Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third installment of the Die Hard franchise and my second favorite Die Hard movie. The film is about Hans Gruber's brother, Simon, who comes back to settle the score with John McClane and likewise score with the national reserve.

John McTiernan the original director of the first Die Hard is back to continue the storyline of what happens with the unlucky but cunning John McClane. McTiernan is a legendary action director, something to which this generation is really missing. He has a new film announced and anyone who's a fan of Die Hard should be excited for whatever it might be. Between Predator, The Hunt for Red October, Last Action Hero, and the Die Hard franchise there's little evidence the next movie will flop.

Bruce Willis does what worked in the first one again. He makes his character interesting, easily understood and allows us to empathize with his problems. Especially with the racial tensions at the time, people could really understand how wearing a racist sign in Harlem would bring around problems and characters like Zeus to save him. His never-ending strife towards success is one of the reasons his character is great, like the title.

Jeremy Irons is the perfect villain in this. He's smart and diabolical. He plays with McClane while doing his other villainous actions elsewhere. Even making McClane do math in a park with jugs of water. It's humiliating and makes his character have more depth because he's not evil just for the sake of being evil. He is here for vengeance and nothing will stop him, except McClane.

Samuel L. Jackson is great in this film. His characters are not stereotypical, offensive, or stupid. He really brings to life his character in a way that no one else could at the time. There are few actors out there today that have the range that Jackson does. He has a way to tap into anger that rivals Jack Nickolson.

Result: A (One of the best Die Hard movies and up there for great action films)

Comments

Colony (2026)

Colony is written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho , the director behind the cult classic Train to Busan . While Train to Busan has become the more celebrated film, Colony shows how much Yeon has improved as both a writer and a director. The story is stronger, the filmmaking feels more confident, and the way he builds the world gives the movie more substance than I expected going in. Jun Ji-hyun is the clear standout of the cast. She does a fantastic job conveying emotion through subtle movements and expressions rather than relying on exaggerated acting. That is not surprising considering she is one of South Korea's best actresses, but she still manages to make the character feel grounded and believable. She carries much of the emotional weight of the film. I did not recognize many of the other actors, and unfortunately, none of them really stood out enough to make much of an impression. That is not necessarily a knock against the cast as much as it is a testament to how much Jun ...

Digger (2026)

Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell. Much like his name, there is a lot of symbolism and meaning packed into the film, along with plenty of references that brought a smile to my face. I went into this expecting it to be pretentious or outright bad because that was the prevailing opinion online before general audiences had even had a chance to see it. Anyone calling this movie pretentious clearly has not seen The Death of Robin Hood or Die My Love . Die My Love was so pretentious that my wife actually begged me to leave the theater, and I had to finish it another day. Digger , on the other hand, actually understands the difference between being ambitious and simply being self-important. Tom Cruise is great as Digger Rockwell, giving the character exactly the kind of larger-than-life personality the movie needs. There is so much going on beneath the surface that I found myself constantly looking for the symbolism and references hidden...

Verity (2026)

Verity was a surprise for me. Normally, the authors who turn their books into movies that I actually enjoy are Stephen King or Michael Crichton , but Colleen Hoover has been doing surprisingly well with the last four movies adaptations from her work. One thing I appreciate about her writing is that she knows how to write male characters who aren't weak or simply there to be punching bags for feminist talking points. That alone makes the characters feel more believable and gives the story a better balance. Dakota Johnson plays an up and coming writer who is brought in to ghostwrite for Anne Hathaway's character. This is easily Johnson's best performance yet. She does a good job carrying the movie and making the character's uncertainty and curiosity believable as the mystery around the house starts to unfold. Anne Hathaway does not have a huge amount to do because of her character's condition, but whenever she is actually on screen, she brings the energy you wo...

Movies, Film, and Chili

Search This Blog