bruce Willis’ one-man show. And the actor still rocks. Sure, he’s aged a little (another understatement), but his street smarts and old-school style still gets the job done. And you gotta love those little moments when he humors himself and the previous films: does the name “Agent Johnson” ring a bell?

8/10