Die Hard Film Franchise Review

Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of the

M -Wire Movie Week in Review. Today we're going

to be discussing the Die Hard film franchise.

I am TFG1 Mike and as usual I am joined by Steve

slash Megatron. Hello. Howdy. And as a super

special guest is with us Mike the Birdman Dodd

from This Week in Geek and various other shit

that he does. Hello. What's up, motherfucker?

How are you? I am alive despite having the Black

Plague of Death flu last week. You mean the bird

flu? Yeah, it was terrible. It was the bird slash

swine flu from West Nile. It was terrible. Oh,

good lord. With a little bit of AIDS mixed in

there, it was terrible. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's

right. I went there. Haha. So what have you been

up to this week, bird man? Well, this past week,

I decided to do a little bit of shopping and

I bought my first arcade machine this past week.

I'm going to be picking it up next week. I'm

going to be restoring an X -Men versus Street

Fighter cabinet back to original retail. I'm

just looking for side art right now. I bought

my marquee last night, which is the header that

goes at the top of the machine. And I'm currently

looking at different Jamma PCB boards. I found

one that has Marvel vs. Capcom on it, Darkstalkers,

and a bunch of other really cool games, including

Mega Man The Power Fighters. Found this all for

200 bucks, so I'm going to be saving up my dimes

and nickels to get this thing in the new year.

Yeah, that's nice. That's crazy. It's really,

really, really sick. It's really, really, really

cool. Where the hell are you going to put it,

though? in my living room. It's going to be awesome.

I'm expanding our game collection here at Twig.

So my next project will be a pinball machine.

Yes, and since this is your first, I think this

is your first appearance on one of our shows

since TFG 116, maybe? Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah.

And since that time, we have now become sound

monkeys for Twig. Yes, you have. I'm going to

be putting you guys to work for our Jura are

not Jurassic Park for our Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtle special we got coming up with Playmates

and four kids at entertainment helping us out

with that one and maybe to be soft Montreal actually

I might be going to Montreal to take a look at

the new TMNT smash -up game which shall be really

really really cool there may even be a publicity

stunt tied into it we're gonna have to wait and

see Like that publicity stunt you did with that

guy with the glasses. Yep. It'll be interesting

and intense, so hopefully I get to go to Montreal

and see this really cool game come together,

which is basically Smash Brothers but with Ninja

Turtles. Oh, that'd be so epic. It looks pretty

badass. So that's TMNT Smash Up coming out in,

I think, September or October. I'm not 100 %

sure. I don't think the game has gone gold just

yet. Very cool. I'll leave it up to you this

week, Steve. Um, not much got my hands on a original

copy of the GI Joe movie and Not a lot of editing

thankfully compared to last week Yes, we had

a record here at get cast review we released

like 14 shows in one week Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah

So Yeah, that's pretty much what's going on with

us, so I think we're going to jump into today's

topic, which is Die Hard. Well, today's topic

is the Die Hard franchise. I guess we can go

into some general memories of these films. At

least the first three at first, because the fourth

one, it was good, but I don't think it's as epic

as the other ones. I don't know. It was pretty

goddamn cool. Let's see, when did you guys first

see these, you know, the first three or the first

three films? Well, I guess who wants to go first

yes you can Mike Okay. Well, I first actually

saw these movies a guy I used to be friends friends

with named Eric had told me about them and I'm

like Well, what the hell is this? So or actually

no it actually goes back farther than that. Um

And then I'll get into that story. I originally

saw Die Hard with Vengeance in theaters. Yes,

I'm an old prick. So I saw that, and I didn't

know what the hell it really was. I mean, I'd

seen clips of Die Hard 1 and 2. Didn't really

know about the famous Yippee -ki -yay motherfucker

line. It didn't really take with me back then.

It was just a cool action movie. So years and

years later, I've got my first apartment, and

it's Christmas time, and I'm spending Christmas

by myself, and my friend Eric comes over to the

house, and he brings these movies with him. The

Die Hard trilogy at that time is like, hey Mike,

I got some cool Christmas movies. I'm like, all

right, you're kidding me. Christmas movies are

named Die Hard. Okay, I'll buy it, sure. And

we sit down and watch them and I just thought

they were tremendously cool. I remember sitting

down having a few drinks just watching these

movies with shit blowing up and people getting

shot. And it really reawoken my love of action

movies like Michael Bay and I enjoyed some of

John McTiernan's earlier work with Predator and

whatnot. Although, to a lesser extent, Last Action

Hero, that movie sucked. So, yeah, I just kind

of got into it. And then Die Hard really came

back for me when a friend of mine on Twitter,

at ClosetGeekShow, introduced me to the song

Die Hard by Guy's Night, right? And this was

just before the fourth movie. had come out, and

I'm thinking, wow, this is awesome. So I watched

the Die Hard movies again, this time with my

girlfriend, and just fell in love with the film

series yet again. What about you, Steve? When

was the first time you saw them? Can't really

recall when I first saw it. I remember seeing

the first one. I used to sit and watch a lot

of the 80s and early 90s movies with my dad.

I remember sitting there watching the first one

of this and liking it. I don't think I've seen

the second one until like a couple years ago

and then I kind of had a refresher when you sent

me the video. Then for the most part the third

one I remember seeing kind of off and on and

usually would catch it from like halfway through

and never had seen the full thing until now.

and the fourth one Unfortunately, I have not

able to had time to get my hands on it this week

Yes, it's actually sitting right here next to

me I was watching it before we started recording

tonight. So same here actually So I think we're

just gonna break each one down. I'm gonna start

with the first one and go all through the series

Die Hard is a 1988 action film, the first in

the Die Hard film series. The film was produced

by Lawrence and Charles Gordon, along with Joel

Silver. Holy crap, Joel Silver had touched Die

Hard. That's blasphemy. Hey man, he produced

the friggin' Matrix. He also screwed up the Batman

films, but anyway. Hey, Bat Nipples are awesome.

Especially with Batman's morphing looks in every

movie. Hell, yes. Yeah, we're not going to get

into that. The movie is based on a 1979 novel

by Roderick Thorpe entitled Nothing Lasts Forever.

It's self a sequel to the book The Detective,

which is previously made into a 1968 movie starring

Frank Sinatra. The basic overall plot for Die

Hard, I'm not going to read through all this

because it's just way, way too detailed. You've

got to love Wikipedia for that. Basically, it's

Christmas Eve. John McLean, who is played by

Bruce Willis, is the detective with the New York

City Police Department. He's going to LA to see

his wife and his kids. He's meeting her at her

job at Nakatomi Plaza, which is actually Fox

Plaza out in Los Angeles. Basically from terrorists

come in shoot the place up John has to save the

day You know he gets shot at he gets a whole

bunch of glass in his foot Some explosions happen,

you know It's just an overall awesome movie Eventually

he lets Hans drop off the roof And the movie

ends I mean it really I mean there's a lot to

say about it But they're real I'm trying to keep

it short as far as the synopsis I said I don't

want all this But overall that this movie was

was so cool actually when they first when I was

watching it earlier this week when they said

Nakatomi or Whatever the name of the company

was I thought I thought they actually said Takara

told me the new Takara Transformers Japanese

import people. Oh you nerd shut up Shut the hell

up well, you know I died Didn't hear it right.

