Die Hard 3: Die Hard With a Vengance

[Trekker4747]

I've a bit of a "Die Hard Marathon" over the last week (given that Dec. 25 is a day I make sure to watch the first movie as the best Christmas movie ever.)

Die Hard 3 really I think is almost as good as the first good use of secondary characters, a partner for John and an interesting plot with a good action pieces.

Jeremy Irons does a great job as the terrorist-of-the-movie "Simon" but it took me several viewings (in the past) to get through his accent and realize he was calling Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis doing a movie together, another reason this movie is awesome) "(The) Samaritan." With his thick German accent at first (when he calls Zeus "the Ebony Samaritan") I thought he called Zeus "the bunny Mr. Martin" and then after that (when he just calls Zeus "the Samaritan") he's calling Zeus "Mr. Martin" and I always confused on how he came up with that name.

Oh, a minor nitpick? When "Simon" yells at John and Zeus that they could've simply said a fat woman was using the phone before them, delaying them picking up, Willis provides a much more obvious "WTF? He can see us!" reaction than Jackson does.

But, yeah, Die Hard 3 is awesome.

 

[DarthPipes]

The Die Hard with a Vengence DVD has the original ending which is about 1000 times better than what was on the big screen.

I liked Die Hard 3 though. It was fun and it went all through New York City.

 

[Trekker4747]

The Die Hard with a Vengence DVD has the original ending which is about 1000 times better than what was on the big screen.

I liked Die Hard 3 though. It was fun and it went all through New York City.

The scene with John and "Simon" and the bazooka? Can't say I'm a fan of that ending.

 

[Mr Light]

I love Die Hard 3. Well I love them all but 3 is great. Simon is wonderful, wonderful villain. The NYC shooting is great. The villain's plot is really clever and ingenious. It was great that McClane got a partner in Sam Jackson. I also appreciated the fact that McClane didn't just happen to be around when the terrorists struck this time but was actually part of their plan.

 

[butch101]

clever plot. great villain. casting top notch.
a good Die Hard movie !


Happy new year by the way !!!

Butch

 

[JediKnightButler]

Die Hard 3 is definitely my second favorite of the series (behind the first one). The second and fourth ones were o.k. but weren't as enjoyable as the other two. I never saw the alternate ending, however. Loved Jeremy Irons as the villian/brother of the terrorist from the first movie.

 

[shivkala]

Die Hard 2, for my money, stayed very close to the general idea of Die Hard, in my opinion (swap out hi-rise for airport), though it still is a massively enjoyable film, don't get me wrong. I loved how Die Hard with a Vengeance expanded things to include the entire city and the clues that kept McClaine and Zeus guessing were enjoyable. You can't beat the original, but man, DHwaV does give it a run for its money.

 

[Nardpuncher]

The explosion at Bonwitt-Teller in the beginning looked just great. Very realistic with no greasy fireball!
I also love how the explosion cuts into the opening music: "Summer in the City"

 

[Trekker4747]

As I recall Die Hard 3 took a bit of flack from the media/audience members because the bomb at Bonwitt-Teller at the beginning of the movie was too similar, or close to, the first WTC bombing.

 

[Nardpuncher]

There was discussion to about the movie coming out only a month after the Oklahoma City bombing too.

 

[Trekker4747]

There was discussion to about the movie coming out only a month after the Oklahoma City bombing too.

That's what it was (not the WTC bombing.) The opening bombing of the store was perceived as something that'd be upsetting to people following Oklahoma City.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Second best in the series, thanks to a good script, the Willis/Jackson chemistry and John McTiernan's direction. I wish he'd done DH4.0. The opening sequence, with Summer in the City suddenly ending with a big BOOOOOOOOM!!!! is excellent, best opener of any DH movie.

 

[Evil Twin]

Honestly, I find much of this one pretty damn dull. Too much driving around from place to place, not enough action.

 

[the_wildcard]

I thought it was pretty good. The scene in the elevator was my favorite. That was intense close combat.

 

[Dart]

Awesome film. One that's on every christmas for some reason. I loved the colour and atmosphere throughout.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Are you AIMING for these people?!?"
"No...Maybe that mime."

Also I wondered how in the world they got away with filming the 'sandwich board scene'. You would think that, movie set or no, anyone standing in the middle of Harlem with a sign that said I HATE N***ERS would have his ass handed to him. Turns out that the TV version, where the sign said I HATE EVERYBODY, was how the sign looked during the actual filming. The sign was altered via CGI for the theatrical version.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Die Hard w/a Vengeance is really good, a truly worthy sequel to the original. Great actors, very entertaining set pieces.

However, the first half of the movie is more entertaining than the second half. It loses a little something once the "simon says scavenger hunt" style gimmicks slow down and it becomes more of a standard foil-the-bad-guy-plot action movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

"Are you AIMING for these people?!?"
"No...Maybe that mime."

Also I wondered how in the world they got away with filming the 'sandwich board scene'. You would think that, movie set or no, anyone standing in the middle of Harlem with a sign that said I HATE N***ERS would have his ass handed to him. Turns out that the TV version, where the sign said I HATE EVERYBODY, was how the sign looked during the actual filming. The sign was altered via CGI for the theatrical version.

IIRC both versions of the sign were added in digitally in the filming of the scene Willis was wearing a blank sandwich board sign.

However, the first half of the movie is more entertaining than the second half. It loses a little something once the "simon says scavenger hunt" style gimmicks slow down and it becomes more of a standard foil-the-bad-guy-plot action movie.

Yeah, I do wish the "Simon Says" gimmick had continued (and that the whole thing really wasn't a diversion for a larger heist) as it seems to get dropped pretty quickly. It also always bugged me that John and Zeus would've been successful in the subway/Wall Street task they are given. Zeus did manage to get to the subway phone on time and if John had been there with him he could've better handled the situation with the other phone user and the transit officer. So I sort of wonder how "Simon" would've wriggled out of Zeus and John's ability to succeed his game for them. (Since the bomb was rigged to blow up no matter what.) And though it could be argued that Zeus was "covering" for John when talking to his superiors after the explosion, Zeus answer of "zip" when asked on the odds of them getting there on time were is pretty dishonest since if you take out the time it took to drop John off, and the time it took Zeus to get "unlost"/deal with the fare they would have gotten to the phone on time.

I did like the scene following the call where the "plot thickens" where we follow the terrorists around for a bit themed with "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye"/"The Ants Come Marching Along."

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

and the villain's girlfriend was perhaps the most evil chick I've EVER seen in a film.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Are you AIMING for these people?!?"
"No...Maybe that mime."

Also I wondered how in the world they got away with filming the 'sandwich board scene'. You would think that, movie set or no, anyone standing in the middle of Harlem with a sign that said I HATE N***ERS would have his ass handed to him. Turns out that the TV version, where the sign said I HATE EVERYBODY, was how the sign looked during the actual filming. The sign was altered via CGI for the theatrical version.

IIRC both versions of the sign were added in digitally in the filming of the scene Willis was wearing a blank sandwich board sign.

No, it was I HATE EVERYBODY during filming. That's the version shown on TV. The only time they used CGI was to change it to the version shown in theaters.