Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Die Hard Movie Series

By Justin Vance

Die Hard movies pretty much set the bar for action movies in the nineties. They are over the top, based almost entirely on the action, and aren't meant to be taken too seriously. But with the advent of the newest movie, it is easy to see that their time has passed. John McClain is probably ready to be retired.

The first pits a single cop, John McClain, against a group of terrorists/robbers. The main bad guy, played by a very stylish Alan Rickman, is the perfect example of the over the top, pure evil bad guy that we like to see fall out of a window at the end of the movie. What is great is that even though John has to fight everyone on his own, he spends the whole movie trying to get anyone else to come and help him. This gives the movie a sense of realism, as well as telling us that John doesn't think he can really take out everyone on his own, even though that is what ends up happening, though it does happen largely through luck.

The second movie gets more outlandish. It takes place in an airport and once again our hero is thrown into something just because he happened to be in the right place at the right time. The premise works, and he is able to save the day, but there are a few more elements of the completely far-fetched that start to pop up. Still, the movie isn't outside the realm of possibility by too much.

The third movie takes place in New York. All of New York. The movies have expanded with each one, and now he is in the middle of a cunning plan to steal a lot of gold. He isn't looking for help as much this time, but that is largely because there isn't anyone around that can help, save for a sassy Samuel Jackson.

The fourth movie takes on most of the nation. John goes from being a cop on a certain beat to having to try to be everywhere and stop a national crises. He also has seemed to gain super powers, going from a guy who is hard to kill to a guy that can take out a helicopter by speeding through a tunnel. Of course he gets up and walks away after doing that, and the movie starts to lose some of its mystic.

These types of movies work better when they are done on a bit smaller scale. They need to be done smaller. This isn't a super hero we are dealing with, this is an aging cop. John can't do everything, and the audience should know this. Regardless of how much people want to root for him, it is hard when he has become some sort of superman instead of just being a tough New York cop.

This is a great franchise, but it was a product of its time. Films have grown too much since the first one was made. Action movies are a lot bigger these days, thanks to the bigger budgets and the advent of better special effects. Die Hard movies were big action movies for their time, but their time has passed.

Die Hard is a great franchise. If it ends now, then it will always be remembered that way. But as filmmaking keeps getting bigger and bigger, it is going to turn into a movie that is about John McClain taking on an entire country while flying through the air on a jet pack. And it will be in 3d. There is just no need for that. - 40727

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