A Good Day to Die Hard

I can’t wait any longer, I have to finish “Die Hard month” off before the day is done or else I will go crazy. We now arrive at the disappointing finale to the “Die Hard” series, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” which came out at the beginning of this year. According to the “Die Hard” wiki page, John McClane killed a total of 58 people up to the fourth film. That doesn’t sound correct, but let’s not nit-pick at it and just go with the number.

Since the first film, when McClane flew over to see his wife, Holly, and ended up taking on a gang of German terrorists, led by Hans Gruber (who I believe is one of the greatest villains), singlehandedly, he has killed nearly 60 people, and upset hijackers and terrorists. On top of that, he’s an alcoholic, he’s divorced from Holly, “he has sustained more injuries than all starting quarterbacks in the NFL put together,” according to the great Richard Roeper, and he has “experienced enough violence to be a first-ballot entrant in the cinematic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Hall of Fame,” also said by Roeper.

You would think that McClane’s children would at least cut him some slack for not being there all the time with them, but in “Live Free or Die Hard,” it was a cyber-terrorist attack that made him reunite with his daughter, Lucy, once again played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this latest addition. Now in “A Good Day to Die Hard,” McClane has to fly all the way over to Russia to fight another batch of terrorists and their henchmen just to help out his son, John “Jack” McClane Jr., played by Jai Courtney, whom he has not spoken to in years.

Roeper was funny in his review when he said, “Yippee-ki-yay, absentee father.”

Now you would not have guessed that McClane and Holly would get back together in the first “Die Hard” without Hans breaking into the Nakatomi Plaza. However, John McTiernan had given one of the best action-packed films of all time that is a classic to this very day: the perfect film for Bruce Willis to showcase his smart-guy but vulnerable character. “Die Hard” worked because we were able to know McClane and the villains before the body count started.

A quarter-century later, McClane has all of his traits of making him a three-dimensional character sucked away like he was put into a vacuum cleaner and vomited back out. Roeper even says, “We feel as if we're watching Bruce Willis in a Bruce Willis movie in which Bruce Willis can survive anything while taking out the villains, video-game style.” That’s not a bad thing, but “A Good Day to Die Hard” hits the ground shooting, and never gives the viewers a moment to know the characters in the least bit, including Jack, who keeps reminding “John” (which is what he calls his biological father) that he was never there when Jack needed him, even when they team up to take on the Russian villains. Sheesh guy, talk about someone you just want to beat up.

McClane thinks that he is going to Russia to save his son, who is charged with a serious crime, but 15 minutes after McClane arrives, Jack has messed up an undercover mission.

You heard right, Jack McClane is working with the CIA. Somehow McClane, who’s well-known for solving difficult missions since the second film when he was waiting for faxes at the Dulles airport, had no idea that his own son was an undercover spy.

Who cares though? Roeper commented, “Director John Moore is clearly a fan of Explosion Porn, filling up the screen with great fanning orange flames and crashing helicopters, blowing up buildings and engineering multiple slow-motion scenes in which John and/or his son fly through the air like superheroes without wings, crash through windows and bounce off conveniently placed scaffolding, never sustaining so much as a broken rib or a fractured ankle.” This feels more like a mindless action flick. Even Iron Man would be seriously injured after going through all that action.

For some reason, I feel as if I over-hyped myself for this movie. Roeper himself admits that he’s a huge fan of the original, as am I, and like Roeper, I have enjoyed the sequels, even “Live Free or Die Hard.” Since this film is rated R again (“Live Free or Die Hard” is the only PG-13 in the series), it pretty much means that this film wasn’t going to hold back on the obscenities and quality kills. It’s very nice to see where John McClane is in the year 2013.

Turns out he is back with the NYPD, where he has been since the mid-1980s, minus the years that he was in suspension and other delays. However, he still hasn’t forgotten his signature “Yippe-ki Yay” line, which is wasted badly in this film.

You would think that McClane would be retired from the force by now, perhaps enjoying all of the honor and wealth that he would receive for fighting off four different terrorist attacks over the last 25 years. Not in this one he’s not.