I was like halfway across the room Sure, and

hon Cooper who is the the terrorist leader that

actually come back in the third film with his

brother Simon Overall I really enjoyed this this

film I don't know if it's my favorite out of

the four, but it's really super super cool What

did you think Mike? Oh the first one see I thought

the first one is probably is definitely the strongest

in the franchise, I just, it's actually kind

of funny. They actually use Die Hard in film

school to teach you how to write a screenplay

because of just the way that the film structure

just got really, really, really strong character

structure in it. There's really, really, really

smart dialogue. The action sequences are well

placed out. It's just, it's a formulated action

movie that works. Right and I think it's just

it's a strong movie It's a fun movie and it's

one that you can watch over and over again and

just enjoy for what it is It's a fun ride and

there aren't too many action movies. You can

watch over and over again and because and just

be consistently Entertained by the same thing

like there's a lot of really funny supporting

characters like Al And the computer hacker guy

whose name escapes me at the moment. It's Theo,

who is played by Clarence Gilliard Jr., who also

was in Matlock and Walker Texas Ranger. Oh, God.

Oh, my God. That is the guy from Walker. I told

you it's Jimmy. Oh, my God. What a pussy. Anyway.

So and it's just cool, though, because there

aren't too many supporting characters that you

really kind of latch on to. In fact, I used to

have this huge elaborate theory. where basically

I totally believe that family matters in the

Die Hard films happen in the same universe. I

wonder where you could put Urkel in the Die Hard

films. I think Theo was actually his dad because

the timeline kind of works out. That's why he's

constantly hanging around Laura and Carl Winslow

who's now in the witness protection program which

explains why he's not in Die Hard 3 or 4. I've

got a theory, man. What about you, Steve? What

did you think about the first film overall? Overall,

I think it's just a pretty badass movie It's

definitely Still holds up over all the action

movies that come out today It kicks the crap

out of anything that I Mean if you put diehard

against that movie like say the marine or 12

rounds like what the fuck this movie takes the

crap out of it Yeah, those don't even look that

They don't even make me want to sit there and

watch it, whereas Die Hard, I could probably

sit there and watch over and over and never even

think twice about not watching the other movies

you just mentioned. Yeah. And I guess we should

go down the cast list that I have here. Obviously,

Bruce Willis plays Detective John McClane. Alan

Rickman plays Hans Gruber. Bonnie Bedelia plays

Holly Gennaro -McClane. Reginald Val Johnson

plays Sergeant Al Powell. Um, I'm gonna - And

then the rest of the guys are pussies. Well,

with a couple exceptions. You got Clarence Gilear

Jr., like I said. Which he actually had some

pretty funny lines in this. And then you got

- That's true. The now deceased Paul Gleason

as the deputy police chief, Dewayne T. Robinson.

Really? Yes. When did he die? He's been dead

a couple of years now. Well, God damn, I didn't

know that. I think he has. I'd have to click

on his name here in my little... Let's find out.

Is Paul Gleason dead? Alright. Yes, he died two

years ago. Where were you on that one? You completely

missed the bus there. How'd he die? Oh, wow,

he died of lung cancer associated with... asbestos

So he died because his dad used to work on on

like on like sites and he used to work there

as construction worker as a teenager That's that's

a nasty way to go. Oh my god. The the guy from

the breakfast club is dead We can rest assured

that Barry Manilow got his wardrobe back I'm

not really gonna go into the production here

because I mean we all know that, you know, movies

are made. Yeah, movies are made. But I will go

into how the title has been changed for different

market releases. In Thailand, it was called Big

Building Fight, which is the best name fucking

ever for any movie of all time. I'm sorry, Big

Building Fight. I'm actually been looking on

eBay for a diehard poster like this for years.

I haven't found it yet, but I will. uh... all

of the other ones i probably can pronounce so

i'm not even going to try it since i don't speak

any other other languages uh... the music for

this beithoven's ninth symphony is featured way

as Cayman's score throughout the film. In many

guises and variations, thematic variations on

singing in the rain are also featured as a theme

for the character Theo. Basing his score around

the thematic variations on well -known pieces

is a conceit that Cayman would repeat in Die

Hard 2, which featured John Sibylis's, I can't

even pronounce that, so I'm going to try anyway,

and Die Hard with a Vengeance, which featured

variations on the Civil War marching tune when

Johnny comes marching home. Due to the film's

Christmas setting, the store also features sleigh

bells and some cues. Box Brandenburg concerto

number three is played during the reception at

the party at the start of the film. Near the

beginning of the film, limousine driver Argyle

plays the rap song Christmas in Hollis performed

by Run DMC and it was first released in 1987.

The only thing I really noticed out of these

films was some of the main themes. Didn't really

notice the other music that much see I didn't

know they use cues from the aliens movies in

this which Which was some of the stuff that that's

a James Horner did for James Cameron's action

epic aliens back in 1986 I found that was actually

really really really cool. Yes. Yes And just

going on to the reception when diehard was released

it was considered one of the best action films

of its era The film currently holds a 94 % quote

-unquote fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This

is probably in part due to the fact that there

are few artificial plot points in the story.

The film features Willis as a sympathetic hero

with typical human weaknesses unlike the overpowered

heroes exemplified by Arnold Schwarzenegger and

Sylvester Stallone. uh... well it is noted for

including humor as a compliment to the action

in dramatic elements of the story is said to

have re -invented the action genre and set the

stage for ninety section through such as under

siege sunday cliffhanger passenger fifty seven

in speed diehard on a what that i don't know

what that is they're okay hope Basically what

it was like when there were all these action

movies coming out in the 90s because you saw

a really big flood of them from like 1990 So

probably it said probably about 1998 you would

see oh, it's like die hard on a bus die hard

on a boat I heard on a plane sort of thing. Okay,

although sudden death I think is actually one

of those movies you can very easily compare to

die hard Bobby seeks them a Jean -Claude Van

Damme affection auto but If you watch Sudden

Death and Die Hard side -by -side, you would

be surprised just how many similarities there

are, and it's kind of freaky. Wow. I didn't know

this. Die Hard was listed at number 39 on the

AFI's 100 years, 100 thrills list of the most

thrilling American movies of all time in 2001.

That's interesting. And in 2003, Hans Gruber

was listed at number 46 on the AFI's 100 years,

100 heroes and villains special. However, Roger

Ebert gave it less than flattering review, giving

a mere two stars and criticizing the stupidity

of the characters and satirical view the film

takes on authority figures. That's because he

sucks. Oh, he's a spag. Yeah, well, all those

critics are douchebags. Yes, pretty much. Yeah,

actually who I'm about to say who am I kidding?

I'm a giant douchebag, but that's okay Well,

you know all the you know, I know this little

side out but all these critics are such douchebags

I mean everybody gave Revenge of the Fallen a

bad review and look how much money that thing's

made I mean granted that's not the best movie,

but at the same time it's not a pile of shit

like everybody's claiming like all these critics

are claiming so I never go with the These you

know big ones that are in the newspapers or on

television. Yeah, I'm sorry Roger Ebert is a

guy who basically appreciates a film on its artistic

merits, and I think this is the type of guy that

likes the English patient, the piano, and Captain

Corelli's mandolin. I don't expect him to enjoy

Die Hard or Passenger 57 on the same level, you

know. some of us is. And when you think about

it, it's not that action movies are made for

low brow people where shit blows up and looks

pretty. They're meant to be a fun experience.

