GlossyVeneer

This is the best in the series for two obvious reasons. 1) It’s the original; it set the tone, precedent and idea for all subsequent films in the series. 2) Alan Rickman. He just rocks, all the time. The movie is set at Christmas, so it’s kind of a fun spin on a “holiday” movie. John McClane is super tough, running around barefoot through way too much broken glass. If I was him, I would have given up. Just called it a day and said, “Oh well, I can’t do anything.” But then, that would have been a boring movie. And good ol’ Reginald VelJohnson (aka Carl Winslow), has he ever played a role other than a cop? Not that it matters because he rocks the role. And even though the movie is 20-years-old (at the time of this review), it still manages to hold it’s own amongst the current slew of action flicks. The special effects may not be as dazzling, but the story is a lot better than some of the drivel that is produced now that is depending on computer graphics to carry the film instead of the writing.

This was my least favorite of the series, mainly because I wanted to kick Dennis Franz in the balls the whole time. His character was screechy, annoying and pretty forced. I did like that Holly McClane was in this film, as well as the annoying reporter from the first one; that provided a nice continuity. And it cracked me up seeing the airport “security” in this film. An old woman carried a taser on in her purse! This one carries on the theme of being a “Christmas” movie just as the first one did too. But I prefer the other films to this one.

This one is better than the second film, probably partially due to Samuel L. Jackson. I liked that they were moving all over NYC in this film and I kind of liked that the bad guy was linked to the first film’s baddie. Aside from the reference to Alan Rickman’s character and some subtle mentioning of Holly McClane, the film seemed pretty void of characters from the previous films, which was a little disappointing. Some of the scenes felt a little too forced, but it was a fun flick that moved pretty well.

This was a lot better than movie number 3. Justin Long does a good job in his role as a hacker. Once again, John McClane’s ex-wife Holly doesn’t make an appearance in this film, but his daughter does. While many characters in the film reference how she is definitely her father’s daughter, if you’ve seen the previous films you realize what a good job the writers did of making her seem like a really good blend of personality traits from both characters. Bruce Willis looks pretty tough, I’m glad he’s sporting the bald head in this one because he has a slightly goofy appearance when I see him with hair. Timothy Olyphant does a pretty good job as the villain, while Maggie Q is just thrown in there to look pretty and kick some ass a little. Kevin Smith was a lot of fun as the ultimate hacker, Warlock. Love him in this. As usual, computer geeks are depicted a little humorously since they somehow miraculously know every program in the whole world right upon encountering it. But this was a good entry to the series.