Similar to the Bond series, the “Die Hard” series succeed on brilliantly written villains. In this film, we don’t even know who the main antagonist is. The villains in here are ex-billionaire Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch) and his daughter, Irina (Yuliya Snigir). I think Roeper said it best himself, “The script is filled with heavy-handed dialogue about parents and their children, framed by well choreographed but generic action sequences.”

Apparently there is one more “Die Hard” film in the works. You would think that after years of putting certain franchises away, like Rocky, Rambo, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, Garfield, Alvin & the Chipmunks, and “Die Hard” to name a few, that have come back and have been awesome and we want to see more, this one would be a treat. But it’s not. It’s just a pain to sit through, and I would have to give this film a 3. Here’s hoping that whenever they work on the sixth in the series, which will be the last before Willis officially retires the McClane character, it will be much better than this disappointing sequel.

Well, that “thankfully” ends “Die Hard month.” Not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but it’s a shame that I had to end it with this abomination of a sequel. Stay tuned for more of my reviews soon.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What a glorious holiday it is, the time of the year where you can have a turkey dinner. I know for a fact that I can’t wait until tonight so I can have a piece of that turkey. Until then, I think it would be appropriate to look at a Thanksgiving-themed movie. You want to know what I will look at: the classic Peanuts special, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.”

Ah yes, Peanuts. I remember growing up watching those specials on a VHS that we had. My brother was a huge fan of the Peanuts growing up, and I can’t thank him enough for actually getting the rest of us into them. I even remember looking at the Peanuts comic strips in the Sunday paper, and boy were they a treat. For those of you who do not know about the Peanuts, here is a little history:

Cartoonist Charles M. Schultz debuted his “Peanuts” comic strip back in 1950, and by 1965 it had gotten to the popularity point that it had its own long series of TV specials, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and in 1967, the musical stage play, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” was made. Schultz passed away in 2000, but an edict was made that the comic strip would not be discontinued after he died, and the final original strip that Schultz made appeared in the paper the day he passed.

Even though no new strips have been made in about a decade, we still get “Peanuts” TV and video specials, and the characters are so memorable, that we see them in our commercials, most famously in MetLife. You could call this an American phenomenon, since it has been kept alive with the TV specials that have maintained the same simple animation that you can see in the comic strips. It also is a big help that Schultz wrote the scripts for most of the TV specials.

But enough of that, let’s get on with the review: “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” was released in 1973, and you may think that the creators were trying to copy the earlier, successful specials, like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” If you think that it’s not up to par like the other two, it wasn’t because writer Charles Schultz or directors Bill Melendez and Phil Roman weren’t trying.

The special begins with the famous running gag of Charlie Brown, voiced by Todd Barbee, getting tricked by Lucy, voiced by Robin Kohn, to kick the football to start the annual Thanksgiving football game, but she pulls it away, making Charlie Brown fly into the air and fall flat on his back. This begs the question: if he knows that she will do that, why is he so gullible to try it every single time she asks him?

Next up in the story, Charlie Brown and his little sister Sally, voiced by Hilary Momberger, are invited over to their grandmother’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Then disaster strikes when Peppermint Patty, voiced by Christopher DeFaria, calls and invites herself over to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving. Again, the usual gag where Peppermint Patty doesn’t let Charlie Brown tell her that he’s going to his grandmother’s. To add more to this tension, Peppermint Patty tells Charlie Brown that Marcie (Jimmy Ahrens) and Franklin (Robin Reed) are also coming.

Now Charlie Brown is in a jam that he can’t get out off, until Lucy’s little sister, Linus, voiced by Stephen Shea, comes in and helps. Turns out the Thanksgiving dinner Charlie Brown, Linus, and Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy, voiced by Bill Melendez, make are cereal, toast, popcorn, jellybeans, and pretzels.

