Review for Die Hard Quadrilogy

Introduction

Upgrading is a pain; with new technology, new ways of viewing home cinema, comes the necessity of buying our favourite content all over again. You may start with the best of intentions; the commitment that you won’t double dip again, but the more you partake of HD visuals and audio, the more it becomes a matter of course that your collection gets replaced... again. Suddenly, DVD just isn’t good enough. It’s fortunate then that I have so many populist films in my collection. The films that everyone watches, and everyone buys, get churned out on disc in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and a few months after release, can be found languishing in bargain buckets at ridiculously cheap prices. So it is you can pick up a whole series of films for around ten pounds a time on Blu-ray. Who wouldn’t double dip again at those kind of prices? It’s the cult favourites that strain the wallet. I was certain I wouldn’t, but when I found the Die Hard trilogy on Blu-ray for under £10 in a supermarket, I wound up buying it for what’s probably the fourth time. On top of that, they threw in a bonus fourth Bruce Willis comedy action tech-thriller flick (If it’s a Die Hard movie, I’m a simian’s parent’s sibling!).

Introduction: Die Hard

John McClane is a New York cop with a typical dysfunctional family. His wife has a lucrative career with the Nakatomi Company and to further that career has taken the children and moved to Los Angeles. In an attempt to sort out their marital problems, John flies to LA for Christmas. However, terrorists gatecrash the office Christmas party in the impressive Nakatomi building, rudely interrupting their fraught reunion. Hostages are being taken, but John quickly escapes through a fire exit and makes his way to an unfinished floor to call for help. When that help isn’t immediately forthcoming, John is forced to become a reluctant hero, as he tries to avoid the terrorists, while trying to convince the outside world of the crisis. But when the authorities are eventually awakened to the problem, their ineptitude means that John McClane has to take on the terrorists single-handedly, pitting him against the charismatic leader Hans Gruber. But these are not your ordinary terrorists.

Picture: Die Hard

Die Hard gets a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution, and it’s soft, eighties soft. Films from that era tended to be shot on film stock that wasn’t quite as sharp and crisp as we are used to now with digital cinematography, or from the higher quality film stock that was used in earlier decades. There’s also a worrying shot early on in the film, the first moment with Bruce Willis on screen on the airplane, which suffers from egregious ghosting, but thankfully, that’s a sole occurrence, and I’ve seen it on the VHS, DVD and now this Blu-ray, which leads me to suspect it’s a problem with the source. No such issues arise in the rest of the film, which exhibits consistent quality throughout, a major improvement over the DVD, with rich colours, substantially greater detail, and a palpable sense of depth. Die Hard on Blu-ray looks fantastic, but the suspicion is always there that it could look better.

Sound: Die Hard

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 English, DTS 5.1 Spanish and Italian, with subtitles in these languages and in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Polish. I was very happy with the English audio, set at a reasonable level, where the dialogue was clear, the film’s music came across well, and the action sequences were bombastic enough to keep you at the edge of your seat, without tempting you to keep one finger on the volume control lest they got too loud. For a film originally released in stereo, the surround is effective and rich, putting the viewer in the middle of the action, throwing bullets and explosions around the soundstage without it feeling unnatural.

Extras: Die Hard

This film doesn’t get a main menu screen, it autoplays on insertion, and once it ends, and the copyright warning screens have passed, it merely loops back to the beginning. The film’s set-up options, scene select and extra features are accessible from a pop-up menu.

You get two commentaries on the disc, one with director John McTiernan and production designer Jackson Degovia, patched together from two tracks, and it’s really a nice informative commentary to listen to.

The scene specific commentary comes from visual effects producer Richard Edlund, with a useful scene select option to jump you to his next comment. Both commentaries are subtitled.

The Newscasts lasts 7:59, is presented in 480i SD, and offer low quality versions of the news broadcast segments used in the film, as well as some which weren’t used, and one blooper.

The Interactive Stills Gallery lasts 9:27 SD, taking you through concept art, production stills and behind the scenes shots of the film. There’s a white rabbit feature that lets you expand on some of the subjects with further information and blueprints.