So I think that's the thing where when Ebert

gives a review, you have to take that in mind,

is that he isn't the typical movie going audience.

Yeah, no, he's not. He's one of these stiff upper

lip people. It's like my blood look at this film

if you appreciate citizen Kate. No, shut the

fuck up. I heard was awesome. I'm just gonna

go through some of the nominations The movie

was not die -hard. The original was nominated

for best sound effects editing best film editing

best sound best visual effects You know for a

film that people gave mixed reviews for or whatever

At least it was nominated for all those awards

John McLean's catchphrase Yippee -ki -yay motherfucker

was voted number 96 of the 100 greatest movie

lines by premiere magazine in 2007 on June 22nd

2007 an issue of Entertainment Weekly. It was

named the best action movie of all time Wow It's

kind of hard to disagree with that. I mean, can

you think of any other action movie where you

have this much fun in it? Probably it's hard

to but I'm just I'm just biased on that. But

anyway Well, that's because you like Nickelback.

It's okay. That's just the hell up. You smug

son of a... Anyway, final thoughts on the first

film? If you don't own this on Blu -ray, do yourself

a favor and get it. Because you're going to see

it in AT. Because what'd you say, Steve? I was

going to say if you don't own it at all, then

your douchebag need to get it. I will come to

your house and beat the crap out of you if you

don't go out and buy this right now. With a copy

of it, right? You're gonna come to my house and

beat the crap out of me with a copy of it, right?

Exactly. I'm gonna get a bag with Yippee -ki

-yay motherfucker on it, fill it with doorknobs

and hit you with it. And bring John McClane.

Exactly. It'll be amazing. Like seriously, this

is one of those movies that I think belongs in

every film collection. I mean, even if you're

not a huge fan of the action genre, you can appreciate

what - what this movie did for the genre. And

it really gave Bruce Willis his real start as

a main box office draw. I mean, like he was just

coming off a moonlighting off of this. And after

this, he did movies like Last Man Standing, 12

Monkeys, and obviously Die Hard 2. He was becoming

a box office name because of Die Hard. And this

is one of those movies where he'll be remembered

for for the rest of his career. I mean, no one's

gonna remember the... Disney's The Kid compared

to Die Hard. Oh yes, very much. Yeah. And do

we, uh, do you have any other final thoughts,

Steve? Uh, nope. Uh, nope. Okay, well. Very elegantly

spoken. And this is more elegantly spoken than

that. Be kind, motherfucker. Next up, we're gonna

talk about Die Hard 2 Die Harder. Um... This

one before I get into the just the basic overall

plot I guess or if somebody else wants to do

the plot. That's fine This one I watched it again

this week. It was okay But it didn't really hold

up to the first one. I didn't think It has some

really cool ideas in it. It's just not as fully

Well explored as some of the other ones. However,

this movie has the best TV edit of all time If

you can find this on TV around Christmas time

watching you will laugh your friggin balls off

because right at the end where he blows up the

friggin airplane where he says he became motherfucker

in the TV edit and Steve when you edit this you

have to grab this clip off of YouTube It goes

like this. It's like, Yippee -ki -yay, Mr. Falcon.

And it makes no fucking sense. It's the funniest

thing ever. And when they're arguing in the beginning,

where he's talking to friggin' Sipawitz there,

Dennis Franz, he's like, yeah, we'll joke on

you. And if we weren't hip deep in snow, we're

like, hey. And then in the real world, he's like,

we're waist deep in shit because you wouldn't

move your fat fucking ass. And he's like, if

you hadn't moved your fat feet, It's so stupid,

but it's the funniest TV edit of all time go

on YouTube and look it up So who wants to read

the plot for this one or basically summarize

this one up one two three not me Steve I guess

you're up Basically You know Yes, okay, you said

you want me to do the plot Yes, can you go summarize

the film? Basically, John McLean, while waiting

on Christmas Eve for his wife to arrive, spots

some goofy ass men in army fatigues passing packages

and he follows them around in the airport and

discovers that one of the two men is a mercenary

who was thought to be killed. Yeah, so basically

he just ends up finding these guys. Yeah, I don't

know. That's a great plot synopsis there, Steve.

Basically what happens is they're trying to get

this general who is coming in from this third

world country, they're extraditing him back to

the US for charges and these military guys are

trying to free him. And there's a whole double

cross with another character that is supposed

to be a part of the federal unit and blah blah

blah I guess this movie wasn't I watched it it

was pretty good it does have some good moments

but it wasn't as good as the first one it's got

the t -1000 in it does it really Robert Patrick

he's the guy who who shows up and goes a sitting

duck and he gets his head and he blows away one

of the like friggin SWAT team guys plus it's

got simple it's in it well okay You know, I will

give the movie that, the fact that it has, that

it does have Dennis Franz and, and the two of

them together doing the scenes are, you know,

is just awesome. But other than that, the overall

plot sucks. I thought it did have some really

cool kills. I mean, come on, I took it as one

of the first movies where you see a guy get an

icicle driven through his head. Yeah, that is

true. And that's just awesome. Plus, he blows

up a plane using a lighter. Now, as a little

bit of trivia here, according to the Wikipedia

article, this was the first movie to have a digitally

changed matte painting. And that's basically

where they took place on the runway. They changed

the background for it, which I think is kind

of cool, just because this was the beginning

of the dawn of digital. Effects and having things

really chase. I mean, yeah, it wasn't as cool

as say the abyss by James Cameron But it was

still pretty cool the fact they were using this

to replace backgrounds. Yeah. Yeah That was um

That was pretty cool. Um, you know, I like I

said I watched it and you know, as soon as I

saw I forget what his name is The guy that I've

seen him in in a bunch of other other things.

The black guy that does the double cross because

he's part of O 'Reilly's team. Oh that guy! Yeah

I've seen him in so many other things I can't

think of his damn name and I don't know which

one on the cast list that he is but up until

the point where I actually didn't remember that

he was the double crosser and then I was like

oh shit that's right. I know the guy you mean

yeah he's one of those like guys who always gets

like tight cast as I'm going to be the traitor.

Ha ha. I'm like, what was in this? Holy crap.

Sorry, Mike. See, one of the great things about

this movie that I'm really, really happy that

they brought back was I brought back Richard

Thornburg, William S. Chiron. I thought that

was a very nice touch. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't

really care. For the thornburg character in in

in either film. That's because you're a communist.

No, not disease. Oh, horrible character. The

guy's name was John Amos. Oh, OK. And I'm just

looking at some of his other roles that he's

done or no, which was it? Yeah. Nineteen seven.

Yeah. He's 69 years old now. Holy crap. Major

Grant. Yeah. OK. What did you think of the movie

overall, Steve, for this one? Definitely was

not my favorite out of the three that I did watch.

And like you guys said, it does have a lot of

good action scenes in it and chase scenes and

everything else. And I did find that pretty bad

TV edit. And the voice for it doesn't even sound

like Bruce Willis at all when he says Mr. Falcon.

It's completely absurd, but yeah, overall, it's

not my favorite movie. And Mike, I do have to

kind of correct you. It wasn't he didn't just

use a lighter. He had made the plane leak gasoline.

Well, still, that's pretty awesome. I mean, sure

wasn't him banging two sticks together, but.

