Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Although it didn't quite live up to its predecessor, mainly because it lacked in originality and a strong villain, Die Hard 2 was a good action flick. Third entries, on the other hand, have the tendency to suck really bad and since I didn't remember anything but some bits of the plot of Die Hard with Vengeance, I was worried it was going to be terrible. Turns out it's better than Die Hard 2.

Finally not set on Christmas Eve, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is now an alcoholic and is suspended from the NYPD. But then a man calling himself "Simon" (Jeremy Irons) threatens to detonate bombs around the city unless McClane accepts to play his game. McClane obviously accepts and must join forces with Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), a Harlem shop owner who saved John's life during one of the tasks assigned to him, to stop this new threat.

And finally, in spite of the fact that the film drowns in plots holes and it's so damn illogical, Spock would kill himself over this (every single cop knows about the bomb and that doesn't leak to the journalists? Seriously? What is this, wonderland?), the plot has a good development, it's tense and its many twists and turns (some more unexpected than others) will you keep involved in the story and engaged until the end.

Very much like for Die Hard, the strength of Die Hard with a Vengeance is its characters. John McClane was no super-man in the first film, he was simply human. Then he turned into the typical action movie hero, the unbreakable man. And now he's back at being a real, flawed human. He is more grounded and a little bit darker than usual, and it works. The writers also had the brilliant idea of pairing him with Zeus, a local shop owner who is very likeable, hilarious and easy to sympathize with because he could easily be one of us. This guy doesn't have a gun, he doesn't even know how to use one, he's not trained, and has no experience with terrorists. It's just a poor guy who found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, Samuel L. Jackson gives such an entertaining performance and his chemistry with Willis is great.

20th Century Fox, Buena Vista International

The villain is good too. First of all, he ties this film with the first one and he's given a good motivation for the 'Simon Says' game he's playing with McClane. Second, he is a clever, sneaky man and Jeremy Irons does a really nice job. However, he does sound too much like Alan Rickman's Gruber.

As for the action, it is as good as it was in the previous movies, although maybe there's a little too much of it. I'm just saying this film begins with a building being blown up. Anyway, most of the sequences are fast-paced and exciting and they make for a very entertaining film.