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By
NICK ZEGARAC
The early 1980s were a
hotbed of activity in the action/adventure genre.
Mel Gibson did "Lethal Weapon," Arnold "The
Terminator" and Eddie Murphy indulged us with
"Beverly Hills Cop." At about the same time a
relative unknown, Bruce Willis, had made a
considerable splash on the small screen, opposite
Cybil Shepard in "Moonlighting." The show,
successful and sophisticated, brought Willis to
the attention of director John McTiernan, and that
was enough to convince 20th Century Fox to take a
chance on them both for a new kind of vigilante
thriller.
Willis is John McClane, a New York cop who keeps
running up against terrorists in a high rise (Part
I), at the airport (Part II) and in New York City
(Part III) -- the latter having an ominous ring of
déjà vu since 9/11. McClane is a bitterly esoteric
man on the verge of divorcing his wife, Holly
(Bonnie Bedelia). It seems that Holly's career
meant more to her than her marriage. Moving to LA
she's become quite successful working for a
multi-billion dollar corporation that,
unfortunately, becomes the target of a group of
terrorists on Christmas Eve. These men are fronted
by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), international man
of treachery, deceit and a genuinely chilling
foreign accent.
The original "Die Hard" was shot on location at
Fox's new Century City corporate offices, a venue
that provided the film with its iconic poster art
of a high rise in peril. The phenomenal box office
receipts generated guaranteed a sequel.
Unfortunately, for all concerned, McTiernan was
unable to commit to a second outing, leaving Renny
Harlin in the driver's seat. Harlin's heavy-handed
direction and an almost carbon copy plot -- except
that terrorists have now taken an airport instead
of a high rise hostage -- make "Die Hard 2" a
rather passé film experience. Thankfully,
McTiernan returned for Part III, an ominously
true-to-life scenario in which terrorists fronted
by the diabolical brother of Hans, Simon (Jeremy
Irons) hold the city of New York hostage with the
threat of a nuclear holocaust. Early on, Part III
cleverly chose to infuse comic relief in the
embodiment of Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), an
unwilling participant in McClane's rescue efforts,
whose racial bias toward whites is actually rather
endearing in an odd sort of way. In viewing these
films in retrospect "Die Hard 3" is also more of
an ensemble acting piece than the first two films.
Willis' character -- once the corner stone of the
series, is merely the pretext, rather than the
catalyst that propels the film's familiar
storyline to its predictable conclusion.
After the really shaky initial release of these
movies on DVD, which were among the worst
transfers ever conceived for the digital market,
Fox went back to the drawing board to completely
remastered theses films for deluxe special
editions. The results are nothing short of
miraculous. In the case of all three movies: color
separation is superb. Contrast, shadow
delineation, fine detail and black levels are
solid and deep. Aliasing, shimmering and edge
enhancement still exist but are at a bare minimum
and do not distract from your viewing experience.
All three movies have had their soundtracks
cleaned up. The results are explosive. You may
need seatbelts on your couch before suiting up for
part III.
Individually, Part I continues to have its opening
fifteen minutes suffer from an orangey haze that
tends to render the entire image soft. Although
scenes taking place in the limo are quite
accurately rendered, those in which McClane first
encounters the terrorists in Nakatomi Plaza are
out of focus with a color scheme that is muddy at
best. The good news is that after those initial
fifteen minutes you will be treated to one of the
best DVD transfers of a vintage '80s film. Part II
is the most accurately and consistently rendered
DVD in the three pack. There's really nothing to
complain about here except a hint of edge
enhancement and some minor color bleeding (red) in
the scenes that take place inside the control
tower. Part Three: The youngest of these movies is
also the one most inconsistently rendered on DVD.
The initial release of Part III on DVD was an
embarrassment, so excessively marred by edge
enhancement, aliasing and shimmering of fine
details and digital grain that one wondered just
how blind the person behind the remastering
console was. Though this subsequent remastering
improves on all of the above mentioned problems,
there is still a considerable amount of film grain
present. The picture, while not a strain on the
eyes, is nevertheless a very intense visual
experience. The harsh characteristic is
unflattering, though again, not to the extreme
levels as before.
Extras include several documentaries, audio
commentaries, deleted scenes, stills and
theatrical trailers for each movie. Fox calls the
first movie a 2-disc "Five Star" edition but when
compared to Parts II and III, labeled as mere
"Special Editions" (also 2-disc) there is very
little to differentiate the discs by way of their
extra features. |