Watch the rest of this lovable special if you want to know the rest. These are pretty much the problems you will see in a “Peanuts” special. On top of that, we get the usual sweet ending and a moral to the story that you should explain to your children. Also, Peppermint Patty is always after Charlie Brown, like she has some sort of a crush on him. I love the “Peanuts,” and the more I watch any of the specials, the more I think that they will never be dated. You will definitely love this special, whether or not you know who the “Peanuts” are.

Don’t think that the special will be over when you see the credits roll. Fast forward to after the credits to when they show the 1988 TV special, “Mayflower Voyages.” This is a twenty five minute history lesson for kids, and I think that they at least did a decent job trying to teach kids about the history of the Pilgrims coming to America. I know that this special is more geared towards kids, and if you have children of your own, than you should have them watch it. Personally, when I saw this, I thought that it was a good lesson that they were trying to teach, and they did a fairly well job.

“Mayflower Voyages” begins in 1620, when 102 men, women, and children leave the port of Plymouth, England, for the East Coast of America. The “Peanuts” gang is part of the children, as you would expect. Sixty-five days after they arrive and after a month or two of their exploration they discover a new Plymouth in what is called today, Massachusetts. The story tells the hardships and ultimate good fortune of the Pilgrims and their unexpected interaction with the Native Americans, resulting in their first Thanksgiving dinner.

Final verdict: make it a tradition to watch this special every year on Thanksgiving. Instead of watching the football game while eating, put this special on. You will love watching it with the family, and if you have small children around, they will get a good history lesson and life lesson about the meaning of Thanksgiving.

Anyways, enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow when I conclude “Die Hard Month.”

Live Free or Die Hard

We have now arrived at the fourth Die Hard movie, “Die Hard 4.0,” also known as “Live Free or Die Hard,” released in 2007. So far the series has given us scenes of civil aviation hijack, skyscraper attacks with bodies falling down with them and a New York plagued by explosions. It wasn’t anything unusual back in the days before the scary 9/11 with the grand-scale civilian terror was a pin Hollywood pleasure. “Die Hard with a Vengeance” showed Manhattan office workers eating popcorn while taking a look at the destruction in the streets. In this type of situation, people obviously took terrorist attacks more personally than that, both in the moment and when dealing with the fight. Inspired by an article in WIRED about the threat to homeland security from systems hacking, “Live Free or Die Hard” happily utilizes the grim possible consequences of such ‘soft strikes’ plans, yet proposes the particularly September 10 solution of an individual hero – and reserves on its audience when they are reaching for their popcorn, like back in the day.

Once again we see Bruce Willis reprise his role as NYPD detective John McClane, in the usual position: being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This time he is divorced from his wife, in Washington D.C. on Independence Day, just as the forces invisible scheme to shut down the security and transport systems of the city and its neighbors. Chaos follows and McClane gets himself ready to save the day with blood ‘n’ grit, this time working with a young hacker named Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long. On the other side of McClane are Maggie Q as Mai Linh, Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel, director and producer Kevin Smith as Frederick ‘Warlock’ Kaludis, Justin Long as Thomas Gabriel, Cliff Curtis as Miguel Bowman, and Jonathan Sadowski as Trey. McClane’s teenage daughter, Lucy, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is also running around.

Just like in the other “Die Hard” movies, a hero who once declared that “progress peaked with frozen pizza” is inclined against complex systems being abused by knuckleheads with delusions of dignity, though McClane is now harder to accept than ever as an everyman figure: once bleeding and battling alone, he is now successfully a superhuman with a sidekick whose theatre has expanded from the boundaries of an office block to the entire eastern seaboard. Ben Walters of Time Out says, “McClane’s yen for remote communication with his foes now benefits from video conferencing and the series’ long-standing soft spot for pornographic explosions is ratcheted up a few notches too – as is the scale of the action sequences.” If the collapse of the US capital’s social and civic transportation doesn’t gives enough of a punch, you also get a fighter jet facing off against a juggernaut.

Len Wiseman, who directed the “Underworld series,” handles many of the set-pieces with style and tension: a mass pile-up in an underpass is very successful, and there’s a real sense of panic to the city’s awareness that it’s under attack. But if the film recognizes the increased conceivability of such violence, it’s only to use the audience’s fears. If the series’ diehard bad feeling is treated here more than ever, so is its silly corniness: national meltdown, it insists, is simple next to a father’s violent love for his daughter.

