For being a child of the 80’s, I am super late to the Die Hard game.

A lot of people point to Die Hard as something they put on their calendar for scheduled rewatches. There is, after all, that tedious Christmas movie debate. But for me, it was always one of those “Did I see Die Hard as a kid or not?” movies that I might have seen, but who really knows? I wasn’t exactly dying to watch it again, so… I just never got around to it.

(That said, I’m pretty sure I saw-slash-slept-through Die Hard 2 as a kid when it was playing at the drive-in with Batman)

For my part, I did not get around to watching Die Hard as an adult until about 4 years ago when I was asked to guest star on a podcast that was doing an episode on it. What did I think? I loved it. It’s fucking Die Hard. Come on. Even I’m not immune to that. It lives up to its reputation.

I would follow Die Hard up with Die Hard 2 last year so I could not be an 8 year old and sleep through it this time. And Die Hard 2 is fine. It’s wildly flawed compared to its forefather, but it’s still a good time. But it’s far less memorable, yes.

And then came this year, where I finally decided it was time to march on in the franchise and watch Die Hard With A Vengeance. The threequel to the 1980’s classic came out in 1995 and tells the story of a John McClane who is back to being down on his luck. He starts the movie off on suspension from the force and separated again from his wife, Holly, who he has not spoken to in a year.

When a terrorist attack goes off in John’s home turf of New York City, the man responsible for it–a man known only as Simon–calls the cops and demands that McClane be brought out of suspension and put on the case… but only in the manner in which he will allow.

This starts up a life-and-death game of Simon Says that leads McClane to meeting up with Zeus Carver, a shopkeeper in Harlem. With Zeus wrangled into Simon’s game, can the two men survive long enough to figure out what the terrorist is playing at?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ There is a LOT going on in this movie. Especially in the climactic act. You’ve got the NYPD and the FBI running around and trying to save school children, Zeus off on his own having side-quests after several misadventures with John McClane, and then McClane himself chasing after stolen gold. There is no lack of excitement and drama and stakes in this movie!

Honestly, I’ve always loved any movie–particularly of the action variety–that can balance so many plates up in the air. And Die Hard With A Vengeance does it seamlessly. The film bounces around from protagonist to protagonist (and often times to the antagonists for a bit, too) to show everyone doing what they need to do, and it all just feels flawlessly executed by the screenwriters and by returning director John McTiernan.

+ Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson have marvelous chemistry. John isn’t quite the sympathetic hero that he is in the first two Die Hards where he’s got real human reactions and emotions (though he is still quite the Everyman, I actually found I missed the McClane from Die Hard 2 that broke down emotionally when he failed to save a plane from crashing), but that’s made up for by Zeus’ frantic energy.

They play off of each other so damned well. It’s a pairing I’d have loved to have seen more of if we had gotten superior Die Hard sequels instead of the apparently awful flicks we got in the 2000’s (I say apparently because I haven’t seen them and can only go by their reputations as I have heard them). They could easily have chased this movie in 1997 or 1998 with more Willis/Jackson shenanigans. It might become a bit contrived figuring out how to get Zeus back involved in John’s frays, but you know what? Who cares? Their entertainment value would overwrite that.

– Simon, played by the unimpeachable Jeremy Irons, is about as good of a villain as you are going to get that ISN’T Hans Gruber. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? He isn’t Hans Gruber. This series really blew its load on creating a phenomenal antagonist–we are talking one of the top ten villains in cinematic history–in part one, and they were always chasing that high. Especially in this entry.

They are chasing it so hard that they make Simon the heretofore-unheard-of brother of Hans Gruber. And he’s such a Gruber, that he even duplicates Hans’ evil machinations: what we, the audience and the cops, think is his real plan (punishing and eventually killing John) is just a red herring so he can pull off a heist. On the one hand, it’s a great call back to what Hans was doing in Die Hard. On the other hand, it really just made me miss Alan Rickman’s portrayal even more.

– DHwaV probably goes on about fifteen minutes too long, and it, in my mind, should have ended after the climax in New York. The final beats in Canada are so extraneous after all of that. When you get through all of the many aforementioned action beats where the NYPD, John, and Zeus are running themselves ragged trying to thwart Simon’s plans, their all just ending up in Canada for a helicopter shoot-out feels tired. It wasn’t terrible or anything, but the movie had me so high on the previous action that by the time this happened, I was on an adrenaline crash and just didn’t care as much.

OVERALL

Die Hard With A Vengeance is, dare I say it?, nearly equal in quality to Die Hard, which was quite a feat since Die Hard is in the Best Action Movie Ever conversation and Die Hard 2 was a relative let-down after its predecessor. But nope, it’s a huge upswing here that starts off with a literal bang and then never lets up. Willis and Jackson are bringing their A-games, and McTiernan is in full control of the proceedings. I had an absolute terrific time watching this one!