Die Hard with a Vengeance

Posted May 23, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

A bomb explodes in a New York mall during the morning rush hour. Little later the police department gets a call from a guy who calls himself Simon claiming responsibility. To make it worse: unless officer John McClane follows his instructions, more bombs will explode. McClane, who’s on the break of a divorce and has some alcohol issues, isn’t really looking forward to following instructions of a madman but decides to comply after all seeing what’s at stake. When he starts his first mission, walking around in Harlem with a board that says “I HATE NIGGERS” he gets saved by a local shop owner called Zeus but that’s not the end of it: Simon wants to continue his games and both McClane and Zeus go chasing throughout New York, solving one riddle after another until McClane starts to wonder whether this is just a matter of revenge or whether something else is going on…

Sound and Vision:
The image quality is pretty good with less edge enhancement than on the DVD and the amount of detail is also pretty good.

Where the blu-ray disc shines is the sound which gives a lot better spreading to the effects and has aggressive use of the surround speakers and subwoofer. The only issue is that you really need a DTS decoder or else you won’t be able to hear anything as there’s no Dolby Digital track present.

Extras:
– Audio commentary track
– Die Hard 3: The Making Of
– A Night to Die for: McClane is Back
– Die Hard 3 Featurette
– Deleted Scene
– Alternative Ending
– Behind the scenes
– Storyboards
– Special Effects

Pretty much the same extras that were present on the DVD already.

Conclusion:
Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third Die Hard movie and unlike the previous ones John McClane this time gets some help. Some help from no-one other than Samuel L. Jackson who has to bring in some additional comedy. The duo works very well together and along with the nice action this makes for a very entertaining movie, just like the other Die Hard movie. There’s a reason the series has become a standard in its genre and this third movie shows why.

The blu-ray release has as biggest advantage the improved sound for people who have an amplifier that can support DTS but for those that haven’t there’s little need to get this one.

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