There are 3 Trailers and 7 TV Spots with a play all option. I tried the play all and got stuck in a loop of the 3 theatrical trailers, with no way to escape than to stop and restart the disc. Again this is SD

Fox on Blu-ray offers further trailers for Die Hard 2, Die Hard 4.0, and Alien vs. Predator.

Conclusion: Die Hard

The first Die Hard movie is still the best, as is usually the way of these things. It caught something of a Zeitgeist at the end of the eighties, providing a satire of all things corporate and greedy in its ‘terrorist’ attack on big business, the want it all culture that has the McClanes in marital strife at the start of the movie. That merely serves to enrich a great story, which elevates this beyond just another action flick. You have the great action sequences, perfectly paced and interleaved with warm and interesting character moments that make this a proper film, not just a summer blockbuster thrill ride.

You also have the richness of characters. You don’t have to mention the characters that Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman created, destined to go down in film history. But even the minor characters have a richness and inner life that seems to extend beyond the screen. It’s a testament to the quality of the actors that portrayed them that they each have their moment to shine on screen. It’s no surprise that you’ll find even the minor characters with major roles in other films. You’ll find the ‘no-name’ terrorist who gets taken out with McClane’s improvised chair bomb as Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters 2.

It’s the dialogue that keeps you interested, rich, witty and engaging. I always think of Die Hard as a brilliantly paced, thrilling action movie, but I always seem to forget until I watch it again, just how much fun it is, how funny it is. There was a period back in the eighties and nineties where action films weren’t just dark, gritty and loaded with torture porn, they were played larger than life, on a broad canvas, in worlds divorced from reality (the kind of worlds sent up in Last Action Hero), where no fight sequence could properly conclude, no villain be dispatched without some one-liner, quip or bon-mot. Die Hard is the kind of movie that can actually dial down an explosion, pause the gunfire, silence the shattering glass, so that we can hear the hero’s words of wisdom, before resuming the mayhem, and it’s all the better for it.

9/10

Introduction: Die Hard 2 - Die Harder

John McClane is having another dire Christmas. He’s stuck in Washington DC with his in-laws, his wife’s plane is late, he’s waiting at a crowded airport and his mother in-law’s car has just been impounded. It’s going to get worse though, as a leader of one of those fictitious Latin American countries is about to be extradited for plenty of drug crimes, and rogue Colonel Stuart is planning something nefarious. Soon the airport is under siege, air traffic control is cut off from its planes, and dozens of airliners, including his wife’s plane, are circling Washington, running out of fuel and unable to land. As John McClane so eloquently puts it, “How can the same s*** happen to the same guy twice?”

Picture: Die Hard 2 - Die Harder

I’ve long been waiting for a better transfer than my original release DVD, and this is definitely a better transfer. The 2.35:1 widescreen image has much in common with the first film on Blu-ray, a smidge of softness throughout, but generally offering oodles more in terms of clarity, definition, and detail. In my Blu-ray game of “I never saw that before”, I noticed for the first time when granny is telling Holly about her tazer, she’s holding a magazine with an advert for Lethal Weapon 2 on it. Product placement for a rival studio? Die Hard 2 looks good on Blu-ray but not great, although some of that has to do with the source material. There are just so many dusty and obscured locations in this instalment; the hotel lobby where Colonel Stuart’s men first meet up looks as if a bomb has just gone off in there. I also noticed a couple of instances of print damage still extant, scratches and burns. By far the biggest issue would be a palpable red push in the palette, still lingering from that DVD print, and at times making everything look micro-waved. I guess I’m still looking for a better transfer for Die Hard 2.

Sound: Die Hard 2 - Die Harder

I watched The Dark Knight Rises the other day, and was half convinced that my home cinema’s audio was set up wrong, that the centre channel was too low compared to the surrounds, as I kept missing dialogue. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me with recent releases, but then Die Hard 2 comes and sets my mind at ease. Its DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround track is perfectly balanced. You get excellent action, the surrounds getting a full work-out with every gunshot, every explosion, Michael Kamen’s score comes across well, and on top of that, you can hear every line of dialogue in great clarity. Brilliant! You also get DTS 5.1 Italian and Spanish, with a smattering of subtitle languages.

