Die Hard Franchise Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Its been over a week since my last review of the franchise and today I will be reviewing the penultimate (or at least for now) movie in the franchise, Live Free or Die Hard or Die Hard 4.0 as some call it. In my opinion, this movie isn't that bad although it moved to a lower rating than the last three it blends in with the modern action movie pretty well.

But that's what I think and in this review, I will be discussing why. The film takes 12 years after the previous entry in the franchise and acts as both a continuation and a kind of soft reboot to the character, I mean slightly there's not much difference from McClane's character from the previous movies.

The movie's plot is a group of hackers decide to hack into every security service in America starting a firewall or something like that which will make the country and the world defenceless. McClane joins forces with a young hacker called Matt Farrell played by Justin Long and together with the help of the FBI must take down the villain Thomas Gabriel from achieving this. The movie's cast goes as Bruce Willis as John McClane, Justin Long as Matt Farrell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane, Cliff Curtis as FBI Deputy Director Miguel Bowman, Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel and Kevin Smith, yes Kevin Smith as Frederick "Warlock" Davis.

Now on to the good parts of the movie. It fits well with the modern action movie really well as it does not try to change the premise of Die Hard but instead adapts it to the modern world and how McClane's world gets bigger. It also makes McClane what he was in the first movie by muttering how he has found himself in this situation. Also, the villain is good as he has a motivation for his actions and that he has also designed most of them builds up his threat level as well. The supporting characters like Matt and Lucy are done well also as it shows a relatable side to McClane.

However, there are some bad parts to his movie. The FBI's role in the film is a bit out of place as they don't really do anything. The movie doesn't have the same feel like the other three as it closed off as a trilogy, and it feels a bit weird to have the other 2 movies hence a soft reboot and also it could do more if it did not go to a lower rating.

But saying that, the fourth entry is an enjoyable ride, with entertaining action scenes, decent CGI for its time and also John McClane is just one of the best protagonists to come out of any action movie as his character doesn't really change much which doesn't make him too complicated.

I would give Live Free or Die Hard a 7/10- For an entertaining and action-packed continuation of the franchise. But it doesn't feel quite the same.

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.

Solo: A Star Wars Story review

So yesterday I went to see the new Star Wars film Solo. I was worried about this film as it went through production hell such as it got a different director and had numerous reshoots. It also had a mixed casting choice in Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo himself and also the division of the fanbase which has led a war between die-hard fans of the franchise and comparing the new film's sales to Marvel's massive box office. But after all this controversy the film as came out and it is a fairly safe movie.

The movie centres on a Young Han Solo and tells the story of his first heist, his history with the Empire, how he met Chewbacca, how he got his surname (yep Solo is not his surname), how he won the Falcon of Lando and how he got his blaster the DL-44. Which some topics have been covered in the comics beforehand. The movie starts off with Han and his friend/lover Qi'ra played by Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke escaping their homeworld of Corellia, unfortunately, things go south as Qi'ra gets captured and Han joins the Imperial Navy. Three years later he is imprisoned by the Empire and meets a Wookie who we all know is Chewbacca played by Joonas Suomato. They then join forces with Tobias Beckett played by Woody Harrelson to still some Coaxium off an Imperial crate train. This plan does not go so well and there are a few loses. They eventually meet up with the main villain Dyrden Vos played by Paul Bettany who tells them to go to Kessel to get some Coaxium but instructs his top lieutenant Qi'ra to join them. And you can guess the rest of the story from there.

The movie is not a trainwreck as many people thought it would be but there are more bad parts than good in this movie. But let's cover the good the casting was ok overall such as Alden does a good Han Solo, however, his performance is nowhere near the outstanding work of Harrison Ford, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino does a spot on performance of Lando Calrissian as in he is like a younger version of Billy Dee Williams, Joonas Suomato is great as Chewbacca. There are some entertaining scenes in the movie and the Kessel Run scene is the standout scene apart from one scene which I will cover later so spoiler warning. Also, another good thing that the movie has a different tone to other Star Wars movies which makes it unique and different but I think it will be remembered for the wrong reasons which leads me to the bad stuff. Apart from the characters I've mentioned some of them are just ok such as Qi'ra, the villain is bland and seems pointless to the plot at points. Also, Enfys Nest is a pointless character which is a shame as the trailer set her up to be the big bad of the film. The film can feel rushed at the beginning and takes a while to get quite exciting.

