Die Hard Franchise review: Die Hard with a Vengeance

Now its time to do another review and instead of doing a horror movie in time for Halloween, I'm going to review the next instalment of the Die Hard Franchise. Die Hard with a Vengeance or Die Hard 3 for short was released five years after the 2nd film and in my opinion is the second best entry in the franchise as a whole. The film sees John McTiernan back in the directing chair and the only character to come back is Bruce Willis as John McClane and also it's not set at Christmas time. Does the setting affect the series? considering the other two after this film were fine with the setting no it did not affect the series as it showed John McClane doing his job in the streets of New York. There are other places in the series but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The film's narrative is Die Hard in the open world, so New York is under a bomb threat and only Mclane with the help of Zeus (Samuel L Jackson) they come together to stop the brother of first villains antagonist Hans Gruber's brother Simon Gruber played by Jeremy Irons. The film's cast is quite strong like the other two films. Joining Willis we have Zeus played by Samuel L Jackson, Graham Green as Joe Lambert, Larry Bryggman as Inspector Walter Cobbs, Sam Phillips as Katya and Jeremy Irons as Simon Peter Gruber.

Now on to the good parts of the movie. The relationship between McClane and Zeus is great as they are not very fond of each other at first and then grow to like each other at the climax of the movie, also its got Samuel L Jackson. I mean what role of his isn't the best part of the movie. The antagonist is good as well, he doesn't act much of an emotional threat considering there is no loved one of either Mclane or Zeus but he is definitely a physical threat and does have some similarities to his brother. The effects aren't bad for this movie as there is no CGI, or at least that I could see. And it was mostly practical. Also, John McTiernan is back as the director and expands on McClane relationship with holly and also the relationship with Zeus as well. He also does a good job with the Antagonists motivation for stopping McClane as it is personal and does it in a way similar to his brother.

However, it does have its downs. One of them is the police, the reason I have a problem I have with them is that act dumb which is Cliche that has been done to death. I also find it weird that they don't help McClane out that much as they arrive at the end of every explosion to listen to Simons new orders. Also, the side antagonists are kind of bland as well as they don't do much to the movie's narrative and are just there to make the antagonists look more threatening.

Overall, Die Hard 3 is a good addition to the franchise, although it might not have the charm of the original. It still has strong relationships and doesn't take itself too seriously as a film. And also it has Sam Jackson.

I would give Die Hard with a Vengeance a 7/10- Good direction and use effects, strong relationships between characters but it isn't quite like the original.

Die Hard Franchise Review: Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Now it is time to talk about the second instalment in the franchise. Die Hard 2 is considered one of the weaker films to be released in the franchise. The problem I have with the movie and many others is it is just the first film just in an airport. However, the film does have a few good moments so in this review I will try to highlight what I think works and what doesn't.

The film's plot is the same as the first but with an airport in peril instead of crooks taking over a building. However, it does have new characters and that's about it. That was short, might as well talk about the cast. The film has a some of the characters from the first such as Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton and Reginald VelJohnson. But it does have some new characters like William Sadler as the villain Col. Stuart, Franco Nero as General Roman Esperanza and features John Leguizamo and Robert Patrick as a henchman.

Now to get on to the good parts. The comedy is well done and probably on the same level as the first, which is a good sign. The comedy is mainly done by Dennis Franz as Capt. Carmine Lorenzo and Robert Costanzo as the characters brother Sgt. Vito Lorenzo, they do the comedy well as they are sarcastic and don't take the situation seriously until the stakes get higher. The Director this time is Renny Harlin who has directed films such as Deep Blue Sea and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Renny does a good job of producing his version of Die Hard but for a sequel, it's just ok because it is the exact same as the previous film.


And now the bad parts. I know I have gone on to say that it is basically the first film done a little differently, the worst part is that it makes fun of being a cardboard copy of the previous film. It also returns characters that didn't really need to be in it. An example of this is William Atherton's character Richard Thornburg as his purpose in the film is the same as the first and the film doesn't expand on anything else on his character apart from that he's an annoying reporter. 

However, having said all of this Die Hard 2 is an average sequel that doesn't really expand on much from its predecessor. It has recognisable characters, it's entertaining and funny, but it is almost identical to the one before I mean they even play 'Let it snow' by Dean Martin at the end of the film just like the first one.

I would give Die Hard 2 a 6/10- It's just as entertaining as the first but it's an average sequel that doesn't try to expand from the first film.

Die Hard Franchise Review: Die Hard

As you can tell from the title I will be reviewing all five films in the Die Hard franchise. So having said that, I will be reviewing the first and best entry in the franchise 'Die Hard' released in 1988. Die Hard is a film that not only redefined the action genre, labelled as the action movie and also made Bruce Willis a household name. But is the film worth being labelled all this? well yes it does and in this review, I'll be talking about the elements I think make this film a worthwhile watch.