I would give “Live Free or Die Hard” a 9.5. Ironically, I rated this series from best to worst the same way as I did with the “Indiana Jones series.” But how does the fifth film turn out? Will it be the best one, the worst one, or somewhere in the middle? Find out next week when I finish off “Die Hard month.”

Die Hard With A Vengeance

Now we come to my personal favorite in the “Die Hard” franchise, and one of my favorite movies of all time, the 1995 classic, “Die Hard with a Vengeance.” Roger Ebert had said, “There was a time when the James Bond movies started with one sensational stunt sequence, and we were grateful for it. Now there are movies that are essentially nothing but sensational stunt sequences, one after another, each one a feat of staging, until we're reeling in our seats from input overload. "Die Hard With a Vengeance" is the kind of movie where, toward the end, you start looking for the kitchen sink.”

Once again, Bruce Willis reprises his role as Detective John McClane, this time in New York, suspended from the police force, borderline alcoholic, and not on speaking terms with his wife. There’s one scene where the chief takes out McClane’s badge and throws it across his desk. McClane asks, “Does this mean I’m back on active duty?” Ebert commented on that moment, "I heard knowledgeable chuckles in the audience from those who appreciate the fine old traditions, such as that all hero cops are rogues who are either under suspension or heading for it.” I’m not going to lie, the line's pretty funny.

Literally a minute into the movie, a Manhattan department store is realistically bombed, which will give you a scare, and McClane gets a phone call from the bombing terrorist, Simon, played by the most over-the-top actor in the world, Jeremy Irons. Simon tells McClane to stand on the corner of a Harlem street with a sandwich board that says a certain racist word that no one would want to wear around their neck. Luckily, McClane is saved by store owner Zeus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who gets added to Simon’s sick, twisted game of Simon Says.

The movie follows its usual pattern of a series of stunts along with violent action sequences. Simon seems to be some sort of a God, since he knows everything that is going on. He sends McClane and Zeus around Manhattan putting their lives on the line with these strange missions that could not be in any "Mission: Impossible" movie. One of the missions is driving a cab down the sidewalks of Central Park. Simon seems to plant the bombs in every conceivable location in the city – subway train, at first, then in a school.

Simon is not only a bomber, but he has a reason why he is having McClane do all these missions, and having a private army at his command. He apparently is the older brother to Hans Gruber from the first Die Hard movie.

Willis and Jackson dominate this movie, making it more like a buddy duo. Their dialogue seems to be heavy on the required racists talk, but they don’t show that they have racist feelings toward one another. Maybe using the N-word makes the action heroes like Macho Men. As actors, they play well off of one another. Ebert describes it as, “Jackson's observant detachment a good counterpoint to Willis' manic desperation.” It’s interesting to note that when Simon gives them the missions, Zeus seems to be the one who solves it. Ebert comments one of the missions, “although I was not quite clear how they used the three- and five-gallon jugs to measure out exactly four gallons of water; a fourth grader can probably enlighten me.”

Near the end of the movie, expect a scene where one of the bomb squad members is sweating over the bomb that has a digital countdown. He had to decide which wires to cut. Ebert mentions, “The motivation behind Simon's plan is ingenious, and I will not discuss it, except to say I am a little hazy about how the trucks got to Canada.” Jeremy Irons as the villain joins British actors who have played villains: Anthony Hopkins, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, and Tim Roth. Irons uses a type of speech which makes him sound bitter.

Irons’s performance and the rest of the supporting actors fall into second place to Willis and Jackson, who go on “Fear Factor” activities: slide down a cable from a bridge to a ship, a wall of water chases a truck on a canal, a subway car travels out of control through a station, and cars fly into the air like airplanes. Ebert describes this movie as, “basically a wind-up action toy, cleverly made, and delivered with high energy. It delivers just what it advertises, with a vengeance.”

