Cinematical

I recently had myself a fun little Die Hard marathon and came out the other side realizing that, hey, all three of these movies pretty much rock. OK, sure, the plot of Part 2 borders on moronic, and the third act of Part 3 is a crystalline example of seriously confused filmmaking, but all three flicks have Bruce Willis doing what he does best: Avoiding and dispatching deadly terrorists while doling out Normal Joe quips at a rapid pace. Plus the whole trilogy is rife with great character actors, rousing musical scores, and more high-end action that you can shake a Joel Silver at.

So what are my thoughts regarding the slooooow evolution of a Die Hard 4? Simple: If Harry Ford's not too old to don the Indy fedora one more time, then I say it's OK for John McClane to pull his bloody wife-beater out of mothballs and kill a few new terrorists. Fox apparently agrees with me, and the latest news is that Underworld / Underworld: Evolution director / amazingly lucky Kate Beckinsale toe-curler Len Wiseman has been offered the Die Hard 4 gig.

So while the jury is still out on whether Mr. Wiseman can direct an action scene that involves, y'know, sunlight, I think this might be a move in the right direction. Plus if he can get the missus to play the sexily evil henchwoman of the inevitably British villain, all the better. The Die Hard 4 screenplay, which deals with John McClane aborting his retirement to take down an internet terrorist ring, was written by Mark Bomback (Godsend) and Doug Richardson (Money Train), so there's that to worry about. (To be fair, Richardson co-wrote Die Hard 2, so that bodes well -- if you happen to like Die Hard 2, that is.)