The film has a simple narrative of a cop based in New York goes to LA to visit his family for Christmas, He stops at a building where his wife works to take her home, the building is holding an office party and has to wait till it over, while a band of crooks take over the building while the cop has to stop them. What makes this narrative so memorable is that it is not too complicated like some of the action movies at that time, and allows for some great character moments between characters.

The cast of the film has many names such as Bruce Willis who plays legendary action hero John Mclane, Bonnie Bedelia as his wife Holly, Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Powell, William Atherton as the reporter Richard Thornburg and the late Alan Rickman as legendary villain Hans Gruber. The film's director is John McTiernan who is known for directing other famous films such as Predator and Last Action Hero. McTiernan was a good choice to direct this as he understands the narrative and there are some great character and action moments in the story as a result of this. In my opinion, he also is the best director in the franchise as he came back to do the second best film in my opinion which was Die Hard with a Vengence.

Now onto the good parts of this film, the relationship between John and Holly is well done as you understand where their marital status is and how the relationship changes over the course of the movie. The antagonist is really good as he acts as both an emotional and physical threat to the protagonist as his wife is one of the many hostages he has taken. 

Another good part of the movie is the comedy, Bruce Willis used to be in comedy before he did Die Hard and his experience shows that as there scenes in the movie of him talking to himself saying 'how did this happen?' and 'why am I doing this?' which makes him not too funny and not too serious at the same time as he realises how the whole situation he is in is a bit goofy.

However, as much as I like this movie there is a few nitpicks that are fairly visible. One of these being the hostages. The problem I have with the hostages is that there just there for plot reasons and that's it, an example of this is one hostage named Ellis who tries to make a deal with the crooks but then gets shot as a result of his stupidity. Another is the Limo driver as although he is very funny in all the scenes he's in, that's his only purpose throughout the movie and does one heroic deed near the film's climax.

But overall, Die Hard is an entertaining action movie with a simple narrative, great character moments, great action scenes and Bruce Willis making fun of how the plot is a bit goofy.

I would give Die Hard a 9/10 for great character and action scenes, a simple and understandable narrative behind it and a great villain.

Venom review

Hello again,
This is the first blog I've done for many months now so I thought I'd review a film I recently saw at the cinema. As you can tell from the title I saw Sony's latest flick Venom, if you've been on the internet lately you will know that Venom hasn't got great reviews and I think there being a bit unfair with those bad reviews. I'm not going to say that the movie is amazing because it's not but the director and everyone involved did the best they can to make the movie the best it could be and it does pay off in the final cut. Another reason is that the character of Spider-Man is quite important in the origin of Venom as he is the reason that they symbiote exists and the reason why he hates the wall-crawler alongside Eddie Brock who finds out his secret identity.

The film's story starts off with a space crash a bit like his origin in the Spider-Man animated series in the 90's. Police see that all the crew on the ship are dead and collect the packages that they came back to earth to deliver to a man named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). In San Francisco, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is about to interview Carlton about his illegal experiments. He gets fired from his job as a reporter and gets dumped by his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) who got fired from her job as she was the holder of this information. 6 months have passed and Drake decided to experiment on the packages which he calls Symbiotes, one of his doctors tells Eddie of this and he decides to investigate further. He accidentally gets attacked and one of the symbiotes goes into his body. After adjusting to his new body he meets the symbiote inside of him who calls himself Venom (also voiced by Hardy) and together they stop Drake who gets consumed by a symbiote called Riot to get more of these symbiotes which will take over the planet.

Now for the advantages of this movie. Although this movie might be a bit of mess in parts, there was a lot of concepts that I liked in the movie. One of them was Venom himself as he his like Eddie's inner voice and can also take control of his body which is quite interesting and a bit scary when you think about it. He is also very cocky calling Eddie a loser and a bit of a wimp, however, he can be violent as he does like to bite heads off of people who attack him. The voice is impressive as well as Hardy disguises his voice in a way that you think is that Tom Hardy? I can't tell and that could be said for Ahmed as well for his performance as Riot.

The fight scenes were well choreographed although there's not many in the film and also the effect is decent as well. The CGI makes Venom look different from any other version we have seen him on before as he looks both frightening yet comic accurate at the same time. Howvever there is a lot of things I did not like such as the pacing. The reason I don't like the pacing is that it felt off and made the film very inconsistent which makes the film become a total mess. I also didn't like the villain as he is kind of forgettable and doesn't really do much when he is probably included in the film's narrative. The beginning of the film was really boring and didn't really establish much apart from Eddie's a loser and Drake's the bad guy.

In conclusion, Venom is a bit of a mess, it has pacing issues and can be hard to follow at times however it is an enjoyable film to watch and the portrayal of Venom is much better than Topher Grace's performance in Spider-Man 3 which is considered to be one of the weakest Spider-Man movies out there. It has opened up for a possible sequel with another popular Symbiote but I won't spoil that for anyone who wants to see this movie.

I would give Venom a 6/10- Has a lot of good elements in it and is an enjoyable movie however it has a lot of pacing problems making it a bit of a mess.