Extras: Die Hard 2 - Die Harder

Just like the first film, the movie autoplays, is on a loop, and there’s no main menu screen. You can access the set-up options and extras from the pop-up menu.

Die Hard 2’s commentary comes from director Renny Harlin, and it’s a nice, interesting and detailed commentary. He’s voluble and manages to hold the attention, and there’s a minimum of dead air.

You get 4 deleted scenes on the disc, running to 8:15 in total, and they are very much better off deleted.

In the featurettes, you get 6 pieces worthy of the title, an HBO making of, and five smaller interviews and behind the scenes looks. They run to a total of 52:41. There are also 3 Visual Effects Breakdowns and 3 Side by Side Comparisons.

You get 4 Trailers and 2 TV Spots for the movie, and in the Fox on Blu-ray section, you get further trailers for Die Hard, Die Hard 4.0, and Alien vs. Predator.

Conclusion: Die Hard 2 - Die Harder

The passage of time has been kind to Die Hard 2. The last time I saw it, current affairs were still souring the film’s storyline for me, and on top of that, it seemed very much a rehash of the first film, albeit on the broader, less claustrophobic canvas of an international airport. It’s around that time that most action movies started being described with the prefix ‘Die Hard in a...’ Watching it again last night, I had an absolute blast with the film, and recognised that no matter what you might think of Die Hard 2, it is very much a Die Hard film, and the same can’t be said about the last two instalments in that franchise.


While the story may be a rehash of sorts, Die Hard 2 holds onto what made the first film so strong, the sheer sense of fun, and the wonderful characterisations. There’s no way that William Sadler was ever going to match Alan Rickman in scenery chewing villainy stakes, and to his credit he doesn’t try, going more for a killing machine aesthetic, but he and his henchmen do still establish enough in the way of character for McClane to sparkle against, while the added impediments/assistance from the staff in the airport also help. The dialogue too may seem leaden and clunky in comparison to the first film, there’s none of that spontaneous wit and energy that you got from Hans Gruber, the Agents Johnson, Al Powell and the like, but Die Hard 2’s dialogue still has enough scripted wit and imagination to it to get the characters feeling more than 2-dimensional. And I’m also kicking myself for not realising that the sequel, just like the first film dabbles in satire, although maybe its handling of the whole war on drugs, Noriega, Oliver North thing is a little too clumsy and obvious to really be considered satire.

But Die Hard 2 is a fun action movie. It’s got all the thrills, spills, explosions and gunfights that you’d want, is competently directed, has well choreographed action sequences, and those familiar characters. Best of all, it doesn’t chase the family friendly age rating that caused such controversy for the third film, and practically neutered the last two.

8/10

Introduction: Die Hard With a Vengeance

You know that John McClane is going to have a bad day, especially when that day starts with a bomb going off in a New York department store followed by a telephone call from a bomber who has a personal grudge against him. What follows is a rather macabre game of Simon Says, and pretty soon McClane is walking into Harlem, half naked and wearing a placard boasting racist sentiments in order to avoid another target being attacked. A Good Samaritan spoils Simon`s fun though as shopkeeper Zeus Carver prevents McClane being attacked by some irate residents. It`s no matter, as Simon decides to have his fun with both of them, sending McClane and Carver, as well as the rest of the authorities on a wild goose chase around New York looking for more bombs. This of course leaves the Federal Reserve Bank of New York completely vulnerable. But John isn`t going to be duped for long, especially when he realises that Simon has a more personal connection to him.

Picture: Die Hard With a Vengeance

Now that’s more like it. While the first two films in this collection offer a significant gain over their DVD incarnations, they’re not the most striking of transfers, with Die Hard 2 particularly weak. With Die Hard With a Vengeance, Touchstone (for it is they, not Fox who distribute the film in the UK) have given it a 2.35:1 widescreen 1080p transfer worthy of the Blu-ray format, astoundingly clear, sharp, and offering a clean print with a nice layer of film grain, not looking overly processed. Detail levels are excellent, and the action comes across with great flamboyance. However, the HD format does make some of the effect sequences seem even ropier than on DVD, especially the truck surfing. One thing that I didn’t realise until I watched this disc is that Die Hard With a Vengeance is totally uncut.