Here’s a tidbit: this movie is based on urban bombings which will make you remember the Oklahoma City tragedy. Willis addressed at the press conference of “Die Hard with a Vengeance” not to ask him about Oklahoma City because he didn’t want to underestimate that tragedy by discussing it with the movie. Sounds like a smart thing he did.

Overall, you should watch this movie if you like the “Die Hard” series. John McTiernan is back as director, and he does an even better job on this film. I give this film a 10+, it is that good. Stay tuned next week when I continue “Die Hard month.”

Thor

Well it’s time for another one of my Avengers build-up reviews. Today I will look at the Norse god of thunder himself, Thor. This Marvel superhero’s adaptation came out in 2011 (one of my favorites), directed by Shakespearean actor, Kenneth Branagh. For those who are not familiar with Norse mythology (I will admit, I don’t know that much either), Thor is the god who has a hammer and a really short fuse. In Stan Lee’s adaptation, Thor’s father, Odin, banishes Thor from Asgard and sends him down to Earth, where he lives as Dr. Donald Burke, a physician who would pick up the hammer when mankind is about to be attacked by evil.

The movie gives us a brand new deity who is also a little bit of both.

The story bounces back and forth between Thor, who is exiled on Earth in New Mexico, where he meets the storm-chasing astrophysicist, Jane, played by the very beautiful Natalie Portman, and Asgard, where Thor’s half-brother, Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, to defeat the Ice Giants and get respect from Odin, played by Hannibal Lecter…I mean Anthony Hopkins.

CNN reviewer, Tom Charity, describes Asgard as, “An unholy combination of a Vegas penthouse and Disney palazzo, Asgard is a computer-generated Valhalla with gold fixtures and diaphanous walls revealing Hubblesque views of the cosmos. A vast waterfall drains out into space, and an electric highway allows the gods to drop in on any of the nine realms, one of which is Earth. The stereoscopic scenery is impressive, but the screenwriters have a tin ear for god-speak, settling for something between Shakespeare and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”

Probably this is the reason why Marvel Studios handed this over to Branagh, who is well-known for roles in Shakespeare film adaptations as Hamlet, Othello, Henry V, and Much Ado About Nothing. Branagh has a talent for back-slapping protest and boldness, as well as the kinky camera-angles that have you questioning if someone’s tripod has lost a leg – which describes the movie’s tiresomely lop-sided first act.

“Thor” is much safer on Earth. The tone is completely the opposite than on Asgard: more relaxed; comic, not cosmic, as Jane and her co-workers (played by wisecracker Kat Dennings and the non-trustworthy Stellan Skarsgard) figure out whether Thor is either a miracle or a lunatic.

In this miracle, Thor lost his hammer, which is known Mjolnir, but he has kept his mind about him and takes his new circumstances in his pace.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth looks like he is channeling Branagh in his portrayal of an impulsive, brave alpha male, trying to be king. There’s no skill in the performance, but wide strokes are all it takes; the other actors just work off of him, and the movie finds its sense of fun.

But it never settles that long. All the large planning takes place on Asgard. The scenes in New Mexico feel like a sideshow.

In the post-credits scene, Skarsgard’s character, Dr. Erik Selvig, has been taken to the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, where Nick Fury opens a briefcase and asks him to look at the Cosmic Cube, which Fury as been told it has unspeakable power. An invisible Loki shows up insisting Selvig to agree, and he does. This is leading up not only to “The Avengers,” but also the Cosmic Cube will play a part in the next superhero movie leading up to the amazing “Avengers,” “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

Now we come to the sequel, “Thor: The Dark World,” which came out two days ago. The story begins thousands of years ago, where Odin’s father, Bor, played by Tony Curran, led Asgard’s men in a war against the Dark Elves who were not nice people. Their leader, Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, had created a superweapon called “the Aether,” but was defeated before he could use it. Since the Asgardians were unable to destroy the Aether, they decided to bury it someplace where no one will be able to find it.

