welcome back, John McClane

well, i had my doubts about Die Hard 4 or, if you are "special" and thus are American and need your own name for it (Live Free Or Die Hard, indeed). after so many years, did we really need Brucie back in his starmaking role, especially as he didn't really look like the McClane we know and love in the posters? and could a film about chasing after computer hackers really be all that interesting?

as it turns out, it is indeed very interesting, and it is very much John McClane back. it's an odd testament to Willis as an actor, but this really is a Die Hard movie, and not just another Brucie action film with the name stuck on, and full credit to him for defining the role so well.

Michele and i were mesmerised by this one from start to finish. this is a great, great, great movie in its own right, and brings back the magic and excitement of all that an "action" movie should be, something that has been missing since, well, probably since Die Hard With A Vengeance i guess.

the real winner for it is, as i mentioned, Bruce Willis turning the part of John McClane into something not much short of character acting. nice one, good to see you clearly love the character which brought you fame and fortune. applause too for the scriptwriters, unless much of it was Brucie ad-libbing to make it "authentic", as it were.

there was huge concern, admittedly mostly from those dickheads who wet their pants at practically any opportunity on , about the fact that this was being made with a low age restriction for it. well, the film does not suffer at all because of that - there's as much action as you can handle in it, and so what if not every second word isn't a profanity? you really don't notice.

if you loved the first three Die Hard films, or if like me you liked 66% of them (Die Hard 2 was a qualified mess, made quickly to cash in and don't pretend otherwise), then you will not be disappointed at all with this gem of a film.

be excellent to each other, and, ahem, yippie-kai-yeaaaaay..................