Sound: Die Hard With a Vengeance

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English, and DTS 5.1 Surround German, French, and Spanish, with subtitles in these languages, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic. Once again I was very happy with the audio for the film, with bangs being sufficiently bang-worthy, the music evoking the correct Die Hard feel, and the dialogue clear and audible throughout, except for the odd moment of un-subtitled German, or hangover obscured McClane. The film gets the surround impact that an action movie deserves.

Extras: Die Hard With a Vengeance

Touchstone do at least offer an animated main menu with their disc, but the menu design is still in keeping with the Fox entries in this collection. You can choose to sit through a trailer for the Blu-ray format, and for The Proposal before getting to that menu though. One annoyance is that should you press the stop button, the player will lose its place in the film, and pressing play again will take you right to the start of the disc.

Not listed in the disc blurb, but in the extras nonetheless is the commentary from director John McTiernan, writer Jonathan Hensleigh, and film executive Tom Sherak. It’s put together from separate tracks, and is an interesting look at how this film came about, well worth listening to.

There are three featurettes on this disc taking us behind the scenes of the film, one presented by Reginald Veljohnson (Al Powell in Die Hards 1 and 2) lasts 21:45, the other introduced by Samuel L Jackson lasts 21:35, and these are light, tongue-in-cheek, TV special affairs which are great fun. The 4:19 Die Hard 3 Featurette on the other hand is your usual EPK affair.

There’s a 6:02 alternate ending to the film, with optional commentary from the writer Jonathan Hensleigh, which is very interesting to watch, if not exactly in keeping with the tone of the rest of the film.

There are about 30 minutes worth of behind the scenes featurettes looking at 3 scenes, plus a storyboard sequence.

There is an interview with Bruce Willis about the film that lasts 6:21, and a Villains Profile which lasts 4:24.

There are 7 short visual effects sequences offering before and after glimpses, and the disc rounds off with 2 Theatrical Trailers.

All of the extra video on this disc is in SD format, and none of it is subtitled in English, although other languages abound.

Conclusion: Die Hard With a Vengeance

They snuck that out quite sneakily. The controversy about the DVD release was enough to inspire paragraphs in reviews the first time around, with Touchstone mistakenly releasing the German television cut the first time around, before recalling it and releasing the BBFC mandated cut, all compounded by inaccurate runtime listings confused further by PAL speed-up. This Blu-ray is completely uncut, showing the knife attack on the bank guard, the shootout in the lift, the subdivided henchman on the ship, and the chain fight all in their gory glory.


Die Hard With a Vengeance is my second favourite Die Hard after the original, and having it uncut makes this boxset that little bit sweeter. What’s special about it is that they completely alter the formula, while maintaining what is most important about the McClane character, that of an underdog thrust into a crisis situation. The first film was about the underdog alone surprising the villains by becoming the fly in their ointment, the wooden shoe thrown into the cogs of their intricate plan. It was, despite Al Powell on the other side of a radio link, and Marvin the Janitor in the sequel, very much a hero alone battling against the odds, getting precious little support in his efforts to do the right thing. Die Hard 2 was a rehash of the first film in this respect. The villains arrive with their perfectly micro-metered plan, which would be pulled off without a hitch, except for John McClane as the gremlin in their machine.

Not so with the third film. This time McClane has not only been anticipated by the villains, he’s an essential part of their plans. The villains are the gremlins who are there to make John’s bad day even worse, and he’s the one whose strings are being pulled, sent on a series of wild goose chases by an annoying, all knowing, all powerful, capricious voice on the other side of a phone. And for what it’s worth, McClane is no longer alone. He has what limited support his department can offer, although they are very quickly tied up dealing with Simon’s depredations. But also thrown into the mix is Zeus Carver, and what in the first two films was a lone hero against the odds, now becomes a buddy movie, with two initially antagonistic characters, everymen in the true sense of the word having to deal with Simon and find some way to turn the tables on him. Over the course of the film, that antagonism turns to respect and friendship, but it’s a relationship that gives the audience something to latch on to, on top of the action, and on top of McClane’s usual sardonic character. In this respect alone, I like Die Hard With a Vengeance a tad more than the first film.