Moving to present day, Thor has returned, leaving Jane, his love-interest, behind on Earth. While she is looking for a way to contact him, she stumbles into another dimension where she gets infected with the Aether, and it doesn’t leave her body. Malekith and his crew were in suspended animation for a while, but they are awakened by Jane coming in contact with the Aether and come looking for her, while plotting to destroy the universe, and enter the world in darkness.

If you think that this plot makes it feel very much like “The Lord of the Rings,” that’s exactly what I was thinking a few times when I was watching this last night in the theaters. However, it’s a very good movie. Sequels nowadays don’t really live up to how good the first one is, but if you liked the first one, or you weren’t a huge fan of it, then you will definitely like this one. It beats the first one by a long run. Not to say that I didn’t like the first movie, because I did.

Recurring characters from the first movie include Idris Elba as Heimball, the gatekeeper between Asgard and the nine realms, the Three Warriors, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Zachary Levi as Fandral, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, and the hot Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Rene Russo also returns as Thor’s mother, Frigga. Jonathan Howard plays Darcy’s intern, Ian, who later becomes her love interest. Maybe because she’s jealous that Jane had a god as a boyfriend and she has nobody. Or it could be that she is desperate and wants someone to love. Also, Loki in this film seems to help out Thor more than he does trying to betray him.

Just to let you know, there are a lot of more comedic moments in this one than there was in the first one. I would like to thank director Alan Taylor, who is well known for that hit show, “The Game of Thrones,” for making this enjoyable. It’s just like how in “The Avengers” there were a handful of funny moments. “Thor: the Dark World” had better writing, better direction, better action, and all around a better feel to it. Expect also a small cameo from Chris Evans as Captain America, which I will be getting to once the sequel comes out.

Stay after the credits because one is when Volstagg and Sif visit the Collector, played by the great Benicio Del Toro, and give him the Aether. They say that the Tesseract is in Asgard, and two Infinity Stones close to one another would be dangerous. Once they leave, the Collector says, “One down, five to go.” This is probably hinting at the upcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie that will be coming out next year. Another is after the credits when Thor returns to Earth to see Jane, while somewhere in London, where this film now takes place, one of the creatures known as the frost monster, is wrecking havoc in the streets.

All in all, I really like both of the Thor movies, and I recommend that everyone should watch both of them. They are great films and really put you in a good mood once you have seen them. “Thor” probably would belong in the top 10 best superhero movies, but “Thor: the Dark World” belongs in maybe the top 5. This is another one of my favorites.

Thanks for joining in on my “Avengers” build up reviews. Check in for this coming Friday when I continue “Die Hard month.”

Die Hard 2: Die Harder

After the success of the very first Die Hard movie, out came “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” in 1990. Bruce Willis reprises his role as John McClane, and this time he enters in a marathon of brutal violence, one after another. Like every main action hero, he places first in everything. He wrestles with guns, jumps on conveyer belts, ejects from cockpits, leaps onto a plane’s wings while it is in flight and fights with the authorities.

Roger Ebert describes: “This is one of those thrillers, like the "Indiana Jones" series, that I categorize as Bruised Forearm Movies, because when the movie is over your forearm is black-and-blue from where your date has grabbed it during the moments of suspense.”

Why is Willis Grade A in this franchise? It might be because he blends together looking physique enough with also having the look of an Everyman. The title of this movie gives you the basic plot: McClane is a man who will not give up, not admit defeat, and single-mindedly keeps moving in the face of danger. These types of dangerous obstacles he faces would intimidate James Bond, but for this tough, tenacious cop who is about to go bald, he has no choice. On top of that: “My wife is on that plane!” Just like in the first movie, he is a cop who is on vacation. This time, he is in Washington’s Dulles Airport waiting for his wife, Holly’s plane to land so he can spend Christmas Eve with her in this packed airport. In that same airport, at the same landing time, a military jet will land, bringing a South American drug fiend in. A group of terrorists, led by a former CIA operative, plots to take over the airport operations by electronically dodging the control tower. They turn off the airport lights and leave a bunch of airplanes in the air and one of them crashes, as a warning. What they want is a spare plane with full tank of gas, ready to take the dictator to freedom.

