Die Hard - The Ultimate Collection (Die Hard / Die Hard 2 / Die Hard with a Vengeance / Live Free or Die Hard Two-Disc Special Editions)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alan Rickman, Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L JacksonBrand: TCFHE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 516 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Die Hard - The Ultimate Collection (Die Hard / Die Hard 2 / Die Hard with a Vengeance / Live Free or Die Hard Two-Disc Special Editions)
Movie Review: Best action movie series of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me get some technical things I would want to know out of the way. This set includes Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengence, and Live Free or Die Hard, the Unrated version. There was some question in the reviews as to whether it was the unrated version, which makes me question why they would review a product that they don't own. Now the really big question for me at least is what medium to buy this movie on. I got a blu ray player last year, and rented the original die hard on blu ray, and have to say that i was disappointed. When I first got the blu ray player i was originally going ro just rebuy most of the movies in my collection, but I was starting to see that movies made before 2000, or some made just after, just don't look very good in high def. Some studios really put the time and money into making their classics really look amazing, but Fox just really hasn't done that for its old movies yet, and though Die Hard is by far one of if not the greatest action movie of all time, I would reccoment getting the set on DVD. The only movie in the set that is going to look better (if not worse) on Blu Ray is Live Free or Die Hard, which is by far the worst movie in the set, so I would reccomend getting it on DVD, or find the Die Hard Trilogy on DVD and getting Live Free or Die Hard on Blu Ray if you are a completionist, or just really like that movie for some reason, but for most fans, this will do nicely. As far as the movies go, as previously stated Die Hard, the original, is a classic, and easily the best action movie ever made. Up until Die Hard, action movies were either the tense cat and mouse movies, or over the top (Looke at the director's own Predator, especially the fight in the compound) and when Die Hard came along, it was the idea that the person at the center of an over the top situation could still be human and vulnerable, but it was his will (and wit) that would keep him going when average people would just give up. It was his love of his family, but that also is a convaluted mess. Life isn't easy, and there are a lot of pieces that fail within the society, and a lot of people that don't want to get their hands dirty, and the hard works get passed down to John, not because he is the best, but because he won't let it go. I can tell you having worked in the government that so many things get through the cracks, and the people that get things done because of a sense of duty that they won't give up is at the heart of this movie. This movie is about not giving up, even though it seems like life is against you because there are too many people in suits that are only interested about what they can acquire, and the world changes more and more to where the buck keeps getting passed. The whole movie keeps movie on with a dying cowboy breed motif and killer dialogue, and complete control from the director, not to mention great director of photography in jan debont, who went on to direct speed, and also dp for robocop as well as a lot of verhoven's other work, so just a great film all around. The second tried to be too similar to the first. It was actually the first Die Hard movie I saw, and though at the time I was in love with the movie, it really doesn't compare to the original in terms of pacing and action, so i have to say it seems a little too much, as in one man couldn't do all that, and becomes a little too cartoony, such as the airplane explosion where he survives via the ejection seat, even though there is no way he would have escaped without internal injuries. It tries too hard to improve upon a perfect film. The third film spends a majority of the movie with a buddy team between McClain and Samual L. Jackson, whose racial tensions seem too much of a rip off between what Bruce already did better in the Last Boy Scout, however the twists and turns, not to mention that it doesn't seem as unrealistic in its action sequences. If you take the best moments from the first two sequals and leave the bad parts you get the first films equal, however the fourth film is just complete garbage. I remember seeing it in theaters dispite it having a pg 13 rating which should have been my first clue, but I remember the studio talking about it being a hard pg 13 and that there would be a unrated, or really an r rated cut on dvd, however it doesn't help a really tired and unbelevable set of action sequences that do not remind me of the first at all. its one man takes on a jet plane, and lives. its like bad video game cgi with McClain insight and one liners interjected. Over all a really great set of movies, and worth watching all the way through, because you know part five will come out eventually. I hope they kill off our protaganist so they will stop doing stupid sequels.
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Summary of Die Hard - The Ultimate Collection (Die Hard / Die Hard 2 / Die Hard with a Vengeance / Live Free or Die Hard Two-Disc Special Editions)
Contains: *Die Hard *Die Hard Bonus Disc *Die Hard 2: Die Harder *Die Hard 2: Die Harder Bonus Disc *Die Hard: With a Vengeance *Die Hard: With a Vengeance Bonus DiscDie Hard is the movie franchise that made a movie star out of TV star Bruce Willis, and created an entire action-movie genre of its own. In the original 1988 film, Willis plays wisecracking New York cop John McClane, who arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles to meet up with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonny Bedelia), at her office Christmas party. As luck would have it, the company ends up in the middle of a terrorist plot led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his gang of expert killers, and with little help coming from outside, McClane has to pick off his enemies one by one. Thus was born the "Die Hard genre," epitomized by such films as Under Siege ("Die Hard on a ship"), Passenger 57 ("Die Hard on a plane"), Speed ("Die Hard on a bus"), and Cliffhanger ("Die Hard on a mountain"). But few measure up to the explosive brilliance of Die Hard. Director John McTiernan develops the action at a fast and furious pace, culminating in some fantastic set-pieces on the top of the building, in the elevator shaft, and in the building's outer plaza. Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza's script, based on Roderick Thorp's novel Nothing Lasts Forever, is smart, funny, and full of memorable lines (among them "Welcome to the party, pal!" and of course "Yippee ki-ay, motherf*****"), and the cast is perfection, especially Rickman as the cunningly evil villain, and Willis, whose McClane character--bloodied, beaten, bruised, and barely breathing, as he battles both bad guys and bureaucrats--is someone audiences could genuinely cheer for.
Directed by Renny Harlin, the 1990 sequel, Die Hard 2 (unofficially referred to as Die Harder), doesn't match the level of the original, but it's still an exciting thrill ride with some terrific action sequences. One year after the Nakatomi incident, McClane (Willis) is awaiting his wife's (Bedelia) plane to arrive at Dulles Airport when he stumbles onto a plot to paralyze the entire airport, including all the planes trying to land. It's up to McClane to take on the cadre of bad guys despite all the bureaucrats standing in his way, and before the planes run out of fuel and crash to the ground. The cast includes William Sadler as rogue military man Col. Stuart, Dennis Franz as the latest bureaucratic cop to get in McClane's way, Richard Thornburg as the annoying reporter from the original movie, John Amos as a special-forces commander, early-in-their-career John Leguizamo and Robert Patrick as terrorists, and future politician and Law and Order actor Fred Thompson as the head of air traffic control.
The third film in the series, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), was again directed by John McTiernan and uses a different concept. The villain (played by Jeremy Irons) claims to have planted bombs all over New York City and gives John McClane (Willis), now alchoholic and separated, a series of clues to try to track them down. Along the way, he's aided by, and eventually teams up with, a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson). The interplay between Willis and Jackson is engaging, but better suited to the Lethal Weapon franchise it was previously considered for, and not till the end does the movie return to the familiar McClane-vs.-villains-showdown format.
Twelve years after Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third and previous film in the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard 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, a.k.a. the "Apple guy") 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. Live Free or Die Hard 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 humor, and Willis's ability to toss off a quip while barely alive. There was some controversy over the film's PG-13 rating--there might be less blood than usual, and McClane's famous tag line is somewhat obscured--but there's still has plenty of action and a high body count. Yippee-ki-ay! --David Horiuchi
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