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On the Fourth of July weekend, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle... but he never figured on McClane--the old-school "analog" fly in the "digital" ointment. It's the beginning of the holiday, but New York City Detective McClane isn't celebrating. He's had yet another argument with his college-age daughter Lucy, and received a crushingly routine assignment to bring in a young hacker, Matt Farrell, for questioning by the FBI. But for McClane, the ordinary has a habit of exploding into the extraordinary--abruptly hurtling him into the wrong place at the wrong time. With Farrell's help, McClane slowly begins to understand the increasing chaos surrounding him. An attack is underway on the vulnerable United States infrastructure, shutting down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme, Thomas Gabriel, stays several moves ahead of McClane as he implements his incredible plans, known to uber-geeks like Farrell as a "fire sale" (as in, everything must go!)

The cyber-terrorism in Die Hard 4.0 offers fans something a bit different from the traditional bomb & hostage terror plots they've become accustomed to. The sense of fear in this film is much more subtle and widespread than it was in previous efforts, but it's still very real. Although you can't help but feel the idea has been somewhat over-simplified for our benefit, it still makes you question the threats we may face from terrorism over the next few decades.

Putting the plot aside, a lot of people were worried about this film. After a 12 year break, many thought that Willis would struggle to keep up with the intense level of action we expect from Die Hard. The fact of the matter is, 4.0 does not disappoint. The action alone is the best we've seen from the series, and at the end of the day, that's the main reason you go to see a Die Hard movie. Just make sure you sit back and enjoy it!

Internet Terrorism. Sounds scary don't it? I mean what would we do without the internet? We'd be forced to actually talk to people and get social lives. Thank God for John McClane who is once again in the right place at the wrong time messing things up royally for super baddie Gabriel played by Hitman to be Timothy Olyphant and his bit on the side Mai played by Maggie Q. It all starts well enough with a whole load of suits panicking over their computers powering down, apparently this is bad so therefore they have local cops go and collect well known hackers who could have done it.

Enter McClane, who just so happens to be building the oh so obvious you're a terrible dad, father/daughter relationship(tm) when he's called to collect young and bearded power-nerd Matt Farrell played by Justin Long. McClane is a technophobe you see which is a cause for all kinds of predictable hilarity along the way. Things get interesting though as it's revealed that the hackers that helped Gabriel are also being picked off by him one by one. McClane does his thing and eventually the corpses start to pile up. The film keeps a good pace, slowing down to tell the deep-as-a-paddling-pool story at the right moments without coming off as a sudden cut of pace for no reason. The main action pieces are all vehicular based making for some marvellous spectacles but it's all too over the top to be taken seriously, luckily enough though, it doesn't want to be taken seriously.

Pretty much all the actors did a good job with the slight exception of Olyphant who just seemed like a generic bad guy saying all the right stuff at the right moment without doing much else, he did however get better towards the end. The charm of John McClane has always been the way he has fun whilst going about his business with wise cracks, trash talking and some memorable lines that keep the character alive and fresh for the new audience thanks to Bruce Willis who comes off so happy to be back with the character that made him famous all those years ago.

Die Hard 4.0 (I still would have preferred Live Free or Die Hard to be honest) is a good addition to the franchise but it might lose it's edge on repeated viewings, however it's better than the second film which didn't have any emotion at all, just McClane in a forgettable situation doing what he does best. 4.0 is a big film with a great finale and memorable "Yipee-Ki-yay Motherf*cker" at the end combined with a very novel way of disposing of the Gabriel which suits McClane so much and makes him that much cooler. It has its faults and comes very close to being the self-parody we didn't really want but it's so much fun it doesn't really matter.

Twelve years after Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third and previous film in the Die Hard franchise, Die Hard 4.0 finds John McClane (Bruce Willis) a few years older, not any happier, and just as kick-ass as ever. Right after he has a fight with his college-age daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a call comes in to pick up a hacker (Justin Long, Dodgeball) who might help the FBI learn something about a brief security blip in their systems. Now any Die Hard fan knows that this is when the assassins with foreign accents and high-powered weaponry show up, telling McClane that once again he's stumbled into an assignment that's anything but routine. Once that wreckage has cleared, it is revealed that the hacker is only one of many hackers who are being targeted for extermination after they helped set up a "fire sale," a three-pronged cyberattack designed to bring down the entire country by crippling its transportation, finances, and utilities. That plan is now being put into action by a mysterious team (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood, and Maggie Q, Mission: Impossible 3) that seems to be operating under the government's noses. Die Hard 4.0 uses some of the cat-and-mouse elements of Die Hard with a Vengeance along with some of the pick-'em-off-one-by-one elements of the now-classic original movie. And it's the most consistently enjoyable installment of the franchise since the original, with eye-popping stunts (directed by Len Wiseman of the Underworld franchise), good humour, and Willis's ability to toss off a quip while barely alive. Yippee-ki-ay! --David Horiuchi

Bruce Willis at his best. One of the best action packed films l've ever seen in my life. From the start to the finish its all action. good story line.

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