The third film in the ‘Die Hard’ series sees Bruce Willis return once more as the resourceful, vest-wearing New York cop John McClane. This time round, McClane becomes involved in a twisted game of Simon Says when an evil terrorist (Jeremy Irons) sends him dashing all over the city in an effort to find a series of explosive devices. Teaming up with electrician Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), McClane soon discovers that the bombs are an elaborate ruse intended to provide cover for a billion dollar bank job.
The second sequel to the mould-making action film Die Hard brings Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) to New York City to face a better villain than in Die Hard 2. Played by Jeremy Irons, he’s the brother of the Germanic terrorist-thief Alan Rickman played in the original film. But this bad guy has his sights set higher: on the Federal Reserve’s cache of gold. As a distraction, he sets McClane running fool’s errands all over New York–and eventually, McClane attracts an unintentional partner, a Harlem dry cleaner (Samuel L Jackson) with a chip on his shoulder. Some great action sequences, though they can’t obscure the rather large plot holes in the film’s final 45 minutes. –Marshall Fine
Synopsis
Superhero cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) returns in Die Hard With a Vengeance. Freshly expelled from the NYPD, McClane encounters a number of threatening phone calls from a terrorist calling himself Simon (Jeremy Irons). Simon tests McClane’s wits, and allows him the chance to stop each bomb by solving a riddle. In addition to using his previously learned anti-terrorism tactics (Die Hard, Die Hard 2), McClane enlists an angry store clerk, Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) to decipher Simon’s tricky enigmas.
Die Hard With a Vengeance finds director John McTiernan returning to the creative helm of the series he began in 1987 (Renny Harlin directed Die Hard 2). For the third film in the detonative series, McTiernan creates a story line which floats from psycho terror to sonic action to interracial comedy relief. The acting is something to be marvelled at as well. Bruce Willis miraculously evokes sympathy whilst playing the angry police man and Jeremy Irons’ performance as the villainous Simon is reminiscent of an Eastern European James Bond megalomaniac. Samuel L. Jackson’s is also worth mentioning as he gives an angry discourse in racism and then pops off one liners, both ice cold and slick. See more
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