Die Hard 4.0: Action Overload

It's incessant, relentless and certainly action packed, it's the fourth installment of the Die Hard series, it's Die Hard 4.0: Live Free or Die Hard.

The most action you can have in two hours and ten minutes is at the cinema now. It makes most of Michael Bay's movies look like Amelie (see Transformers comment below) and there isn't a dirty vest in sight. Bruce Willis resumes the role of John Mclane, now a senior NYPD detective who gets called in to pick up a hacker suspected by the FBI of being at the end of a 'denial of service' attack on the US Governments cyber-security department. Waiting for him is an array of Euro-goons armed to the teeth with state of the art German small arms and another bad day ensues.

Possibly the best, if far from the most realistic ('This is ActionClub, not PhysicsClub' - Mike Willis) episode in the painful life of Mclane, it features unrealistic fight scenes and IT technology but is a crazy rollercoaster ride of fight scenes, vehicle chases, explosions, outrageous deaths and cool one-liners.

Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant plays the bad guy superhacker with a grudge against the Government and Maggie Q plays his kick-ass ninja girlfriend/head goon, both deliver great performances, despite Olyphant not talking through clenched teeth enough (watch Deadwood if you don't know what I mean).

An honourable mention should go here to the cameo appearance by Kevin Smith as hacker supremo and king of the nerds, 'Warlock'. I guess there must have been a meeting somewhere where the casting director asked 'who is the biggest nerdboy in Hollywood, we need a believable supergeek for this movie' and Kevin Smith was the answer.

I haven't seen the Transformers movie yet, and so I can't say for definite that this is the actionest film of the year, but I can definitely say that it will be in the top two.

File under 'A' for Action. A definite Yippee Kay Ay for DH4.0:LFODH.