Bruce is back!

Die Hard is a franchise that goes back many years- and to be honest in this film it feels exactly like that. The film is just what you would expect- there are explosions- some wonderful moments when for instance two cars from a ramp for another car to take flight to hit a helicopter. Some of the stunts are as impressive as you would want them to be, having said that the film is unabashedly derivative from other films and tv shows around at the moment. This film feels almost five years too late- the storyline surrounds internet hacking and the way it could take out the world- a storyline which has been investigated several times before, not least by James Bond in Golden Eye which deals with hacking. Its come to something when James Bond is ten years ahead of you! Some of the plot lines- particularly involving Bruce Willis's daughter- seem to immitate too closely the world of Jack Bauer- this is a film that post 24 feels very derivative.

The film is worth watching, explosions and nicely delivered corny lines abound. The villains- particularly a villainess (ninja chick according to Willis) are variable. She is brilliant, cold and calculating, an icy malevolent sexy telephone operator, Maggie Q does well at conveying the way that a telephone operator might turn nasty. Her boss, and later the main focus when she dies, Thomas Gabriel isn't so good- at times he looks too tempramental and too weak compared to Willis to actually be a good villain. Gabriel looks like his trying to be evil- whereas she actually looks evil. It would have been interesting to reverse not the characters, but the heirarchy amongst the villains.

The heroes- and again there are really two- are pretty good. Willis as ever does what he always does, he can blow stuff up with compunction. Justin Long playing his sidekick does alright as well with a weaker and less substantial character- some of their dialogue is trite and silly but having said that they do the things they need to together- they maintain the tension and their relationship is fairly believable for an action movie. Most of the other parts are just window dressing- Willis's daughter comes on screen to offer him a family back story. There are some purposeless bits at the National Computer Security labs and there is a nice computer geek cameo from Kevin Smith. But the main focus is on the planes, cars and trucks, guns, kung fu and explosions that Willis and the bad guys hurl against each other.

You shouldn't expect a Die Hard film to have much of a theoretical edge. there are a couple of things in here that are interesting though. The naivety of the defence that Willis attempts against an argument for terrorism is fascinating partly because its accurate. Afterall the best argument against destabilising the system is that the system is filled with people- people who will suffer if it is destroyed. The film reveals something deeper than that I think, ultimately this kind of film is about revelling in the violence and virtues of leadership. Willis is being held up as the kind of man who can lead others because he is calm when the guns start firing and hides his panic- his sidekick becomes gradually more able to lead because he too is more able to sublimate his fears.

So what more, there are plenty of extras on the DVD- though most consist of self promotion. You can hear Bruce Willis tell us that the film is great in an interview or on a commentary track- neither really add to anyone's understanding. A documentary on hacking exposes the revelation that there are some hackers who are evil terrorists, some who are script kiddies and some who are benignly working to improve systems- if you need help, they spell out every step in triplicate. There are some other documentaries on there and a couple of trailers as well which might be worth watching. But basically these are for those who really love their Die Hards, for anyone else the film is entertaining and probably enough.

This isn't a great film by any means- Bergman and Bresson aren't chewing their fingers up in heaven worrying they might be dislodged- but it is a fun film. It does everything it should do, and nothing more than what it should do. It isn't very clever, isn't that intelligent, its concept is dated and its story is hackneyed but even so there is enough to enjoy here and there are enough big bangs to leave fans of the sequence of films satisfied. It is probably a film to watch on a tired evening in- and not to think too hard about.