Well, yeah, it takes like a 50 cent lighter and

throws it. Says Mr. Falcon and the ship blows

up. I'm just going to go ahead and go into the

reception here. While lacking the huge impact

of the original, the movie was a box office success

and received reasonably positive critical reception.

Again, Roger Ebert. While nothing not insubstantial

plot. Credibility problems with the movie described

it as terrific entertainment. Joel Siegel of

Good Morning America stated that the film is

the best of the blockbusters of 1990. What else

came in 90 that was better? It garnered a quote

unquote fresh 62 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film had a budget of 70 million and had a

wide release. In 2 ,507 theaters making 21 .7

million in its opening weekend, Die Hard 2 has

domestically made 117 .5 million and 239 .5 million

worldwide, almost doubling that of the first

movie. Maxim named the plane crash as the number

two on their list of most horrific movie plane

crashes. Wow, number two, huh? That's pretty

cool though. And silence this is where you guys

supposed to say shit. I like puppies And kitties

no see the thing with like die hard to die harder

it just it didn't have the same Memorable feel

to it. I mean I like this is one movie. I thought

literally just dragged the fuck on I didn't think

this movie was like very well paced no not at

all And I don't know, like I said, there are

some really cool moments in it, but it's ultimately

probably near the bottom of my die -hard -to

-watch list just because... You know, like I

say, it's just not as fun as the other ones.

I mean, he just doesn't have the same energy,

the same excitement, the same tension that the

other ones have. And when we start talking about

Die Hard 3, there's just not the same chemistry

there. He needs to have a sidekick sometimes

to set him off. Well, you know, this one, he

didn't really have it. Okay, he had the stupid

guy in the coat for all of 10 minutes. Big deal.

You mean the maintenance guy? Yeah, the maintenance

guy, whoopie fucking do. Yeah, that's not a sidekick

for McLean. Exactly, he was there for all of

five minutes, and yet, you know, like, part of

the Die Hard films is that he has someone he's

working with. I mean, in the first one, he had

Al, and this one, he was more or less on his

own. Okay, well, he kinda had... Dennis Franz,

but he wasn't really there. Like he wasn't a

very strong supporting character. And this movie

just had a really weak supporting cast. Oh yeah,

very much so. I mean, the actors that are in

this are obviously all very famous actors and

we've seen them in a lot of other stuff as far

as like, you know, Dennis friends being Sipowicz

and, and John Amos and Robert Patrick and all

that other stuff. But I mean, the supporting

cast really sucked on this one. When the film

was shown at a cinema in Pretoria, South Africa,

a light airplane was hoisted onto the roof of

the local multiplex as a promotion for the film.

Okay, as far as promotions for films go, that's

kind of nuts. The studio removed some violent

footage to avoid an X -rating from the MPAA prior

to the film's release. I wonder if that footage

is YouTube anywhere. Actually, you know, what's

what's really weird Mike I was just doing a little

bit of like research on this now this movie was

directed by Rennie Harlan and this guy is a Finnish

film director the reason this is important because

I did bring this up earlier You know how is making

fun of the movie 12 rounds? Yeah, he's the director

of that. Yes Plus he also did a Nightmare on

Elm Street for the Dream Master, which I thought

was really badass and it's weird though Just

looking at the directors filmography I'm surprised

really Harlan didn't do a better job with this

movie because he went on to make other really

cool movies like one What's starred Sam Jackson

was called the long kiss good night, which is

actually filmed like an hour from my house It's

really cool, but he also did the covenant which

was Dragon Ball Z pretty boys more or less but

it was still a ridiculous action flick and yet

with this movie he just didn't seem to have that

he knows how to construct action but not direct

cast yes yes very much so and I do have to defend

12 rounds it was a fairly good just you know

if you want to go see an action movie and again

action movies aren't for me action movies aren't

something you go see for a story I mean, yeah,

it's great if there's a story with it But you

basically go for the explosions like you're not

gonna go see transformers for a story You're

gonna go see it for giant fucking Devastator

balls for Christ's sake Don't even get me started

on that topic for another episode So I think

we're gonna move on and I'm going to try to play

it with All right, we're gonna move on to die

hard with a vengeance This is a 1995 action film

and the second sequel in the die -hard series.

It was produced it been directed by John McTiernan

who directed the first film starts with Willis

as NYPD Detective John McClink. Vengeance also

stars Samuel L. Jackson as Willis's reluctant

partner, Zeus Carver. Jeremy Irons as the main

villain, Simon Gruber. The film was written by

Jonathan Hensley and was followed by Liv Freer

Die Hard in 2007. It should be noted, and this

is probably in the information below the plot,

that this is the only film Out of the out of

the floor that was actually filmed in New York

where John is a detective and Basically the plot

here is after a bomb explodes in the early morning

at a Bonwit Teller department store in New York

City a man calling himself quote -unquote Simon

Telephones the police claiming responsibility

and demands that they play a game of Simon Says

To prevent anymore explosions, Simon orders suspended

NYPD Lieutenant John McClain to walk through

Harlem wearing a sandwich board displaying a

racist slurs. Which we'll get into later. Before

McClain can be beaten to death by a group of

outrage residents, Harlem shopkeeper and black

supremacist Zeus Carver, played by Samuel L.

Jackson, steps in to rescue McClain. and together

they return to the precinct. There, Simon calls

the precinct and takes credit for the astrolite

-like bi -component of explosive discovered in

a major park. Further investigation reveals that

several thousand pounds of it were stolen the

night before. Oh, that's lovely. Simon has enough

explosives to level a city block as part of the

later storyline. It is also revealed that 14

dump trucks were stolen the night before. Simon

demands that Carver join McLean for the remainder

of his quote unquote game, directing them to

a payphone at 72nd Street subway station. I'm

not really going to read that much more of the

paragraph because I didn't break it up that well.

Just these opening scenes, what did you guys

think? Mike, do you want to go first? See, I

kind of thought this one had a different feel

than some of the other Die Hard movies, mind

you. I did have some fun with this movie. I liked

having the inclusion of the Zeus character. I

just thought he was a great parallel to John's.

He was just trying to keep him going. keep him

out of trouble, but at the same time, you're

going to help me because I'm going to lie to

you about where we found the first bomb. Yeah,

really? He's like, you motherfucker, which I

thought that was kind of awesome, though. But

just having Sam Jackson in this movie, I think

sets this up, you know, to be better than obviously

Die Hard 2 and obviously with John McTiernan

coming back on this one. Oh yeah. It really set

it apart from Rennie Harlan's Die Hard 2. And

it's actually kind of funny. Supposedly this

movie was supposed to be a lethal weapon movie.

And I can tell you why it wasn't in my mind.

Because if you watch all the lethal weapon movies...

Richard Donner has a thing for helicopters. Nearly

enough helicopters in this movie right until

the very end of it. Yes. I'm serious. Go back

and watch all the Lee the Webberwees. You'll

see a crap load of helicopters. I am agreeing

with you. I'm not disagreeing. This has got to

be my favorite out of the entire guys just because

of the simple fact that It bridges the first

and the third film. It's like the second one

never even happened, even though it did. And

if you look at all four of these films, and I

know this is basically just the discussion for

the third film, but if you look at all four of

them, there's basically no overall deep plot.

