As seen on Examiner: 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' movie review

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

aka Die Hard 3

Directed by John McTiernan

Written by Jonathan Hensleigh

Based on certain original characters created by Roderick Thorp

Starring: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp, Larry Bryggman

John McClane: I'll tell you what your problem is, you don't like me 'cause you're a racist!

Zeus Carver: What?

John McClane: You're a racist! You don't like me 'cause I'm white!

Zeus Carver: I don't like you because you're gonna get me killed!

In the spring of 1995, 20th Century Fox released director John McTiernan’s Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third film in a series featuring Bruce Willis as hard-to-kill cop hero John McClane.

As in Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2 (1990), Willis’ character is once again “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” This time around, the reluctant hero is in New York City, where he faces off against  a mad bomber (Jeremy Irons) who has a personal score to settle with McClane.  

Simon: Is there a detective named McClane there?

Inspector Cobb: He's on suspension.

Simon: No, Walter, he's not. Not today.

Inspector Cobb: Who is this?

Simon: Call me Simon.

Inspector Cobb: What do you want?

Simon: I want to play a game.

Inspector Cobb: What kind of game?

Simon: "Simon Says". Simon's going to tell Lt. McClane what to do, and Lt. McClane is going to do it. Noncompliance will result in a penalty.

Inspector Cobb: What penalty?

Simon: Another big bang in a very public place.

McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October)  and screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon, A Far Off Place) literally begin Die Hard with a Vengeance with a bang as a bomb goes off in a Manhattan Bonwit Teller store. Within minutes, a man calling himself“Simon” makes a phone call to Inspector Walter Cobb (Larry Bryggman) of the NYPD’s Major Case Unit.  Simon tells Cobb that another bomb will go off unless a suspended Detective McClane is reinstated and takes part in a deadly version of the game “Simon Says.”

Cobb knows McClane is not fit for duty. The hero of the incidents at the Nakatomi Plaza and Dulles Airport is separated from his wife Holly and has a drinking problem that affects his career as a NYPD detective. But the inspector has no alternative and orders Detectives Kowalski (Colleen Camp) and Lambert (Graham Greene) to bring McClane to the precinct.  

Simon orders Cobb to leave McClane in the middle of Harlem wearing a sandwich board with an offensive racist slogan. Predictably, a group of angry young black men spots McClane and the offensive sign. They attack McClane, but their attempt to kill him is thwarted when a store owner named Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) reluctantly intervenes,

Zeus: Why you keep calling me Jésus? I look Puerto Rican to you?

John McClane: Guy back there called you Jésus.

Zeus: He didn't say Jésus. He said, "Hey, Zeus!" My name is Zeus.

John McClane: Zeus?

Zeus: Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don't f--k with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that?

John McClane: No, I don't have a problem with that.

Angry that McClane survived his first challenge, Simon drags Zeus into his deadly cat-and-mouse game. The seemingly omniscient bomber then sends the unlikely partners on a cross-city quest in which they must solve difficult mind-games, or else more bombs will go off in the Big Apple.

My Take

Inspector Cobb: [to Simon] I can appreciate your feelings for McClane. But believe me, the jerk isn't worth it. He's stepped on so many toes in this department, by this time next month he's gonna be a security guard. His own wife wants nothing to do with him, and he's about two steps shy of becoming a full-blown alcoholic.

John McClane: [whispering] One step, one step.

Of the first three films in the long-running series, Die Hard with a Vengeance is perhaps the least impressive, even though it gets props for casting Samuel L. Jackson in a strong supporting role and taking the action to a larger canvas than a skyscraper or an airport.

At first glance, the movie seems to be an improvement over Renny Harlin’s meaner, more violent Die Hard 2.  Bruce Willis and Jackson have great onscreen chemistry, and screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh gives director John McTiernan a serviceable script full of fast-paced action sequences and witty exchanges between McClane and the mysterious Simon.

Die Hard with a Vengeance also follows the template of the previous two films, including a villain with a hidden financial motive and can-you-top-this action sequences that feature dangerous stunts and impressive special effects.

And yet, as entertaining as this movie can be, it is less emotionally satisfying than either the first two Die Hards or the two that followed it in 2007 and 2013.

Part of the problem is that Die Hard with a Vengeance is so generic. In the 2001 DVD’s audio commentary track, screenwriter Hensleigh admits that the script originally was not for a Die Hard movie. Instead, it was first an original screenplay titled Simon Says, then it was considered (but rejected) as the basis for one of the Lethal Weapon movies. Hensleigh used  the first half of Simon Says word for word for Die Hard 3’s first half. He only changed the characters to make them fit the needs of a Die Hard movie.

But the core problem with Die Hard with a Vengeance is its lack of any strong personal motivation for McClane to be a reluctant hero. In the first two installments, Willis’ character puts his life on the line to save his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). In Live Free or Die Hard and A Good to Die Hard, McClane’s two now-adult children are the ones in harm’s way.

Here, while Holly is mentioned and briefly heard as an offscreen voice on a pay phone, she is on the West Coast and  far from Simon’s grasp.

Though Willis turns in a reliable performance as the quippy and resourceful McClane, the true star of the movie is Samuel L. Jackson. As Harlem shop owner Zeus Carver, Jackson channels his inner Malcolm X and practically steals every scene he is on from the lead actor.

Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons is all right as Carver and McClane’s bomb-planting nemesis, Simon. Although he shares some character traits with Alan Rickman’s heavy from the original film, Simon is not as compelling to watch as Rickman’s silky, snaky Hans Gruber. Worse, he doesn’t appear on screen for half of the movie’s running time, and his amazing omniscience is never explained satisfactorily.

Die Hard with a Vengeance is not one of the worst action adventure movies ever made, but it could have been much better.

Blu-ray Specifications

Video

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (28.40 Mbps)

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)

French: Dolby Digital 2.0

Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles

English, English SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean

Discs

50GB Blu-ray Disc

Single disc (1 BD)

D-Box

Playback

Region A

Miscellaneous

Rated: R (Restricted)

Studio: 20th Century Fox

DVD Release Date: November 20, 2007

Run Time: 131 minutes