Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengeance *** (1995, Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L Jackson) – Classic Movie Review 1681

This time British Oscar winner Jeremy Irons is the guest star villain as the German terrorist and mad bomber who terrorises New York while tormenting Bruce Willis’s boozed-out cop John McClane with a teasing series of false clues. The devious terrorist is on his way to a big-time heist in the most unexpected of locations – the Federal Reserve Building in New York City – while he makes sure that the authorities are busy elsewhere. A bomb goes off in the Bonwit Teller Department Store. It’s classic sleight of hand.

Alas, Die Hard 3 is third time unlucky for Willis’s Die Hard cop in a wildly ragged action thriller with a totally undigested screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, virtually collapsing through its lack of clarity or plausibility, and seemingly made up of leftover bits from better movies.

Laughably Irons, in one of his worst performances, is supposed to be German terrorist Simon Gruber, the lunatic avenging brother of Alan Rickman’s terrorist Hans Gruber character from part one. Irons struggles for conviction and authority throughout, and that’s all the worse as he had a lot to live up to as Rickman pitched his villain turn so perfectly.

Worst of all perhaps, Willis and Samuel L Jackson as Zeus Carver a Harlem store owner reluctantly involved in the plot, normally coast on their charisma but seem bored here. And they unexpectedly show little chemistry or winsomeness together in an unappealingly abrasive partnership. In support, Larry Bryggman plays Inspector Walter Cobb, Colleen Camp is Connie Kowalski and Graham Greene is Joe Lambert.

This is a hard judgement but, after the excitement of the first two movies, this seems like hack and hackneyed work. However, thanks to all the expensive explosions, stunts and New York multi-locations, and returning original director John McTiernan’s steadfast handling, it kind of works on the most basic of action movie levels.

Jonathan Hensleigh says that the first hour of the film is his original Simon Says screenplay word for word, changing only the characters to use some of Roderick Thorp‘s original characters, so that it would feel a part of the Die Hard series.

We hoped they would let Die Hard die quietly and rest in peace after this in 1995 but it sure didn’t. Two more sequels followed so far: Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1681

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