4 out of 5

Director: John McTiernan

While DH3 suffers from some silliness in plotting and an ending sequence that appears to edit out any square micro-seconds to keep the film at a semi-reasonable run rate, Die Hard With a Vengeance is a strong entry in the series, keeping the McClane character true to its 1988 beginnings and ditching the hackneyed sequelness of the 2nd film. For those who have yet to view the goodness: a bomb goes off in midtown NY, and the perpetrator calls NYPD explaining that hell set off another bomb unless a certain John McClane runs around town doing crazy things. As with the first film, theres more to it than initially suspected, and as with the first film you get a great villain: Jeremy Irons. So many things are perfect with this movie: the setup and inter-twining of Jackson and Willis works, captured with the same paced intensity that director John McTiernan gave the first movie. The games the characters go through are fun, and the plot is roped out respectfully. Given a ten hour runtime, the whole film could have been as professional. But once the main pieces are put into place and the duo starts going after the bad guy, holes start to pop up and there is the sense that someone suggested that the crew hurry things along. Seriously: Bruce shoots so many people without provocation that you start to feel bad for em, even if they are goons. But oh well. Despite its flaws and rushed latter half, DH3 is a down a dirty sequel with great chemistry and moments, much more sensibly following the first and much more true to the feel of the series.