Film - Die Hard 4.0 (2007, Dir. Len Wiseman)

When the Die Hard franchise began in 1988, John McLane or perhaps more to the point, Bruce Willis, was a relatively young and energetic 33 year old guy. Foiling the plans of terrorists was, if not a walk in the park, at least a leap down an elevator shaft. Nineteen years on and McLane/Willis has passed 50 and the old bones ain’t what they used to be. Or at least that’s what you’d think. With Die Hard 4.0 comes welcome, if startling, evidence that, when push comes to shove, the old dog still has some fight in him.

The terrorists may have moved on, along with the computer-based weapons they have at their disposal, but our John never really did sign up to the whole cyber revolution. So when the bad guys decide they’re going to use all this mind-boggling technology to shut down America, wipe out all it’s finances and basically bring the country to it’s knees, old man McLane is, to use a line from the film, ‘A Timex in a digital world’.

The fact that the filmmakers decided to play on McLane’s age adds an air of credibility (as much as a film in which a guy launches a car at a helicopter can be credible) to the film that, frankly, I was worried would be missing, given the elapsed time since Die Hard 3. Throughout the film there are references to McLane’s ‘senior’, fish-out-of-water status, references which are swiftly contrasted with his own blunt but equally successful old-school methods.

This time, however, guns and fist fights aren’t enough and our hero needs a little help to beat the bad guys. Again, this was an area in which the film could have fallen down but in Matt Farrell, well played by Justin Long, we have a ‘sidekick’ of sorts who can deliver a funny line and help the good guys without looking like a spare wheel. The humour itself is evenly distributed and adds to the overall mood of a film that, while at no stage a comedy, never takes itself too seriously.

There was a danger that the film would look like a sad attempt to give an iconic anti-hero a last run out. It would have been easy to do; have him say the same old lines, blow a few things up, kill the bad guys, throw in a bit of wise-cracking and we all go home. Thankfully, as Casino Royale proved, it’s possible to take what could be, in James Bond’s case, a tired and stagnating franchise and drag it into the modern era without losing what made it successful in the first place. Along with the usual plot – terrorist threatens to cause mass destruction but doesn’t account for John McLane – there is a healthy dose of special effects, used in good measure with live action stunts. The two mix well and the originality when it comes to the crashes, the bangs and a fair few of the wallops is refreshing to see. The famous off-the-cuff McLane remarks are still there and they’re well utilized to demonstrate just how out of touch he is, coming most notably when he is being beaten up by a kung-fu-fighting woman and a free-jumping Frenchman. Just another day in the life of J McLane.

The film fairly fizzes along and no fight sequence is dwelled upon for too long, something of which those in similar films of yesteryear could be accused. Even the final coming together of McLane and his nemesis, where most films draw the confrontation out, is handled efficiently and ends in a way that is in keeping with what has gone before it, providing a climax that almost has you punching the air. McLane may not know his gigabytes from his teraflops but his ingenuity and ability to improvise (knocking a shooter out of a helicopter using a fire hydrant, anyone?) is a constant source of entertainment and has you laughing out loud, out of sheer amazement.

Die Hard 4.0 is one of those rare things in cinema; a sequel that not only lives up to the original but actually surpasses it.

The Director, Len Wiseman, is one of a few whose names are being linked to the recently announced Wolverine film. Previously known only for directing the Underworld films, on this evidence, Wiseman would be a great choice to helm the X-Men spin-off.