Movie: Yippie-Ya-Yeah, Piggyback: John McClane is back. A full 12 years after his last outing, Bruce Willis finally returns in his signature role as tough cop McClane. The fact that in "Die Hard 4.0" despite the now advanced age of the main actor, the sparks fly again, is an absolute matter of course.
Once again, John McClane is in the wrong place at the wrong time, this time on American Independence Day. Actually, he should only bring the young hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) for an interrogation to the FBI. But when the venture is abruptly interrupted by a couple of professional assassins who are out for the boy's life, he realizes he has a much bigger case on his hands. When an attack on America's almost entirely computer-controlled infrastructure threatens to cripple the entire country, McClane is back in his element. With the help of Matt, he does everything in his power to put a stop to the still unknown enemy. And thanks to his ruthless methods, in which McClane leaves behind plenty of scrap metal and dead terrorists, the catastrophe actually still seems avertible- until the mastermind behind the virtual attacks, computer genius Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), launches a very personal attack against McClane.
Directed by "Underworld" director Len Wiseman, the "Die Hard" series has been given a radical makeover. The film is louder, faster and more action-packed than its predecessors. But that's only a limited benefit. The good news up front: "Die Hard 4.0" is a very entertaining, and in two sequences even excellent, action thriller. Lovers of bombastic popcorn cinema will therefore get their money's worth. Bruce Willis plays McClane again with that callous coolness, through which this character once became a cult. And not only by composer Marco Beltrami in his music again and again Michael Kamen's themes from the first part, is noticeably tried to bring the typical "Stirb langsam"-Feeling even 19 years after the start of the series again across.
But exactly this succeeds only very limited. Too often Wiseman uses other works from the action genre, such as "True Lies" and "Mission: Impossible 3". The spectacle is too much about breathtaking stunts and therefore sometimes overshoots the mark to actually be able to play in the same league as the groundbreaking first film of its time. At many points, "Die Hard 4.0" therefore feels more like a bloated sequel to the hit series "24", but not an equal continuation of the first part.
Despite these weaknesses, John McClane's fourth cinema outing has become absolutely worth seeing. With Justin Long a nice counterbalance to the prickly cop was found and Timothy Olyphant can convince as a villain with a successful mixture of dangerous genius and ice-cold madness. And even if logic and realism have to take a holiday for two hours, the entertainment factor always soars to adrenaline heights. And exactly with it "Stirb langsam 4.0" optimally fulfills the basic requirements, which may be placed to an action blockbuster.
The Recut-Version: The running length of the new Recut version is exactly the same, as that of the cinema version. Changed, but only in the original English, some dialogue, which is now filled with more violent expletives and thus closer to the old "Stirb langsam" films. Action scenes have also been changed here and there, with digitally inserted blood splatters making up the most noticeable changes. For old-school McClane fans who prefer to watch their hero in the original English, this version is definitely the better one. For those who only watch the film in German anyway and can do without a few more shades of violence, the recut is a safe bet.
Picture: Although there are small point deductions here in the sharpness of detail, the strong colors, the well-tuned contrasts and the overall very clean, distortion-free image allow only one overall rating: very good!
Sound: This is how a DVD should sound: at the risk of pissing off your neighbors, this film needs to be seen out loud. The superbly mixed sound effects, with plenty of dynamics and spaciousness that work even without a great sound system, ensure that the action is transported from the screen straight into the living room. Very good!"
Extras: True fans of course grabbed the well-equipped double DVD without much thought. Now the question remains, whether a renewed purchase of this ultimate (?) Edition is worthwhile?. If you can do without the advantages of the recut, you won't find much new in the extras either. On both film discs (theatrical version, recut) are exactly the same extras, whereby there is still an audio commentary to hear on the theatrical version, which is missing on the recut. The commentary was recorded by Bruce Willis with director Len Wiseman and editor Nicolas De Toth. Especially at the beginning there are a lot of pauses, but after a while the gentlemen get going and give some interesting details about the shooting. Particularly interesting is that at the beginning they talk about the differences between the theatrical and the recut version, in which more swearing was allowed and a few more blood splatters can be seen.
The movie discs both have four extended and dropped scenes to offer, but they are absolutely inconsequential. The same goes for the music video by rock band Guyz Nite and the accompanying short making of. Only in the missed scenes are there some nice moments that are very much worth watching. But if you want to see the much better extras, you'll have to pop in the two specials discs.
Here we start with a multi-part, nearly 95-minute making of. This documentary is a mix of typical promotional featurette and a very technical doc that goes into great detail about editing, sound design, music and other aspects of the filming. All in all, a very good making of that leaves little to be desired.
Continue with "Yippie-Ya-Yeah, Pig's Ass!", a nearly 25-minute interview that cult director Kevin Smith conducted with Bruce Willis on the FOX studio lot. Entertaining and well worth watching! Less intoxicating is the Fox Movie Channel's short promotional piece, which covers the history of the "Die Hard" movies in just under 10 minutes. More about hackers and privacy is offered in two other short documentaries, which are apparently meant to provide something of a real-world background to the film's story. Finally, actor Justin Long gives viewers a tour of the set of his movie apartment. Again, this featurette isn't really in-depth, but has some pretty amusing moments.
The fourth disc has the so-called "Yippie-Ya-Yeah" extras to offer. If you bought the box set with the three theatrical films + bonus DVD released at the time of the fourth film's theatrical release, you'll find familiar things here, because this fourth DVD is just that bonus disc. There is a retrospective documentary about the first part that runs about 30 minutes, a shorter documentary about the two sequels, and trailers for the fourth part. For fans who haven't seen these features, the first doco in particular is absolutely worth watching. But just for such fans.
Conclusion: "Die Hard 4.0" is certainly not the best or most intelligent movie of the year, but good entertainment it offers all the time. The DVD can convince with a brilliant sound and nice extras. The recut is without question the better version, especially in the original English, but those who already own the very good double DVD should think twice about buying a new one.
Original title: Live Free or Die Hard
Director: Len Wiseman
Number of discs: 4
Languages: German (Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: German, English
Image Format: 16:9 (2.40:1)
Extras: Audio Commentary (on the theatrical version only), Cut Scenes, Missed Scenes, Music Video + Behind the Scenes, Making of, Featurettes, A Look Back at Die Hard, The New Adventures of John McClane Featurette
FSK: age 16+
length: approx. 123 Min. (both film versions)
Regional Code: 2
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