Die Hard V - Not Looking Good...

[JacksonArcher]

I wouldn't expect someone like Ang Lee or Lars Von Trier for the Die Hard series, but someone other than John Moore would have been nice. At least John McTiernan is a talented filmmaker with a solid repertoire of entertaining, quality action flicks (The aforementioned Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard With a Vengeance and The Thomas Crown Affair to name a few).

 

[Sean Aaron]

Fair enough. You didn't like Wolverine though? I thought it was better than the rest of the X-Men films combined.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

I also liked XMW:O. The game was really fun, too. Let you literally cut the bad-guys (humans!) into meaty chunks the way a guy with knives coming out of his hands should. XM and XM:U were solid, the latter more so than the first. XM:LS was ass all the way through. XM:FC was great, though.

As for Die Hard, I think the McTiernan editions are my favorite (1 & 3), followed by 4 & 2. Nothing beats one, but the others are all cool in their own way. Too bad he couldn't do another one. He knows the world and characters the best, besides Willis.

Hmmm...why doesn't Bruce try to direct one? Maybe the last one, after 5. Or get Stallone to do it. He's a pretty good director, especially of action/drama (Rocky Balboa & half of the rest of the series, Rambo, The Expendables). They're friends. I think it would be friggin' awesome!

 

[JacksonArcher]

I thought X-Men Origins: Wolverine was godawful.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I wouldn't expect someone like Ang Lee or Lars Von Trier for the Die Hard series, but someone other than John Moore would have been nice. At least John McTiernan is a talented filmmaker with a solid repertoire of entertaining, quality action flicks (The aforementioned Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard With a Vengeance and The Thomas Crown Affair to name a few).

I'd say on a good day, McTiernan was as good an action director as there was out there; the original DH, Vengeance and Predator are proof of that. Plus those movies also showed he's good with an ensemble.

As I said before, you only have to contrast at how he handled the supporting casts or the setpieces in DH or WAV with how Wiseman handled that of 4.0. 4.0 had a decent enough plot and ideas but Wiseman didn't put them together the way McTiernan could have.

Even Harlin's 'slow-mo and, when in doubt, blow things up' mantra gave Die Harder a more distinctive feel than 4.0 had. I think that's why the Die Hard series deserves a grade A action director, as oppose to an anonymous hack like Moore.

 

[Thorsg1]

This is pretty much what I remember lol

 

[Broccoli]

I hope the next Die Hard movie has a pointless Kevin Smith cameo.

 

[Starkers]

I thought X-Men Origins: Wolverine was godawful.

I liked the start, but it quickly went off the rails a bit and suffers the curse of prequels, finish with a fight between two guys where you know neither of them is going to die (see also Revenge of the Sith). Of course you could say the same about First Class yet somehow this seemed to avoid the issue, or was just so well made it didn't affect the quality of the film.

Ideally Die Hard needs a good solid action director, as has been said they don't need anyone oscar worthy, but they are in the upper strata of ation fims and the writer/director should be commensarate with that.

Still you never know. McG is a terrible director yet I loved Charlies Angels, and I always liked Bryan Singer until he turned in the turgid Superman flick so anything is possible.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I thought McG did a good job with Terminator Salvation. Yes, I'm serious.

 

[Captain Craig]

^^^
Ditto.
Another movie bashed by people who just like to bash sequels even when their complaints can be addressed.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Well, I hope you know that I don't fall into that bracket.

I'd be quite happy for McG to make DHV. He's at least got his own style and the action scenes in T:S were excellent.

 

[captcalhoun]

i liked TS and i liked both Charlie's Angels movies for what they were: fluff with three hot chicks kicking ass.

 

[Starkers]

Salvation, up until Sucker Punch was the most borring film full of explosions I'd ever seen. I had to pop to the loo halfway through and seriously considered just leaving!

 

[Enterprise is Great]

^ I thought McG did a good job with Terminator Salvation. Yes, I'm serious.

The editing really let him down though. The character building scenes were pretty much completely excised from the movie. Probably the studio's doing...

 

[Aldo]

I just watched Red today at a friends house and it got me thinking:

When was the last time Bruce Willis really, honestly tried to act? And when was the last time he was paired with a director who was able to get a good performance out of him?

Seems to me he's been on autopilot lately, and just prefers to be paired with Directors who won't push him at all. Kevin Smith's story about working with Willis on Cop Out proves this. Smith tried and butted heads with him constantly on set.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

That's just Smith trying to lay blame for the stinker at someone else's feet. Smith has had, maybe, two good movies and the rest are either meh or ass.

As for Willis? He was great in The Expendables, Hostage, Tears of the Sun, Sin City, Hart's War, Unbreakable and pretty good in LFODH, Surrogates and Red. Admittedly, some of those are like 10 years old. He's also made a shit-ton of movies I've never even heard of -he might be good in those. Assassination of a High School President? WTF?

Also, on a related note... Expendables 2, is that cast list on imdb someone's fantasy draft or are those like confirmed players? Chuck Norris? Van Damme? Hells yeah!

 

[Broccoli]

I just watched Red today at a friends house and it got me thinking:

When was the last time Bruce Willis really, honestly tried to act? And when was the last time he was paired with a director who was able to get a good performance out of him?

I agree. I like Bruce Willis, but he just seems like all he does is play "Bruce Willis" now. The last movie, for me, that had him go outside his current box was The Sixth Sense (although, to be fair, I haven't seen all of his movies over the past ten years).

 

[Captain Craig]

^ Well, I hope you know that I don't fall into that bracket.

I'd be quite happy for McG to make DHV. He's at least got his own style and the action scenes in T:S were excellent.

I think so. I understood your post to mean you like T:S.
I was just also saying it's a film bashed unfairly, not linking you with that. Sorry for any confusion.

Also, on a related note... Expendables 2, is that cast list on imdb someone's fantasy draft or are those like confirmed players? Chuck Norris? Van Damme? Hells yeah!

Those are for real. Here is a set pic with Norris and some of the returning cast.

Related to E:2, during some stunts last week sadly a stunt person was killed another injuried

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

That's awful about the casualties. Awesome about Norris and Co.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Ideally Die Hard needs a good solid action director, as has been said they don't need anyone oscar worthy, but they are in the upper strata of ation fims and the writer/director should be commensarate with that.

Can we please clone James Cameron? Please tell me we have the technology to do that!

IMO it's the same people who bitch about Terminator 3 & 4 or nuTrek.

I love nuTrek and liked T3 and T4 (I even prefer Salvation to T3, for what it's worth). I don't hate DH4.0, I even bought it on DVD. It's an okay movie with some great sequences, but it's just not a patch on its predecessors, even Die Harder. Jarod Russell's analysis of it earlier was spot-on, IMHO. Okay is not good enough for Die Hard - the original is the best action movie ever IMHO and, prior to 4.0 letting the side down, it had been the best action franchise ever (I think Mr Bourne has now stolen the title).

I don't know about the Bourne films being better than the Die Hard films. The Bourne Ultimatum leaves me cold. And The Bourne Supremacy committed a cardinal sin of sequels when they

Spoiler: The Bourne Supremacy

killed off Marie. Sequels shouldn't be allowed to so completely undo the happy ending of the original like that.

I thought X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good considering its limitations as a prequel and an origin story. It actually grows on me with repeat viewings, although it's still nowhere near as good as X-Men, X2, or X-Men: First Class.

The Terminator sequels mostly just suffer from being not directed by James Cameron, the man with the midas touch.