Another thing that the film gets right is the villainy. You need a villain who can match the hero, can light up the screen, and who the audience can revel in, just the same way that they did with Alan Rickman in the original. Borrowing from the first film, they wound up casting a Brit again, and Jeremy Irons certainly has the screen presence, the charisma to provide a worthy adversary for McClane. Now that I have Die Hard With a Vengeance uncut, and with audio video quality worthy of the Blu-ray appellation, I’m a happy bunny indeed.

9/10

Introduction: Die Hard 4.0

It was supposed to be a simple assignment, go and pick up a young hacker named Matthew Farrell, and transfer him to Washington, where the FBI wanted to ask him a few questions. But for John McClane, it was going to be one of 'those' days. He didn't know that the FBI computers had just been hacked by terrorists, and that was just the first wave of an all out attack on the US infrastructure. Thomas Gabriel has a point to make, and he began by gathering all the talented hackers, using their abilities to create a whole host of digital weapons. Of course the first thing to do after that is to get rid of the evidence, which is why hackers are suddenly turning up dead all over, and why as Detective John McClane turns up at the door of Matthew Farrell, there's a bomb about to go off inside, and there are a bunch of French mercenaries outside ready to finish the job if the bomb doesn't work. Gabriel may be in the process of launching the most audacious terrorist attack on US soil ever, but he's done far worse than that, he's p***ed off John McClane.

Picture: Die Hard 4.0

Die Hard 4.0 gets the best transfer of the lot, a 2.40:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution that to my eyes looks spectacular, with great detail for the most part, strong colours, and excellent contrast. That’s offset by the cinematography, as Die Hard 4.0 gets the orange and teal colour timing to such a degree that it looks more like a cartoon than real life. On top of that whites are blown; blacks are crushed to the point where you start losing detail. The characters in this film are so blue that they might as well be smurfs, and when you have post-processed the image this heavily, it doesn’t matter that you accomplish the stunts and action in camera, you wind up suspecting that they’re CGI anyway.

Sound: Die Hard 4.0

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English, DD 5.1 Audio Descriptive English, and DTS 5.1 German, and Spanish, with subtitles in these languages and Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. I went with the English surround, (with player generated subtitles for the French dialogue), and was very happy with the experience, a nice, punchy surround track that brings out the action very well, while keeping the dialogue clear and audible. There’s a hint of the original Die Hard movies in the music, but generally Die Hard 4.0 does its own, forgettable thing. I also find that the dialogue is better, funnier than the Unrated version, and there was only one sign of ADR mismatch, during the ‘hamster’ scene where profanity was obviously overdubbed. It’s one instance as opposed to the many in the Unrated version.

Extras: Die Hard 4.0

Just like the other Fox discs in this collection, there is no main menu, the film autoplays on insertion, and loops back to the beginning after the end, and you navigate your way around the disc via the pop-up menu only. And also, shunning the versatility of the Blu-ray format, you only get the Theatrical Cut on this disc, although having seen the Unrated Version, that’s a blessing, not a curse.

The extras on this disc include several that were on the 2-disc unrated DVD, but not all of them, while the audio commentary that was on the theatrical DVD is not on this Blu-ray.

Analog Hero in a Digital World: Making of Die Hard 4.0. This is a feature length making of documentary, running to 97:19. There are 10 mini-featurettes, with a useful Play All option, and the cast and crew speak about all aspects of the film's production. There is the usual EPK back-slappiness to deal with, but there is also a lot of useful information as well.

Yippie-Ki-Yay Mother F*****! lasts 22:40, and sees Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis having a frank chat about the movie, and bits and pieces beyond. It's an interesting featurette because of its candid nature, and well worth watching. That said, it is pretty close to the film, there certainly hasn't been the distance for a critical appraisal, so while Bruce is down, maybe unfairly so on the first two sequels, he's full of nothing but praise for the fourth film.