All of them are basically robbery attempts, cleverly

hidden at first. Because you got, you know, in

the first film you have Gruber Hans Gruber trying

to steal the platinum or bare bonds or whatever

the hell was in there the second film you have

Them trying to release the president But I thought

that there was another plot in there where they

were trying to steal something as well This one

you have the guy trying to steal gold and then

the fourth one. It's it's electronic information

So they're all pretty much the same even though

they are different What did you think of the

film overall, Steve? I definitely liked how the

action was bumped up in this one. I liked the

fact that they had Samuel L. Jackson in the movie,

which made it even more badass. Between him and

his partnership with Bruce Willis' character

as well. That was an awesome dynamic going through

the entire movie. Oh yes, and I guess we can

go ahead and get into the whole reverse racism,

racism of this film. You know, as I said in part

of the plot, you know, Zeus is a black supremist

and you know, it's just, you know, whatever.

I mean, I really don't care. I was actually shocked

to see, I haven't actually watched this one all

the way through in a very long time, like as

far as like not an edited version on TV. uh...

does unfortunately election on these films yet

it's not that i don't want them as i don't have

them to get them anyways uh... you know i is

very weird for me to see the whole reverse racism

thing because you don't see that off films or

television or stuff like that uh... so basically

what ends up happening is we find out that Simon

is the old is he the older brother of the younger

brother of homes i think he's the younger brother

i think the older one i i don't know um... it

doesn't matter they're both dead yeah it doesn't

matter they're both dead uh... and uh... actually

i'm gonna actually gonna skip the cast list i'm

gonna go down to the all endings that i have

here The alternative ending to the one shown

in the final film was made and can be found on

the special edition DVD. In this version it is

presumed that the robbery succeeds and that McLean

is used as the scapegoat for everything that

went wrong. By the NYPD and more than 20 years

on the force, after more than 20 years on the

force, and the FBI has even taken away his pension.

Nevertheless, he still manages to track Simon

using the batch number on the bottle of aspirins,

and confronts him in a cafe and hunger. In this

version, Simon has double -crossed most of his

accomplices, gotten the loot to a safe hiding

place, Nova Scotia, and has the gold turned to

statuettes of a famous landmark, in this case,

the Empire State Building, in order to smother

it out of the country. But he is still tracked

down to his foreign hideaway. This is very similar

to Alec Guinness's situation in the British heist

movie. the Lavender Hill mob made some 45 years

earlier in which the stolen gold is turned into

Eiffel Tower paperweights. McLean is keen to

take his problems out on Simon whom he invites

to play a game called McLean Says. This involves

form of Russian roulette with small Chinese rocket

launcher with sights removed meaning it cannot

be determined at which end is which. McLean then

asks Simon some riddles similar to the ones he

played in New York. When Simon gets a riddle

wrong, McClain forces him at gunpoint to fire

the launcher, which fires a rocket through Simon

killing him. Of course, McClain had been wearing

a flak jacket, which was the answer to the final

riddle. What could he have brought to the meeting

to save his life? So even if Simon had pointed

the launcher right in the right way, it is likely

that the relatively low velocity rocket wouldn't

have caused McClain enough injury to prevent

him from shooting Simon. In the DVD audio commentary,

screenwriter Jonathan Hensley claims that this

version was dropped because the studio thought

it showed a more cruel and menacing side to McClain,

a man who killed for revenge rather than in self

-defense. Hensley's intention was to show that

the events in New York in the subsequent repercussions

had tilted him psychologically. This alternative

ending set some time after the main events of

the movie. And would have marked a serious break

from the die -hard formula in which the plot

unfolds over a period of roughly 12 hours. I

did see, I believe a friend of mine had the special

edition DVD at some point and I did see the alternative

ending. I didn't really care for it. It wasn't

really something that I... I like the actual

ending of the movie. See, I kind of thought the

one that they went with was really good. Oh yeah.

I mean, it just, that and the, come on, he dies

in Canada. Ha ha. That just makes me feel awesome.

Cause me being gay and all, but I don't know.

I just, I thought the ending to this one, it,

it suits who John is, right? I mean, I can't

see him spending thousands of dollars to go after

this guy, right? It's just, he would have got

away, I think. And John would have been like,

ah shit, well, whatever. But by, you know, him

fighting him in the end, I think that that just

makes a lot more sense to me. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I guess we can go into the reception here really

quick. Die Hard with a Vengeance had a budget

of an estimated $90 million, had a wide release

opening in 2 ,525 theaters, making $22 ,160 ,000.

made about $23 million in its opening weekend

in the U .S. Die Hard with a vengeance made $100

million in the U .S .A. and another $261 million

worldwide for a gross revenue of $361 million.

Critical reception was similar to that of the

previous film. Most critics were in favor that

the film was an effective actioner, though not

up to standards of the first film. Some critics,

however, felt the film relied too heavily on

unrealistic coincidences. Fans and critics are

divided over whether or not this film is better

than the second Some who were disappointed by

die -hard to felt that this was an improvement

while others felt it was a step down in quality

See for me when I first saw die -hard to him

like what the fuck is this? When I saw the second

home and and and when I saw this one, I'm like,

okay This should have been the second movie.

I Would agree with you. I mean this movie it

was a step up in terms of what was accomplished

with Die Hard 2 and I don't know just the fact

that this one I think it just it had a better

marketing campaign than like Die Hard 2 I thought

because I could remember seeing Advertisements

for this on TV at the time. This was the first

one I actually saw Theatrically too. So maybe

my vision of this is just a little bit skewed.

Oh, yeah, what about you Steve? Definitely like

the third one better than the second one Second

one. I just I didn't get really into it as much

as I did the third Yeah, I'm on the same way.

So we're all agreement. Here's a little bit of

trivia for you guys The scene where McLean goes

to Harlem with the sandwich board was filmed

on location the writing on the board said I hate

everybody on some of the versions displayed on

television, but the original version, which said,

I hate niggers, was seen in the theatrical and

home video releases. I can see why that they

would change it, obviously, for TV. See, I don't

think it's that big a deal, and I'm not saying

that, you know, nigger's a good word by any stretch

of the imagination, but, you know, considering

the context that it's in, who the fuck cares?

I mean... I mean I mean sensor motherfucker and

sensor the word shit But I don't know I I personally

think it makes It takes out a plot point. I mean,

yes, it's a visual plot point, but I just I don't

see the point Yeah, and then another bit of trivia

is during a conversation between Samuel Jackson

and Bruce Willis McLean states that he has nothing

better to do than smoke cigarettes and watch

Captain Kangaroo. This is in reference to the

song that was playing on the radio. The Statler

Brothers' Flowers on the Wall written by Lou

DeWitt. In Pulp Fiction when Ruth Willis ran

over Ving Reign, Jackson and Willis both starred

in Pulp Fiction. The Bonnie Bedelia who played

McLean's wife Holly in the first two films chose

not to return for the third film. But she is

mentioned near the end of the film when John

needed to make a call to her. Although McClane

is a member of the New York Police Department,

this would be the only Die Hard movie to actually

set in New York City. That's what I said earlier.

