Monterey Jack wrote:Plus, WAV has some of the worst visual effects of any big-budget action movie of the last 15 years. That boat explosion towards the end of the picture? Horrendous (not to mention the unintentionally funny shot of Willis and Jackson flying towards the camera like Wile E. Coyote in a Road Runner cartoon). The green-screen work on that film is shameful, and even McTiernan's usually elegant direction was all over the map, with Bourne Supremacy/Batman Begins-style seizure-cam action sequences. There are some good bits studded through the movie (I especially liked the scene with McClane outwitting five bad guys in an elevator), but WAV is a pretty crushing disappointment compared to the first two films, so LFODH can only be an improvement, pussy PG-13 rating or not.
Agreed on all that. WITH A VENGEANCE is weird because it was basically a "Cinergi" (Andy Vajna, one of the Carolco guys) production that Fox only released in the U.S.; it was a Buena Vista release in a lot of places overseas. For those reasons it was sort of an "independent film" that just didn't have the same production values as the first two movies despite its budget, and I felt the NC location shooting was just too obvious in its stand-in for NYC...the movie didn't feel "authentic" at all, and I agree, it was not well-directed by McTiernan either.
The ending was obviously very rushed. Trevor (Carlson), back when he posted on this board, noted they were thinking of shooting DIE HARD 3 & 4 back to back and the original ending of 3 was supposed to have Irons get away as a lead in for the next sequel. I'm not sure how accurate that is as I've never read it anywhere else, but it DOES at least feel that way, like it was a throwaway, last-minute addition. (That alternate ending on the DVD is an absolute disaster).
What I liked about LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD is that it very much captures the FEEL of the first two movies. Some of it is forced but they got the "personality" of those films on-target in its sense of humor. It is an exciting but very much ESCAPIST kind of action film -- not a broad cartoon but not intended to be taken overly seriously either. And not all of it works, but it IS fun, and it's better than any of the "third act" sequels we've seen this summer by a wide margin.
After seeing it, I also would not say the film was cut down necessarily for a PG-13 either. From the casting of Justin Long and Mary Elizabeth Winsted as McClane's daughter, I felt they really were trying to target younger viewers with this film, and frankly after seeing how the film worked I have no problem with it.
There were a couple of scenes where you could tell profanity had been looped, but you know what? The audience was laughing at the joke anyway, so I doubt they really were missing anything other than some f-bombs. I'm looking forward to seeing the Uncut version, but I doubt it's a different movie outside of profanity. It does not seem to be any more violent than, say, TRUE LIES was.
Granted, there are only, like, eight reviews up, but that's still a far better critical reception than I ever would have imagined.
