SOME CLICHES 'DIE HARD'

By Gary Thompson

(Philadelphia Daily News, May 19, 1995 )

You can safely ignore any caterwauling about the Oklahoma City bombing intruding on our enjoyment of "Die Hard with a Vengeance." That's got nothing to do with it. What keeps sticking its nose into this sequel is plain old mediocrity - the desultory button-pushing of filmmakers and actors on their way to a fat paycheck in a studio project they care nothing about.

The blahs seem to start with the shamefully derivative script, an old ''Mannix" episode jazzed up with elements from "The Defiant Ones," ''Speed" and "Goldfinger."

Bruce Willis returns as maverick N.Y. cop John McClane, the man with a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time his problems aren't accidental. A terrorist (Jeremy Irons) has purposely singled out McClane for some fancy chain-jerking - he plants bombs all over New York, and sends McClane racing from pay phone to pay phone deciphering riddles and defusing bombs.

You want top-notch Hollywood writing? How's this: The bomber calls himself Simon, and begins each of his taunting phone calls by saying, "Simon says." Ingenious.

Another preposterous script device shackles McClane to an angry black man (Samuel L. Jackson) so the two of them can have buddy-movie quarrels while they drive like maniacs all over Manhattan. Jackson looks embarrassed throughout.

A third plot line has to do with the terrorist's actual motive for distracting McClane and the rest of the police force with bomb scares - an improbable heist that's a faint echo of the original "Die Hard," not to mention the old Bond movies.

This is an action movie that manages to stay one step behind the audience. For the first 20 minutes, baffled authorities stand around wondering why the terrorist has targeted McClane.

Duh.

Everyone in the audience will know the bomber's motives the first time they hear his voice.

Just as everyone in the audience will note the similarities to "Speed," a movie that, ironically, stole most of its material from the first "Die Hard." The crash of a skidding subway looks so familiar, it could be an outtake - last summer's thrills at this summer's prices.

Comparisons to the original do not flatter "Die Hard with a Vengeance." Willis appears to be going through the motions, true, but he really has no one to play against. Alan Rickman created one of the genre's great villians in ''Die Hard." Here, Jeremy Irons aims for the same kind of suave, Euro- killer elan, but comes off frail and kind of dainty - about as menacing as Alistair Cooke.

"Die Hard With a Vengeance" was not the bounce-back picture director John McTiernan must have wanted. He started strong with "Predator" and "Die Hard," then detonated a bomb of his own with "The Last Action Hero." Sad to say, "Vengeance" has much more in common with that forgettable picture than with his earlier work.

 

 

 

Originally on KelClancy's Page - now not accessable