This actually is the second time he targets McClane

to avenge the death of a brother. Throughout

Die Hard, Carl had his attention set on killing

McClane after McClane killed his brother Tony

early on in the film. And the last bit, this

is the last film in the series to receive an

R rating by the MPAA, which I think is kind of

sad and stupid considering almost all movies

now that either get a PG -13 rating or whatever,

they end up having unrated versions. I mean,

because I can sit here and I can hold the fourth

movie DVD case in my hand and it says two disc

unrated. But yet you don't get that one on blu

-ray. I don't think which I think is a little

bit strange I don't know. I don't do blu -ray,

so I would not know So I think that what do you

guys have any final thoughts? Why don't we go

with you Steve? Not really any final thoughts,

but I would say that Between the first three

that the first and the third would be definitely

must -sees What about you Mike See, I think Die

Hard with a Vengeance gets a bad rap, just because

I personally think it's the forgotten stepchild

of the Die Hard series, just because you don't

see a lot of people talk about it. But I would

definitely agree that it's one of those games

that you really should see. I mean, obviously,

if you're gonna watch the first Die Hard, just

do yourself a favor and just finish out the series,

right? Oh yeah, very much so. And we are gonna

move on with this clip. Hello to your brother

And finally up today is Die Hard 4 .0. I'm sorry.

I completely disagree with the American version

title live die hard. It just it doesn't I Don't

know. It just doesn't Doesn't really do it for

me It just doesn't I'm sorry. It just doesn't

Die Hard 4 .0 is more in line with the actual

story because it's all computer based and hacker

based and all that other stuff. It's a 2007 action

film, the fourth installment of the Die Hard

series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman

and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane, the protagonist

of the first three films. Other cast members

include Justin Long, Timothy Ollifant. Mary Elizabeth

Winstead, and Maggie Q. The storyline takes place

19 years after the first film, these McLean -based

gang of cyber terrorists. The film is based on

the 1997 article A Farewell to Arms written for

Wired magazine by John Carlin. The film's North

American release date was June 27th, 2007. After

the project was stalled due to the September

11, 2001 attacks, production eventually began

and the film title was switched several times.

The variety of visual effects were used for action

sequences even though Wiseman and Willis stated

that they wanted to limit the amount of CGI in

the film. In separate incidences during filming,

both Willis and his stunt double were injured.

Unlike the prior three films in the series, the

U .S. rating was PG -13 rather than R. An unrated

version of Live Free or Die Hard containing profanity

and violence, not including the theatrical versions,

was made available for the DVD release. Liv Freer

Die Hard received generally positive reviews,

earning 81 % approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes

and 69 out of 100 from Metacritic. The film had

a total international box office gross receipts

of 383 .5 million. Making it the highest grossing

die -hard film. For the DVD release, 20th Century

Fox pioneered a new kind of DRM digital copy

that tries to weaken the incentives for consumers

to learn how to rip discs by offering them a

downloadable version with studio -imposed restrictions.

The score for the film was released on July 2,

2007. Before we get into the plot, I like this

movie, but it's not my favorite. I would have

to say that the first and the third films are

my favorite. The second film I could pretty much

do without. This one is a good action film and

I like how they bridge the gap between McLean

and his daughter. But I posted on Twitter a couple

of hours ago, the character of John McLean has

not aged well. He just hasn't. See, I really

think this is probably my second favorite of

the Die Hard movies, but I do agree. John McClane

doesn't translate well into the world of 2007,

just because the action hero since the first

1988 movie has evolved so much. And yes, John

McClane's character was sort of the anti -hero

at the time, and how you just see how he's evolved

into current day. He doesn't sit... as well as

he used to. You can tell the character's uncomfortable

in the situations that he's in. But I think this

movie did a lot with what it had. And I think

the fact of using cyber -terrorism against a

analog cop was a very interesting idea. And placing

him against characters that were basically like

us, our super -nerds, was a very interesting

contrast to it. And you can see him... McClain

showing his age and knowing that the age of the

analog hero is coming to an end right like he

just would he compete against other characters

like say Jack Bauer Jason Bourne or James Bond

probably not No, he probably wouldn't but at

the same time he probably shoot shoot although

all they're not though Well, yes, this is also

true I'm sorry Jack Bauer versus John McClain

John McClain would kill him Excuse me, did you

just come did no? Yes, I just did say that This

doesn't happen. Yes, it does happen hell Okay,

John McClane would lose against Jack Bauer, but

I'm pretty sure he killed Jason Bourne Never

you're just our fan hell. He's dying of cancer

or whatever. Anyway here. No stem cell research.

They saved him He'll be back in season 8 this

yeah this fall on Fox. Yes The doctor house will

save him or something God, I hate that show.

Anyways, you suck The basic overall plot like

Mike said is basically it's cyber terrorism It's

this whole thing where apparently after 9 -11

there was a few phases put into government security

and if you took one or two of them out they could

recover but not if you took out all three at

the same time and it's basically called a fire

sale and as I said a second ago a number of hackers

including Matthew Farrell by Justin Long upload

a upload various pieces of programming in a game

named My, played by Maggie Q, thereafter all

the hackers are killed by planted explosives.

Which I thought that was kind of, I thought that

was kind of ingenious to do that though. Every

time you hit a, hit the leak key, your computer

explodes and you die. It's actually kind of scary.

You could get rid of a lot of people that way.

Exactly. The next morning, May's boss and lover,

Thomas Gabriel, played by Timothy Elephant, gives

orders to initiate his organization's plans.

The first phase of Gabriel's plot involves taking

control of the transportation grid, most particularly

traffic lights and the stock market. The Federal

Bureau of Investigation responds by initiating

nationwide roundup of all known top hackers.

McLean is assigned to bring in Farrell, who lives

in Camden, New Jersey. His unexpected arrival

stops Feral from unknowingly triggering the planted

explosives. With McClane on the scene, Mai orders

assassins to attack. McClane is able to extract

Feral and kill both of their attackers. About

that first scene when they're in his apartment,

first of all, McClane breaks a collectible. Yeah,

I died a little bit on the inside. And then,

after all the destruction and everything else,

Terminator spell drops on the delete key by accident

blowing up the place That was kind of funny So

basically McClain gets Feral to the FBI they

then both of them eventually have to go on an

adventure to basically stop these cyber terrorists

and Of course Lucy who is now all grown up apparently

the last time we've seen her character was the

first die -hard film She gets stuck in an elevator

and then the bad guys get her and now becomes

a race to actually stop them and Get Lucy back

I think one of the most craziest scenes for me

in this film was when Maggie Q's character went

down the elevator shaft and then John Sent the

SUV after that was awesome. One of his lines

is like to Gabriel, Thomas Gabriel, he says,

oh no, that, you know, sex ass Asian chick, she

went down an elevator shaft and an SUV is crammed

up her ass. I think it was that hot little Asian

kung fu bitch or something like that. Yeah. That

laughed my ass off at that line. I thought that

was funny. He's like, hey, those kung fu bitches

got to be kind of hard to come by. Yeah, really.

And I guess we should mention I'll mention this

part of the plot Horlock, who is played by Kevin

Smith, who apparently is a huge Bruce Willis

and Cy -Hard fan. As power generators ready in

case of an outage, Locate's program, Feral Creator

for Gabriel, is being used in a Social Security

Administration building at Woodlawn, Maryland,

an unlikely target. They discover that it is

actually a front for a highly classified government

facility, which Gabriel instituted during his

tenure at the National Security Agency. In case

of total computer system failure, such as the

one Gabriel manufactured, every critical personal

and financial record across the country is sent

to servers there to create a backup. Gabriel's

men take over the facility and start downloading

a copy. Warlock is also able to explain Gabriel's

motivation. A talented computer hacker, he was

once a top expert for the NSA who identified

America's vulnerability to cyber warfare. However,

he was fired and his reputation was smeared.

