Die Hard: The Ultimate Collection
April 2002 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Who would have guessed that Bruce Willis could have matched Schwarzenegger and Stallone in box-office popularity? For one thing, the smart aleck, but sharp-as-a-tack New York police detective John McClane offers a more realistic hero, when compared to those characters Arnold and Sly portray because he’s "everyman." He smokes, he has marital problems, and by golly, he actually bleeds and feels pain. Unlike Stallone’s Rambo, bullets won’t conveniently miss McClane as he takes time to aim. And unlike the stoic Schwarzenegger, he doesn’t have biceps atop biceps and a sexy Austrian accent to compensate for his one-note acting style. Instead what empowers John McClane, amid fantastic adversity, is good ol’ American persistence, a healthy dose of stubbornness, and fear of "losing the fight." As viewers, we believe and therefore invest in John McClane because, like any underdog, we want him to win.

Set in the confines of an unfinished skyscraper, John McClane is forced to play cat and mouse with the cunning and cold-blooded Hans Gruber. As Gruber, Alan Rickman is deliciously evil, but highly intelligent. He has taken hostages, planned his takeover with surgical precision, and second-guessed the actions of both the local and federal authorities. The question is whether he’s positioning himself in support of some political agenda or something else. I will say that despite his best-laid plans, Hans didn’t figure on how much trouble a scrappy New York cop would be. Exciting action scenes and a smart script aside, it’s the relationship between these two individuals that truly moves Die Hard along. Gruber and McClane might as well be wearing 10-gallon hats because like any other "cowboy film," Die Hard is about two egos fighting for control over a situation. What makes it interesting is that McClane’s success does come at a price. Each run-in with Hans and his mercenaries ends with some of his own blood being spilled. By the end the battered detective bears no resemblance to the clichéd square-jawed cowboy so often depicted in the genre. This tough cop does not traverse hell with a single cut over his left eye, nor is he a hero who’s looking for a pat on the back. He’s a man covered in blood, sweat, and dirt who is thankful to be alive.

Favorite moment: Hmmm… such a tough choice because there were so many. But hands down the best part of the film was the climax. McClane’s vicious fight with Karl (Alexander Godunov) followed by him bringing the hostages down from the roof, measures up to an unforgettable ending. Between the great editing by John Link and Frank Urioste and the rousing, desperate score by Michael Kamen, this sequence crackled with energy. McClane’s repelling from the roof via a fire hose and shooting out the window glass is also fantastic.

But does Detective John McClane go off into the sunset and live happily ever after with his wife Holly? Nope. Contrary to what Hollywood typically dictates, real heroes don’t always benefit from their selfless acts of bravery. They move on with their average lives after a very brief 15 minutes of fame. In Die Hard 2: Die Harder, McClane’s Nakatomi experience is depicted as more of a scar than a badge of honor. He’s not lying on a beach earning 20 percent. He’s in snowy Washington, D.C. getting his in-laws’ car towed by a two-bit security officer who could care less about the Christmas spirit. In this outing, we see the stubborn, opinionated side of McClane rise to the surface. In Die Hard McClane was an unwilling participant to what was happening around him. In Die Harder, McClane is more self-assured and willing to jump into a fight as military extremists take control of Dulles International Airport.

While the action in Die Harder is first rate, and, in some cases, betters the first, I missed Rickman’s "Gruber." Not that William Sadler’s "Colonel Stuart" isn’t good. He is. I just don’t see the same spark in Stuart that I saw in Gruber’s eyes. In the first film I witnessed every piece of information processed by Gruber right before he made his move. Like a cat quietly waiting for his prey to make a move, Gruber’s body language was subtle and composed. With Stuart there is no subtlety, just a wide-eyed stare as he commits several counts of treason. In this way, Stuart rings more of the clichéd Hollywood bad guy. You fail him, he will kill you; you don’t follow his plans to the letter, he will kill you. You interrupt him during his nude Judo sessions and he will kill you. Rickman’s characterization worked better because I didn’t expect half of Gruber’s reactions. Sadler’s "Stuart" doesn’t quite work because his character is apparently psychotic and demonstrates actions that are exactly what you’d expect from a trained soldier. What does work in Die Harder is the dialogue, which bettered the first film by arming McClane with a host of smart-ass remarks. One of my favorites is a metal-detector quip McClane dishes out to Lorenzo as he’s escorted out of his office.

Favorite moment: The ending where McClane uses leaking fuel to off the bad guys and at the same time to create a landing strip.

A relatively weak script proves to be Die Hard: With a Vengeance’s biggest flaw. In fairness screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh rushed a rewrite after Jan De Bont’s atrocious Speed 2: Cruise Control deep-sixes a script involving a luxury cruise ship. Incidentally Jan De Bont was also the talented cinematographer behind the first Die Hard. But considering his history as a director (The Haunting, Twister), he probably should have kept to making pretty pictures. So instead of taking a cruise with his wife Holly, we find the resilient cop demoted to lieutenant and a half beer shy of being an alcoholic. Anyone who still doubts that a man can save hundreds of lives and still end up in the gutter need look no further than John McClane in Die Hard: With a Vengeance.

Separated from his wife for almost a year and suspended from the force, McClane is called back into duty when a terrorist by the name of Simon Peter Krieg takes New York City hostage. But Simon doesn’t want money or a platform from which to argue his political agenda. All he seems to desire is for John McClane to experience pain of a high order. First by making him stand defenseless as he displays racial slurs in Harlem, and then running around New York searching for explosives as part of a "Simon says" game. Like the other two films, the third has some very impressive action sequences. However, the story does lack a level of consistency and sports an ending that seems rushed and tacked on. By comparison the alternate ending does a much better job at resolving the conflict between McClane and Simon, despite concluding the series on a low note.

Even though he may have stolen the idea for the original script, Jan De Bont’s fluid and steady camera would have been a welcomed alternative to the messy visual style of this film. The unsteady "being there" shooting technique (overused in shows like Law and Order and NYPD Blue) employed in several scenes managed to elevate my level of nausea.

Favorite moment: The elevator, where McClane offs five guys within the confines of the four-foot-square space. This is slick and inventive and one of the few scenes where the director seemed to take his time setting up the shot.

Technically this remastered Ultimate Collection had disappointing Dolby Digital and DTS mixes. I primarily listened to DTS, but both soundtracks lacked dynamics in each film. Even though voices were crystal clear and ambience was pretty detailed, explosions and sound effects, such as those in the train station of the third film and those of the planes in the second, didn’t have the visceral snap or concussion I would expect from a well-produced action DVD. The newly performed HD film transfers are another story. All three films show off crisp, clear images with nice levels of detail. Blacks are dense without being muddy, and MPEG noise is negligible with the exception of some of the darker scenes in the first film.

But features are where these re-released DVDs really deliver. Each two-disc set has everything from documentaries to feature-length commentaries to critiques by film historians and deleted scenes. The commentaries and insight delivered by each director are well done -- especially those by director Renny Harlin. Documentaries not only have interviews by the directors and primary actors but also include a step-by-step visual breakdown of some key action sequences within the films. It took me the better part of five nights to experience every extra in each set -- a truly first-class effort.

I still remember the summer my brother and I went to see Die Hard for the first time. It had been a choice between Robocop and Die Hard, and I wanted to see Robocop. Years later I’ve seen this Bruce Willis breakout hit over 20 times and have yet to hit stop before the final credits. And even though I don’t enjoy the latter two films as much, they still deliver a high level of entertainment without sacrificing much story or character development and stand as a prime example of how a strong action film should be made. It’s a collection that is fundamental to any action film buff’s library.

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