McClane, who has an Owl’s eye for a cop, sees one of the terrorists, follows him to the baggage-claim and finds out about their plan. He can’t convince the airport chief, played by Dennis Franz, who basically brushes off a cop that doesn’t have jurisdiction in the state. After a murder and several other hints (including that plane crash) the security chief finally sees that there is an attack being planned. But does that stop McClane? Of course not, and by the end of the movie, he has single-handedly takes on planeloads of terrorists one by one.

Because “Die Hard 2” is so well put together and well-directed, it has a momentum that carries it past handful of authority gaps that might have sunk a lesser film.

For instance, look at the part where the tower tells the circling airplanes that they’ll be out of radio contact for a few hours, and the jets keep going in circles? Why can’t those planes get in radio contact with other ground receivers, and be given an alternate airport? Because then Holly wouldn’t be in the airplane and in grave danger, that’s why?

This is what Ebert had said when he said a real-life trial about this movie: “A more serious problem involves the whole rescue operation itself. When Manuel Noriega was taken captive and returned to the United States to stand trial, there was little serious effort to save him: At the end, he was a refugee in his own country, reduced to seeking asylum in the residence of a Vatican diplomat. Would anyone have the means, the money and the will to mount such a vast and complicated terrorist operation simply to save one drug-connected dictator? Even if he does bear an uncanny resemblance to Fidel Castro? I doubt it.

“But on the other hand, I don't care.” “Die Hard 2” is as unlikely as the Bond movies, and as much fun. During the summer when violence and mayhem are allowed to replace for imagination and good writing, this is an especially great movie. It tells a story that we can relate to, it has a lot of interesting supporting characters, it handles the action scenes with calm precision, and it has a couple of scenes that are worth writing home about.

One of those scenes is the plane crash. Ebert says, “Not everybody's favorite image, I'll grant you. (This is a feature that will be severely edited before it becomes an in-flight movie.) Watching the plane burst into flames on a runway, I knew intellectually that I was watching special effects, probably a fairly large and detailed model photographed in slow motion.”

No matter. The plane crash is scarily convincing.

Another shot, more fun, is harder to describe without spoiling the movie. But it involves putting the camera’s eye so far up in the air and then propelling Willis up until his nose is about to touch the lens before he begins to fall down to ground again.

Ebert says, “Not only is this shot sensationally effective in terms of the story, but as a visual it is exhilarating: I love it when a director finds a new way to show me something.”

The director of “Die Hard 2” was Renny Harlin, who was well-known for directing the fourth “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie and the Andrew Dice Clay movie, “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.” Like Paul Verhoeven, “Harlin has taken Hollywood commercial moviemaking, shaken it and given it new energy,” says Ebert.

Given the great success of the first “Die Hard,” producer Lawrence Gordon and his partners must have prayed hard to make sure this was success before handing it over to a fairly inexperienced director.

But they did the right thing: this is fairly entertaining. I would give this film a 9.

Harlin picked really great actors to portray the terrorists in this movie. They are believable and really act the part out great. The actors are: William Sadler, Franco Nero, John Amos, Don Harvey, Tony Ganios, Peter Nelson, Robert Patrick, Mick Cunningham, John Leguizamo, Tom Verica, John Costelloe, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Mark Boone Junior, and Ken Baldwin. Also, expect another cameo appearance from Reginald VelJohnson in here.

Look out next week when I look at the best film in the “Die Hard” franchise. I hope you all are enjoying “Die Hard” month.

Die Hard

For this month, I will do a review on a great series of action movies. Since I had done the “Lethal Weapon” series back in July, I think it would be appropriate to look at another great action series, “Die Hard.” Today let’s kick it off with the first film released in 1988, “Die Hard.”

