DIE HARD WITH A
VENGEANCE
1995
Director: John
McTiernan
Starring: Bruce
Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp, Larry
Bryggman, Sam Phillips, Kevin Chamberlin
Rated R
Wait a minute. You
mean to tell me I'm in this shit 'cause some white cop threw some white
asshole's brother off a roof?
~Zeus
Carver
After a five year hiatus, Die
Hard roars back…with a vengeance (*sigh* I tried, but I couldn’t resist). And that’s literally the title. John McTiernan resumes directorial duties and
returns the franchise to the fresh original and fun that infused the original
entry. The film was a big success and
went on to become the highest grossing in the series and the highest grossing
film worldwide in 1995. Instead of following the sort of “Die Hard formula”, McTiernan opens it up instead of keeping it
closed in. New York City becomes John McClane’s
playground this time around. Early on,
the plans were for it to either happen on a cruise ship (that script later
became Speed 2: Cruise Control) or
the Los Angeles subway system. Both ideas were scrapped
for a hot script called Simon Says.
Simon Says had already been turned to down by the Lethal Weapon franchise for their third entry. McClane was added and the script was infused
with Die Hard and became Die Hard: New York. Later as we know, the title became Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
With A Vengeance
gives us a strong villain, Simon Gruber – brother of Hans. This sounds like some corny fan fiction, but
through Jeremy Irons performance and the nature of the plot, it works better
than it probably sounded on paper. Similar in greed, Simon Gruber and Jeremy Irons come very close to touching
that high stature with which Hans Gruber and Alan Rickman stand. He’s a menace without ever truly losing his
cool until the very end. Partnering up with John McLane this time around is Zeus Carver. This was Samuel L Jackson’s first big movie
following the success of Pulp Fiction. He’s an innocent civilian identically inviting
himself into the situation. Trust me, it
works. Willis and Jackson have
tremendous chemistry and its incredibly fun watching these two solve puzzles
and tackle racism throughout their day in New York together. Speaking of the puzzles-that’s another aspect
I love about this film. As an audience
member the film allows you to mentally invest yourself along with the
characters ramping up the intensity another notch. You sit wanting to solve the riddles before
McLane and Zeus, hoping to beat the clock yourself. Its that kinda non-winking audience enjoyment
that helps invest oneself deeply into this film and allows you to completely
escape into this adventure.
The film definitely pieces together some very great and
memorable actions sequences. From the
opening explosion on we get a car chase through central park, stopping a bomb
on a subway, McLane shootout in the vault, boarding and escaping a ship, its
pretty awesome. McTiernan utilizes
filming on location and lets New York
live and breathe in this film. The whole
thing feels authentic and New York
itself becomes a character rather than a setting within the film and not in a
distracting way. A stereotypical
throwaway exposition part of a New
York construction worker (played by Joe Zaloom)
becomes fun, colorful and memorable, leading us to forget how Deus Ex Machina
the part really is. The most intense sequence of events in the film doesn't even
involve McLane, Zeus or Simon Gruber.
The police are told that there is a bomb inside an elementary school
that will go off. The school,
conveniently attended by Zeus’ kids, is successfully evacuated except for these
younglings. This turns into a completely
intense no win situation for Lambert, Kowalski and the children. In a moment of self sacrifice, bomb expert
Weiss stays back to try to defuse it til the last possible second. The bomb is a fake. Even knowing that to this day, the scene
STILL plays insanely intense and I feel for some reason the film might change
and the bomb might go off. This scene
single-handedly may just be the most intense and suspenseful moment in the
entire series…and it doesn't even have McLane in it.
Speaking of McLane, as a youngster, I wanted things to be
all hunky dory and he’s happy with Holly and the kids. It was quite a lackluster surprise (as being
a youngster I wanted John The Hero not John The Deadbeat), after the last second films, to see where he picks up now. But
as I've grown, I LOVE it. He’s hungover,
still probably a little drunk, suspended and separated from Holly. Once again folks, the odds are completely
against McLane. And it perfectly adds to
the “randomness” of things happening like the first film without being the “how
can the same shit happen to the same guy three times” type scenario. They forego the enclosed area and expand it
to a city. Proving to us that this
series CAN and IS more than just “Die Hard on a…” The weakest point of the film is definitely the ending. It completely reeks of the “Well, we gotta
wrap this up somehow”. For me, this
incredible, intense, suspenseful and completely fun movie has earned the right
to just “end”. It’s a bit messy, doesn't make too much sense in a lot of areas if you think about, but, fuck it…things
go boom, John says “Yippie-Ki-Yay Motherfucker”, Simon dies, John & Zeus
high five, John calls Holly.” I’m fine
with it. The original ending, while
interesting in its own right, tonally doesn't fit with the film and frankly
just doesn't feel as satisfactory.
Die Hard With A
Vengeance was and still is one of the best action movies of all time. It’s a genuine crowdpleaser that lets you get involved, has you on the edge of your seat and keeps a smile
on your face. It comes really…JUST A
HAIR shy of matching the original. A
hair. Slim margin. If you prefer this one over the first one, I
can’t say you’re wrong. This is damn
fine entertainment. And it goes by so
quickly no matter how many times you've seen it. You could honestly skip the second one and get to this just fine. Along
with the first one, I say this is a MUST.
Now, this film felt like the perfect capper to a
trilogy. I wanted, but really didn't think another would be in the pipeline for this series. But alas…around the time of Armageddon…life
started beginning for 4th film.
But we’ll get to that in…
Next Up: Live Free Or Die Hard
Timothy Olyphantastic (credit Aaron Neuwirth), jumping off a
plane wing, a lazy ass director cameos, hackers drink energy drinks and the
gorgeous Mary Elizabeth Winstead
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