Still Kicked Ass After All These Years

"You're an analog player in the digital world McClane"
taunted Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) to John McClane (Bruce Willis). While that might be true, John McClane didn't care one bit, he is still able to kicked anyone ass. In this latest Die Hard movie (Die Hard 4.0 or Live Free or Die Hard), McClaine come up with something he never came against before, in the form of cyber-terorist Thomas Gabriel, who managed to get hold of United States computer systems such as banks, power, traffic and wreaking havoc. With the help of expert hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long), McClane battles his way to defeat Gabriel, in the most Die Hard-ish way possible.

With just about 15 minutes of introduction, including establishing John strained relationship with with his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the rest of the movie was full of mind blowing action sequences. Len Wiseman (Underworld) has a pedigree as an action director, and it seems he took on the Die Hard mythos to heart. When Die Hard first came on in 1988, it introduce a new kind of action hero. Movie-goers have become accustomed with invicible heroes that was the norm in the 80s movies, such as Stallone's Rambo series. So when the looking battered, tired and vulnerable John McClane managed to beat a terrorist group who held hostage the building his wife works on, he became an instant hit. McClane was potrayed not as the usual action-hero, he was just simply a regular guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. The current incarnation of McClane still have those same qualities, but it's acoompanied by a sense of world weariness, noting that McClane had been doing this kind of thing for a long time.

The humour was put in good use in this movie to keep the audience from taking the action sequences for granted. Justin Long did well to provide the comic relief, as it provide a nice contrast with Willis' McClane. The movie did well enough for me to ignore all the plotholes in the movie, as the aforementioned action sequences was fantastically good. If you're looking for mindless entertainment at its best, you can't go much wrong with Die Hard.