Nutshell Reviews: Die Hard 4.0

Ha!Take that Americans! And you too Canada! 4.0! We get the better title! After suffering the indignity of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (because not enough of us would understand who Lois and Clark were apparently! "Yes. Hmmm. Didn't they blaze a trail across America during it's "wild years"?"). Now we get the last laugh! While you only get LFDH. (Live Free Or Die Hard, the American title has been abbreviated to LFDH, pronounced "laughed" by people unhappy with the overly patriotic title. Yeah. That gag totally works better in the spoken word, but I'm not running a video blog here, now am I?!?) However, we both lose out to the French (how often does one get to say that!), with their awesome title of Die Hard 4.0: Return to Hell!

Anyway, apart from the title, is it any good?

Is it what?!? It's freakin awesome! Here's how it breaks down:

Opening credits, plot, gun action, driving action, hacking action, driving action, explosions action, plot, fight action, explosions action, gratuitous geeky humour, plot, ninja action, gun action, driving action, flying action, explosions action, gun action, catchphrase, closing credits.

Yup. That's pretty much it. Come on. It's Die Hard. What did you expect? And it's amazing! After so many years, Willis just drops right back into the role! It's like he never left. The humour is sharp as always, and this outing is chock-full of references to the earlier three, from lift shaft explosions, broken glass, an agent named Johnson, walkie-talkie conversations with the bad-guy, and that (surely by now) trademarked vest, this has it all!

The supporting cast are great. McClanes daughter is strong willed and resourceful, like her father and his unexpected tag-along proves the perfect counterweight to McClanes all-hero actions. The bad-guys are a little dry, it must be said. They don't do much apart from die (there really must be a 1-800-henchman hotline for these guys!), although one of them sure did act as though he knew it was all a movie, and he was the villain. Also, the pilot of the F-35 that makes an appearance not only knew he was in a movie, but knew he was the good guy too, allowing him to manipulate the laws of probability and skills to pull of some insane and crazy stuff. Pity the silly git didn't read the script closer and shoot the right guy while he was at it!

The stunts are excellent, and the effects are stunning. Some of the tricks they pulled off, by whatever means they used, are just inspired! McClanes uncanny ability to get out of any situation is used to hilarious effect, and I'm sure I must have annoyed some of the more gentile cinema-goers with my laughter at some of the more crazy methods he utilises.

So is it worth seeing? Oh hells yeah! Go see it today! It's roaringly funny, heart-stoppingly exhilarating, and adrenaline pumpingly fast paced (Yay for made-up verbs!).

I'll be adding this one to my Die Hard collection on DVD release as well!