But there is one character that was the worst part of this movie and that was L3-37 played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Her character is annoying and ruins the whole cocky droid thing that Disney has started since the Force Awakens, so instead, she is just annoying and just seems pointless to the plot but thankfully we don't see her for very long. Also, C-3PO and R2-D2 are not in this movie which kind of makes sense to the plot of the movie but also seem like a crime as they both have appeared in all 9 Star Wars films prior to this one.

Some of the Movies best scenes are in the third act where Han and Qi'ra plan to stop Dryden Vos once and for all. Before I continue there are a few spoilers here so please read on to the next paragraph. Once Dryden is killed by Qi'ra she takes his ring and contacts his boss which is revealed to be Darth Maul played by Ray Park and voiced by Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels actor Sam Witwer. Also another fact that there are some actors from Rebels who came back for this movie such as Steve Blum returning to voice the Storm Troopers which apparently he did in the previous anthology film Rogue One.

Overall Solo: A Star Wars Story is a very safe movie with a very basic plot attached to it. It has some great special effects and scenes but it doesn't have the courage to expand upon topics that it vaguely covers such as Han and Qi'ra's relationship and Hans Imperial History.

However, taking all of this into account I would give Solo: A Star Wars Story a 6/10: Very basic plot and doesn't take enough risks that could make the film more interesting which overall makes it an average Star Wars film.

Avengers: Infinity War Review

Yesterday I went to see the latest instalment of the MCU. This has been set up for around 6 years and now it has finally arrived to the big screen and has been a result of almost every Marvel film since the first Avengers back in 2012. This movie is probably the most hyped and biggest movie Marvel has ever produced and they did not disappoint in both the hype and the quality.

The story of the movie is that Thanos a powerful being from the planet Titan is on a quest to search for all six Infinity Stones and once he finds all he can wipe out half of the universe. He sends his minions known as the Black Order to search for the stones on earth and The Avengers and The Guardians of the Galaxy must join forces to face Thanos and stop him from obtaining all the Infinity Stones and changing the universe.

The cast is the biggest Marvel has ever had in the movie so I will split them into the teams and other minor characters that are in the movie. So from the Avengers, we have Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rodgers/ Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ The Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlett Witch, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/ Hawkeye, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/ The winter soldier, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/ Ant-Man, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Tom Holland as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man and Chadwick Boseman as King T'Challa/ Black Panther Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/ War Machine and Paul Bettany as Vision.

From the Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/ Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel as Teenage Groot, Pom Klementieff as Mantis and Karen Gillian as Nebula. From The Black Order, Tom Vaughan Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, Micheal James Shaw as Corvus Glave and Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian/ Black Dwarf. Other characters include Gywenth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Peter Dinklage as Eitri, Benedict Wong as Wong, Benicio Del Toro as The Collector, William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, Winston Duke as M'Baku, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Ross Marquand as the Stonekeeper and of course Josh Brolin as Thanos.

Well, that is a heck load of characters in the film. now time for some things that the film did really well was the chemistry between all the characters such as Thor with the Guardians and Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Star-Lord work well together also. It also has Villian that may be the best in the MCU in my opinion, We all know that Marvel has had a big Villian problem with some being amazing such as Loki, The Vulture and Erik Kilmonger and other just being plain forgetful such as Malkeith, Ronan the Accuser and Yellow Jacket. Thanos is different from all those, as he has been set up as the big bad for six years, although the fans make fun of him as aside from this movie he hasn't done anything that antagonising we all knew he would make a big impact on the MCU and boy did they do that. Not only did he change the MCU forever we also had a look at the emotional side to him such as his motive to change the universe and his past actions to his daughter Gamora.

However no matter how good a movie is there will always be its downsides. The movie is undoubtedly the longest MCU movie to date having a runtime of 2hrs and 30 mins and sometimes the scenes could drag and make the movie seem longer than it actually is but there was enough in the movie to actually make the movie not seem boring such as the final battle in Wakanda. Another is also the CGI was unfinished in some scenes which seem to be a common mistake in the MCU, although the CGI was good in most scenes you were able to tell what scenes had good CGI and which didn't.

In Conclusion, the Film has its downsides to it but it has enough good things to it that the downsides seem like minor things that are occurring in the film, It has enough jokes in the movie to make it not seem plain boring like the DCEU before Wonder Woman and Justice League. The chemistry of all the characters is amazing and they all have an equal balance of screen time although some do have more than others. But I am excited to see what happens next after Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel as they are based during or before the events of both Infinity War or The MCU as a whole.

But Overall I would give Infinity War a 10/10- For amazing character and amazing emotional moments, some unexpected twists, a worthy villain that has been set up for a while and a climax with a huge impact to future movies and would like to see what happens next.

HAPPY TEN YEARS MARVEL STUDIOS