Um, I'm sorry. But I hope to God the government

has backups in more than one place Because if

you look I mean if you look at any of the films

since say enemy of the state You know this film

included. You know that you know lifter are included

All this stuff that the government has all this

technology. Holy crap That's scary See, it wouldn't

surprise me if some of this stuff actually exists.

I mean, I'm a huge listener of Coast to Coast

AM with George Norrie and they talk about conspiracies

like this. It wouldn't surprise me if the government

does have this level of technology doing all

this type of stuff anyway, but I'm pretty sure

they do have multiple backups. Let's hope. And

finally to basically end this little plot synopsis,

McLean dispatches all but one of Gabriel's men,

but Gabriel still holds Lucy and Farrell. Hostage

Gabriel shoots McLean in the shoulder and makes

McLean watch as he prepares to kill Lucy and

Farrell. However, when Gabriel grinds his gun

into McLean's wound, McLean fires it again through

his shoulder, killing Gabriel. The last henchman

is shot by Farrell. Afterwards, McLean's To McLean

chagrin Lucy and Farrell show interest in each

other Overall I think this has the best plot

out of the four It is as far as story Goes I'm

you know, I'm not too keen on the whole, you

know, John McLean being in the 21st century type

of thing because obviously like like you said

my an 80s 90s action hero I don't know, what

did you think Mike? See, I don't know, I think

the movie did well with what it did and in terms

of plot, it was the most well thought out, but

I still think the first one just has more tension

and this one, I didn't really get a sense of

real urgency in this one and there were some

really cool moments with Gabriel, but Timothy

Oliphant is a terrible bad guy. He works at,

you know what he comes across to me as, Mike,

as a really snarky clerk from Best Buy. He's

not threatening. I mean, Hans Gruber was threatening,

even to a lesser extent the guy from Die Hard

2. Simon Gruber was... Sly and slimy, but threatening.

This guy, he takes your parking spot at Target,

you'd punch him in the face. He's not scary.

In short, he's a pussy. Very much so. What about

you, Steve? I haven't actually seen this movie,

so. Actually seen the movie. Okay, just from

our mini description of the plot and discussion,

what do you think? Overall, it sounds like a

pretty fun movie to see and a little bit more

thought out than some of the previous editions

of the Die Hard franchise. Like we said, the

plot was better as far as the other ones, but

it still boils down to petty theft is what it

really boils down to. I mean, that's just what

it is. Going into the rating of the film, the

first three films in Die Hard series rated R

by the MPAA. Live Free or Die Hard, however,

sparked controversy because it was edited to

obtain a PG -13 rating. In some cases, character

dialogue was cut or muted in post -production

to reduce propensity. Director Len Wiseman commented

on the film saying it was about three months

into it. Into production and I hadn't even heard

that it was PG -13 But in the end was just trying

to make I was trying to make the best die -hard

movie Not really thinking so much about what

the rating would be Bruce Willis was upset with

the studio's decision stating I really wanted

this one to live up to the promise of the first

one Which I always thought was the only really

good one I'm sorry that's saying something when

the lead actor and the lead character says that

you only think that the first very first film

was the was a really good one out of all the

other ones you've done. That's saying something.

That's a studio decision that is becoming more

and more common because they're trying to reach

a broader audience. It seems almost a courageous

move to get in our ratings these days. But we

still made it a pretty rough course match. Willis

said he thought that viewers... unaware that

it was not our rated film, who would not suspect

that, watching it due to the level and intensity

of action, and the usage of profanity, albeit

less than previous films. You know, as far as

the rating goes, who cares? If, I mean, yeah,

I know, broader audience, you know, these films

were never something you would show children.

I mean, even, maybe, huh? said well maybe you

wouldn't see now that being said the first movie

I ever saw with a clear clear memory yeah was

Friday the 13th part five for me yeah personally

I think the kids of today could handle a die

-hard movie yeah other than he like language

I mean seriously who cares yeah yeah that's that's

true And I think the director, Len Wiseman, did

a fairly good job with this movie. I mean, all

things considered. I mean, and this is a guy

who started out as a prof guy. I mean, he started

out doing Stargate, Independence Day, and Men

in Black, and then he moved on to doing the Underworld

movies, which are all crap I like to point out.

But I thought this was a step in the right direction

for this guy. And considering that he just did

a Die Hard movie, I think he has the chops, because

this guy's gonna be the dude doing the Gears

of War movie when it comes out. Oh boy, another

video game movie. Great. That's the last thing

we need. Well, it'd be better than DOA and everything

else that we've seen recently. Although, that

being said, I liked Doom. I thought it was okay.

Yeah, I liked that too. Okay, just to the audience

they both like doom But they don't like marine

or 12 rounds. What the hell is wrong with you

guys? It's one has John Cena one does not Well,

the rock isn't that good video game action star.

So anyway, okay. Oh, yeah that being said As

far as the home media releases the high -definition

blu -ray disc and DVD were released on October

29th of 07 United Kingdom October 31st in Hungary

November 20th in the United States December 12th

in Australia. The DVD topped rental sales and

charted its opening weekend of release in the

United States and Canada. There's an unrated

version and theatrical version of the film on

the the Blu -ray release features the PG -13

theatrical cut which runs 128 minutes while the

collector's edition DVD includes both versions.

Time magazine's Richard Corliss named it one

of the top 10 DVDs of 2007 ranking it at number

10. The DVD for the film was the first to include

digital copy of the film, which could be played

on computer and could also be imported to several

models of portable video players. The Terminator

2 Judgment Day Extreme DVD included a high definition

Windows media file for the film, but its playback

was limited to Windows species only. Mike Dunn,

a president for 20th Century Fox, stated the

industry has sold nearly 12 million DVDs to date.

And the release of Live Free or Die Hard is the

first that allows consumers to move their content

to other devices. Now, just talking about the

digital copy thing, I think that is a good thing

for people that want to watch it on the go or

on portable devices and stuff like that. But

for me, I would much rather have a DVD. See,

I think it's a good idea to include as a bonus.

Just don't charge extra for it. I mean, I bought

a couple of... blue rays this past week and it

seems to be just a standard thing. I mean I bought

Watchmen on Blu -ray this week, 300, Green Lantern

and Dragon Ball and it seems to be that Fox and

Warner Brothers are leading the way with this.

They just always give you a digital copy which

I think is really neat. I mean it helps prevent

piracy because it's got that studio imposed thing

on it where you can't redistribute the file.

I mean I'm pretty sure you could. I've never

tried though. but it's nice to have the option

now. I'm not sure, I think, I'm not really condoning

piracy, but I think if you have, like if I gave,

if I still had my slip of paper that had the

digital copy code on it, on the piece of paper,

if I gave that code to Steve and he opened iTunes

and entered it into his iTunes on his own computer

on his own IP address, possibly he could get

it. in addition to me already getting it, but...

Well, no, because you need the actual disc. You

need the disc to get the digital copy and it

copies from the disc onto your computer. It just

verifies it through iTunes. So it's kind of like

music. That's right. Never mind. Anyways, so

just let's go into some final thoughts on the

entire franchise. Steve, I guess you can go first.