This film was directed by the great John McTiernan, and it becomes more like one of the classic action movies of the 80s, the epitome of the word “action.” Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “From its trailer, ``Die Hard`` looks like a typical action movie of the `80s: a sweaty, bare-chested, all-American hero battles swarthy, heavily accented terrorist villains, accompanied by lots of high-tech explosions, vast sheets of breaking glass and enough sophisticated weaponry to account for the Pentagon`s budget overrun.” He also called this film, “Sleekly engineered, impeccably staged and shrewdly dosed with humor and sentiment, ``Die Hard`` has everything but a personality.”

You could say that this movie is a beast of its own, and it was a giant success the summer it was released. Jeb Stuart and Steven E. De Souza handled the screenplay, and they blended this movie in with other classic action movies. Think of it as a scientific experiment, where it combined films from “Alien” to “Robocop,” and they were all put together very nicely.

Now the story takes place on Christmas Eve and inside the giant Japanese building of the Nakatomi Corporation, the workers are having their party. Faster than you ask “where is the action,” a group of German terrorists barge in the building and go up to the 30^th floor. They hold the guests hostage as they try to crack the code of seven electronic devices that holds up to $670 million in bearer bonds in a safe.

Luckily, New York policeman John McClane, played by one of the greatest action stars ever, Bruce Willis, has just flown in to spend the holidays with his two children and wife Holly, played by Bonnie Bedelia, who he has a rocky relationship with. As the FBI is helpless outside because they cannot find a way in, it is up to McClane to fight the Germans inside the Plaza. He doesn’t have any shoes on, he damages his foot really bad, and he is shirtless in the last third of the movie. Willis had to work out on the days that he had to be shirtless. McClane swings through elevator shafts, crawls up the ducts and sneaks around the rooftops to kill the Germans off one by one.

McTiernan was fresh off of making another action movie that he will forever be known for, “Predator,” when he made this movie. As he was always well-known for, he puts together the action very well, uses Jackson DeGovia set of the building very well, which in it of itself, it also becomes a character. This needs a sense of scale which, since its wildly uneven to its actual content, can’t help but impress.

I’m not saying that McTiernan completely ignored his actors. Willis is still making a transition from TV to film in this role, but he still does a really good job in this film. He was not the first person to be considered for the role of McClane. He was way down the line, but he was selected and turned this into one of his famous roles that everyone will remember for. The actor that steals the show, much like how Nicholson stole the show in Tim Burton’s “Batman,” is Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber. Rickman made his film debut in this role, since he is well-known for his British stage performances. Gruber is one of the best villains in any action movie. Even Kehr states, “Small, slinky and well-spoken, Rickman`s Hans Gruber has the silkiness of Claude Rains and the smiling dementia of ``Gilda`s`` George Macready.”

Still, the film’s subtext made it a success, though it’s also really disturbing. Just like with the “Rambo” movies, “Die Hard,” despite that it operates with more difficulty and detail, is driven by almost buried, blind anger.

This anger embodied by McClane is focused instead toward feminists (Holly left him to focus more on her job), yuppies (Hart Bochner appears as Harry Ellis, who is heavily addicted to cocaine snorting), the media (William Atherton as Richard Thornburg, a TV reporter much like the one in “Manhunter” and “Red Dragon”) authority in general (the FBI and L.A. officers are shown as complete idiots), and every single foreigner, more on the Japanese and Germans. Also, if you were a fan of the TGIF sitcom, “Family Matters,” Reginald VelJohnson, who played Carl Winslow on that show, appears in here as Sgt. Al Powell, who is helped by McClane.

Even though you could easily shake off the camp appeal of “Rambo,” “Die Hard” is not a film that you will be able to shake off. Kehr said, “It`s Morton Downey Jr. on a big budget-a piece of entertainment, but also a symptom.”

Overall, I rate this film with a solid 10. It’s one of the greatest action movies of all time. I could probably consider this one of my favorites. If you haven’t seen it, go out, rent it, buy it, watch it on TV or Netflix, but you have to watch this.

Well, now I have to take time off until next Friday since I overworked myself last month by doing reviews every single day. I haven’t done that before, but I didn’t know it would be this tiring. Before I burn myself out, I will prepare myself to review “Die Hard 2” next week. Yippie-kai-yay (you fill in the rest, this blog will be swear free).