FOX MOVIE CHANNEL presents "FOX LEGACY" lasts 6:18. And it's amazing how annoying capital letters can appear on a menu. It's just some guy waxing lyrical about the Die Hard movies. It's like one of those straight to camera, friendly chat trailers from the fifties and sixties.

Music Video: Die Hard by Guyz Nite – 4:30 - Oh dear God!
Behind the Scenes with Guyz Nite – 6:18 - There's more of this s***!?

All of these extras are presented in 480i SD. The only HD extra is the 2:14 Theatrical Trailer.

Conclusion: Die Hard 4.0

This turned out to be the exact opposite of Die Hard With a Vengeance. That film started off for me in a state of censor induced dismemberment, and I kept searching for it in uncut form for it to do the 18 rated franchise justice. Die Hard 4.0 on the other hand is where I knew on which side my bread was buttered, and I went straight for the ‘uncut’ release, only to find that it had been fifteened in the way that Manga Video used to spice up their anime with profane dubs. CGI blood was liberally layered onto the action, while a whole bunch of swears were obviously ADR’d in. The thing of it was that having first seen the theatrical version on TV broadcast, I found that its unmolested dialogue was actually funnier, more spontaneous, and the action didn’t need the indignity of CGI red stuff to enhance it. I’m actually happier with the theatrical cut of Die Hard 4.0.


Although in no way do I actually consider it a Die Hard movie. It is a guilty pleasure though, a whole lot of dumb fun, paced well, some great action sequences, a couple not so great, and a film that works solely because of the Bruce Willis, Justin Long dynamic, a partnership which captures something of the same energy that Bruce Willis had with Samuel L. Jackson, but this time making the age gap work for it, instead of the racial divide. The thing I find though is that John McClane is much better as the angry young cop thrown in at the deep end, not so much as the grizzled veteran.

The film’s biggest problem is that it’s just another stupid Hollywood tech thriller, which as usual uses computers as this big, magic scary blinking box that does anything that the plot demands, and bears no resemblance to reality. Just once I’d like to see one of these super-cool screen hackers use a mouse. It’s a film that treats the audience like idiots, expecting them to just swallow the daftness of the story, the countless plot holes and hang on for the ride. The minute you start thinking about it, it kills the film. Take the car that McClane and Matt steal in the film. Just three things about that scene, three whopping great plot holes. One, the hackers at this point have crashed everything including we understand the mobile phone networks (although it’s okay for Matt’s phone, as he has the number of a satellite). The mobile phones aren’t working, but the car connects to the sure-start service so Matt can whinge about Daddy’s heart attack. Two, Matt stops McClane from hotwiring the car by whacking the bumper with a bin lid, setting off the airbags. Later, McClane drives a pick-up, plus henchgirl, through a building, slamming into the back of an elevator shaft... no airbags. Three, the villains have crashed the traffic control system, turning all the lights green, causing major gridlock. McClane and Matt have a free ride on clear roads all the way to Virginia. Once you start poking holes in the film, you just can’t stop.

There’s also the fact that reluctant hero McClane has in this film turned into super-McClane, with an S on his chest, dodging flying cars, surfing on fighter jets, surviving explosions, and the sheer nuttiness of the film’s conclusion. You don’t need to hear all that. But, despite all of this, Die Hard 4.0 is still a guilty pleasure of mine. I can still watch it with my brain in neutral, as there is still enough of that original character from the first three films to hold my attention.

6½/10

In Summary

It’s Die Hard. What’s not to love? John McClane is the iconic action hero of the late eighties and early nineties, a reluctant hero character that redefined the genre, and to this day the Die Hard movies have yet to be matched. It’s great to have them on Blu-ray, even if the first two films don’t push the format to the limit. But like I said, for a bargain bucket price (which is where this collection resides), you get all three Die Hard movies, and you get a dumb but fun, tech-thriller summer blockbuster thrown in.