MetaChat - Die Hard 4

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05 July 2007

Die Hard 4 Could there be a better film?→[More:]Bruce Willis is being shot at by baddies in a helicopter. He drives toward a barrier, jumps out the car and watches the car flip into the air and crash into the helicopter. His geeky sidekick is all "OMG dude you just took out a helicopter with a CAR", and Willis is like "I was out of bullets".

Towards the end, he's standing on a perfectly serviceable bridge, but he jumps off onto the tailfin of a hovering fighter jet just to get to another bit of bridge. When I grow up, I want to be John McClane.

post by: matthewr at: 19:39 | 17 comments

I was actually going to see this one, but now I'm going to pass--thanks for the heads-up!

posted by hadjiboy 05 July | 19:45

I want to marry his daughter so that my father-in-law is John McClane.

posted by mullacc 05 July | 19:48

I was actually going to see this one, but now I'm going to pass

SRSLY? It's quite possibly the most enjoyable bit of American action silliness ever. A veritable cultural icon!

posted by matthewr 05 July | 19:53

I saw it, it was pretty good. I won't spoil the end but needless to say it was very anti-climactic. Transformers is better.

posted by puke & cry 05 July | 19:53

Transformers comes out here in a few weeks' time. The trailer looked great though -- someone crashes a motorbike into the back of a van, and inexplicably flies out of the windscreen in a superman pose, as if entirely unimpeded by the collision. Awesome.

I find at university people tend to have more highbrow interests - which is great - but it's equally great to catch up with some brainless, plot-holed, wise-cracking action-movie hokum in the holidays.

posted by matthewr 05 July | 20:04

It could never live up to this.

posted by plinth 05 July | 20:04

I'd like to see this just because McClane is such a reluctant hero. And I've seen the other three. And to see stuff blow up real good.
I saw Transformers yesterday in a big-screen mondo-surround sound theatre - there are two scenes in which the bass is so deep it verges on subsonic, which is a good thing, btw. A little heavy on the shaky-cam side, but still good for the geekgasm factor. Plot? Who needs a plot? We got giant robots!

posted by Zack_Replica 05 July | 20:28

I haven't seen it yet, but I can already identify a few ways they could have improved on the plot of Die Hard 4:

* There are no malicious aliens.
* There are no malicious robots.
* There are no scenes that involve a man holding his intestines after being gutted by a malicious alien before having his head torn off by a malicious robot.

Other than that, I am looking forward to seeing it.

posted by cmonkey 05 July | 20:32

Bet there are no lasers, either. Or zombies. I'll see it anyways.

posted by Zack_Replica 05 July | 20:59

It's quite possibly the most enjoyable bit of American action silliness ever.

I'm so, so sick of "action silliness."

posted by BoringPostcards 05 July | 21:07

This spring/summer has to be one of the worst movie seasons ever. Nothing but crap.

posted by arse_hat 05 July | 21:18

I just got home from it. Purely implausible plot. Lots of people get shot. Lots of shit gets blown up. American action silliness. Yippee!

posted by birdherder 05 July | 22:04

I find at university people tend to have more highbrow interests

The thing that let me know I'd love grad school was that most of our department went to watch Mortal Kombat after our first "getting to know you" meeting.

posted by small_ruminant 05 July | 22:20

I saw Die Hard 4 on July 4, and I haven't had that much fun in a movie theater in years.

One note about the filmmaking, other that the enormous quantity of things blowing up--the filmmakers actually knew how to shoot and edit action sequences so that you know what the shape of a room is, where everyone is in the room, and which people are shooting at other people. That's such a seemingly lost skill (most recent action movies just show you lots of consecutive shots of things happening, with little regard for continuity or establishing spaces) that it's a relief to see a new film that does this well.

posted by Prospero 06 July | 08:11

Just saw it last night, lots of brainless fun. I agree with Prospero, the action sequences were very well shot although not as well as in the last James Bond movie.

posted by octothorpe 06 July | 09:54

(most recent action movies just show you lots of consecutive shots of things happening, with little regard for continuity or establishing spaces)

And that's exactly what made the action sequences in Children of Men some of the most effective I've ever seen. Which helped make that film one of my favorites of the last few years.

Seriously, that massively complex battle scene towards the end was almost unbearably intense, especially compared to your standard omg someone's firing a gun CUT! woah that thing just blew up what was it CUT! some dude rolling around CUT! another gun another explosion some guy grunting CUT! fare. Funny how that works, actually.

posted by 2or3whiskeysodas 06 July | 10:06

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Hellbient 06 July | 10:55

← I would like to thank hellbient || Post-purchase remorse →

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