DIE HARD: The John McClane Machine. ZERO defects.
DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER: Loses it's way but still some fun moments.
DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE: Amazing first hour. Loses it when they shimmy down the winch. Weak logic. How do you NOT take into consideration that the cable will run out? Plus the ridiculous "tie McClane & Zeus up back-to-back, sit them upon the bomb, and explain the whole plan" bit, like they've turned into Adam West & Burt Ward all of a sudden. Still, McClane is great when he's actually in NYC, Zeus is a great partner, I do like McClane's NYPD buddies, and thought Irons and Sam "Silent But Deadly" Phillips were great fun.
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD: Again: fun first act to first hour, then slows to a groan. Kevin Smith? NO. Star Wars references? NO. "I hate heights and planes" McClane with a pilot's license but not working it into the action climax? NO! McClane, at the end, just charging into the hangar and shooting with ZERO plan? NO NO NO. And we can do better for a villain than this Gabriel, can\t we? A preening Derek Zoolander with a Laptop? The Maggie Q fight is all kinds of fun, though, until he smashes the SUV through a dozen walls before plowing her into an elevator shaft... How does he know the building's layout after being there maybe 10 minutes? What's that car made of? The first DIE HARD may have had exploding buildings and helicopters, but the physics made sense in it's movie-reality. This one? Oof.
Other:
DIE HARD: YEAR ONE was the comic book prequel. Eight issues, I think it was. Liked it a lot. Was hoping it would go much longer.
DIE HARD TRILOGY 2: VIVA LAS VEGAS; ridiculous PC game. But I loved it at the time.
DIE HARD: NAKATOMI PLAZA: PC game; lousy voice acting, featured about 200 terrorists instead of twelve. But running around a 3D representation of that building was TERRIFIC fun for me.
I'd love to read the early proposed script for DIE HARD IV that featured McClane and a younger Male Cop or Air Marshall (Affleck was the rumor then) escorting/extraditing a prisoner/South American drug lord back home. The plane crashes -- there's a jailbreak and escape -- and the Drug Lord and his Henchen hunt McClane and Lead #2 -- who have no supplies, knowledge of the area or weapons aside from one pistol each -- through the jungle. The idea was to go as low-tech as possible. Basically PREDATOR but with cops and criminals instead of rescue operatives and an alien. It was going to be called TEARS OF THE SUN before Willis asked if he could use the title and other specific elements for his Antoine Fuqua "mercenaries in the jungle" film. There were also rumors of a draft of DH4 being "McClane on a Cruise Ship to the Carribbean with his Daughter" with Britney Spears. Let's all thank God, fate or whoever kept THAT from happening.
I think the YEAR ONE comic mentioned above is the single best non-canon McClane offering to date.
Ever read NOTHING LASTS FOREVER or 58 MINUTES: the novels the first two DIE HARD films were based on? Also good stuff.
As a DIE HARD super-fan I'd love more movies, video games, comic books, novels... Anything to keep my single, most-favorite action hero coming back. As long as they're done with respect to the character. No more jet-surfing, please.
On a related note... What do you all think of the DIE HARD lifts/rip-offs/derivatives over the years?
There have been some good ones (UNDER SIEGE, SPEED, CLIFFHANGER, EXECUTIVE DECISION, HIGH RISK),
some fair ones (PASSENGER 57, AIR FORCE ONE, SUDDEN DEATH),
some goofy or bad ones (TURBULENCE, SPEED 2, UNDER SIEGE 2),
some crazy ones (SKYSCRAPER with Anna Nicole Smith, ICEBREAKER with Bruce Campbell)...
even Jenna Jameson did DIE HARD on a boat porn (DANGEROUS TIDES).
