← Back to Reviews
 

Die Hard: With a Vengeance




Die Hard With A Vengeance
Action Thriller / English / 1995

WHY'D I WATCH IT?
For the Action Movie Countdown.

Reassessment time.

WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
"Who in the hell wants to blow up a department store?"
"Ever see a woman miss a shoe sale?"


Ever see a man's lips ripped off? That's one of the first lines in this movie and it's ****in' terrible. They set the stage for much of the racial humor that rolls in with Samuel L. Jackson's character, but fortunately it's all uphill from here (or downhill from here if you're a pessimist). It's a fair bit classier and Die Hard 3 actually has the cajones to take a stab at it for what it is.

Originally Posted by John McClane
I'll tell you what your problem is, you don't like me 'cause you're a racist!
THANK YOU. I'm sick and tired of that. Once again, Samuel L. Jackson aids clearing up common misconceptions about America's racial tensions.

ANYWAY, I don't want to talk about that anymore. How does this compare to Die Hard? It's up there. How does this compare to Die Harder? That happened?

Oh yeah, Dogs, Eggs, and Kissing.

Samuel L. Jackson is a welcome source of wit and his more Pulp Fiction-y boisterous personality which still manages to clash with Bruce Willis in amusing ways.

Jeremy Irons is... debateably on par with Alan Rickman as the villain, truly he's a rock solid baddie actor to take his place, least of which play his in-character brother.



The movie has a lot of interesting twists and turns and amidst a fairly excessive repetition of When Johnny Comes Marching Home and a reference to Hillary Clinton as the 43rd president, which is guaranteed to date the movie, I have one nagging complaint... the water jug riddle.

Practically all of the other riddles you could solve given the information, but McClane and Zeus solve the puzzle partway through messing with the water levels. We just cut to them one step away from solving it.

The puzzle and solution is this:

You're at a fountain with a 3 gallon (A) and a 5 gallon (B) jug. You must fill one of them with exactly 4 gallons of water. How do you do it?

Fill B. A is empty, B contains 5 gallons.

Fill A with B. A contains 3 gallons, B contains 2 gallons.

Empty A. A is empty, B contains 2 gallons.

Fill A with B. A contains 2 gallons, B is empty.

Fill B. A contains 2 gallons, B contains 5 gallons.

<Scene>
Fill A with B. A contains 3 gallons, B contains 4 gallons.

</Scene>

I'm not sure why that was important enough to complain about, but the movie agonized over it, I like to solve riddles alongside the protagonists aaand, I just like riddles.

That's a good one.


Final Verdict:
[Pretty Good]