Overall, all this entire series is badass. Bruce

Willis and all of the other casting were perfect

for the characters that they played. The plots,

although some of them had to do with various

thefts and terrorism of different sorts, were

still made to be awesome action movies between

all four and I don't know just John McClane's

a kick -ass action hero and still holds up to

the movies of today and makes pretty much a lot

of the modern ones look like they're by comparison.

Oh yes very much so and I will ask this to both

of you Steve you can go first because you're

still giving your thoughts on it but do you think

the Die Hard franchise will hold up 30 years

from now? Oh yeah. What about you Mike? See,

I think aspects of it will. I mean, I think,

obviously, in my opinion, Die Hard 1 is going

to be used continuously in film schools to teach

people how to write movies, how to write screenplays.

Die Hard 2, not so much. Die Hard 3 may be a

quaint reminder of what the 90s action spectacle

could be. And Live Free or Die Hard, yeah, it's

a good movie. I really like it, but I think ultimately

it's largely forgettable just because there wasn't

a lot of major character development or arcs

really discuss other than the few plot points

wrapping up threads from the previous Die Hard

movies. So I think Die Hard 1 will likely end

up in the American film vault just like a few

other classic movies have. I think honestly it's

important to the medium of film to have a film

like Die Hard to have action and structure just

as a franchise. No, I don't think so, but as

a one -off for sure. Oh yes, very much so. And

there was a scene that I didn't bring up in the

fourth film that I really enjoyed was when he

basically drove the car into the helicopter.

That was so friggin' cool. Now, with the entire

series, do you think this will end up seeing

a remake, say 10, 15, maybe even 20 years from

now? God, let's hope not, because all the remakes

they're doing now are just stupid. Yeah, they're

beyond dogshit. I mean, Die Hard is one of those

movies I think I really hope is being left alone.

I mean, they're redoing Robocop and Darren Afronoski

is doing that one. I mean, can you imagine if

someone got a hold of the Die Hard movie? I mean...

What? I don't know. Michael Mann's Die Hard.

Michael Bay's Die Hard. Okay, that might be kind

of cool. But no, this is one movie that needs

to be left alone and never remade. Yes, very

much so. I don't know if you've listened to our

third episode, which was aired last week. In

it, Steve and I talk about some DVD news. And

he told me a story that Short Circuit is being

remade. Yes, actually. One of my friends is actually

writing the script for it right now, actually.

Are you serious? Oh, really? Yep. Dan Milano

from Robot Chicken Fam is actually writing it.

And I know they're redoing, like, Never Ending

Story and some very various other movies like

that as well. They're running I didn't really

care for but anyway, I don't think the never

ending story is a bad idea So I guess with today's

graphics and technology be better be pretty badass.

But one thing, Mike, you actually didn't get

a chance to touch on with the Die Hard films

is a lot of the digital media they've actually

inspired. There's been Die Hard arcade games,

there's been games for the NES, MS -DOS, Sega

Saturn, PC, there's games for the Xbox, PS2,

PS1, and the GameCube got an exclusive one called

Die Hard Vendetta. So, there's been a surprising

amount of Die Hard video games. There hasn't

been one truly done right outside of Die Hard

Trilogy for its time. Was still considered good

and actually during the course of this episode

I went out and bought all the games I didn't

have. I actually found Viva Las Vegas Die Hard

Trilogy 2 for $4 today at a GameStop. So I guess

that was a sign. There was also a group that

was featured on the Live Free or Die Hard DVD

called Guys Night and they actually did a song.

Now before the movie came out, these guys were

musicians on MySpace and led by Guy Manley and

he wrote a song called Die Hard. Him and his

friends recorded it and Fox actually approached

them to do a fourth verse for Live Free or Die

Hard. And we've played the song on Twig a number

of times. They've actually gave us an exclusive

radio edit. And it was the last song we played,

I think, on 90 .1 FM one year. Yes, and I believe

sent me the non edited version and of course

seeing as how pretty much all of our Podcasts

here at you cast radio are tagged explicit. We

will be playing the non edited version Yeah,

and if you guys want to check out more cool movie

themes look for guys night on on YouTube or look

up holy light of demons They've done music for

starship troopers evil dead The dark night one

is a particularly awesome song And I think that's

really cool when a movie franchise can inspire

people to write music like that and just have

it be so goddamn catchy. Oh yeah, very much so.

So yeah, there's some little things you just

maybe didn't know. There was also a line of toys

produced by NECA, which featured John McClane

on the roof with the MP5. There's been other

figures done throughout the years. I think there's

Die Hard Mini Mates available. I'm not 100 %

sure on that. So yeah, there's a little bit of

Die Hard everywhere you look. And in fact, if

you look in certain cartoons, you can spot Die

Hard references if you are looking hard enough.

Oh yes. Um, and before we get into the closing,

uh, and we will mention all the Twitter stuff

in the closing, I would like to give Mike the

opportunity to basically plug his stuff. So what

do you got going on there, Birdman? Well, right

now we're actually restructuring Twig to do less

is more. We're going to be doing a few fewer

shows than what we normally do, but we're going

to bring up the level of quality to make things

more consistently awesome than just consistently

okay. But the really big announcement is we've

got a lot of really cool shows going on. We're

going to be doing K -Osium's Call of Cthulhu,

Steve Jackson's GURPS. I'm actually working on

a special right now involving storm chasing.

I'll be talking to some professors from the University

of Michigan as well as a Miami area storm chaser.

So we're going to be doing disaster movies as

we move into September. A lot of really cool

things. I'm still doing work over at TheGameHeroes

.com with handsome Tom talking about video games

on the prototype. And recently I've been actually

writing articles for TheBPPS .com that stands

for Bits, Bites, Pixels, and Sprites. And I just

wrote an article on the music industry in terms

of video gaming. So that's what I got going on

and obviously doing 1150AMWIMA where I talk about

the latest in video game releases. So check that

out. Has there been any more development on Twig

taking over G4TV? I haven't had a chance to contact

them right now. In fact, we're just going to

take this rest of the year. We're going to take

Twig back to formula. We're going to have a lot

more fun like we used to back in our 90 .1 FM

days and just make things kick ass for you, the

fans. So G4, it'll come eventually when we're

ready for it. So I want to make sure Twig is

the best it can be before we take over the world.

I got to make sure that all the clips are loaded

and the nukes are ready to fire. Very very cool,

and we are going to move on to the closing after

you hear the die -hards John McClane Argyle picked

him up from the plane And took him down to Nakatomi

Tower To meet with Holly He came to get her back

and to be her man But Hans and his buddies fucked

up the plan And that's about when everything

went sour At the Christmas party And the terrorists

were overzealous But it was sweet when they killed

Ellis And with a little help from Allen John

McClane kicked out More security kicked him out,

but John McClellan It was just a distraction

We can die hard, as hard as we can From taking

on a terrorist he's never met To taking on an

F -35 jet With the greatest car explosions by

far Alright, thank you for joining us here on

Movie Week in Review. There are several ways

to get in contact with us or leave feedback for

the show. The first is you can visit www .geekcastradio

.com and find all the other GCRN podcasts there.

The second is you can stop by www .predaconempire

.com slash cafe spark, which is our forums, and

get all your GCRN transcripts and discussion

topics there. The third is you can leave show

feedback on iTunes please do this we need reviews.

The fourth is you can visit earth -2 .net forums

and find our threads the shows over there under

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the email address which is gcrnmwire at gmail

.com and also follow us on Twitter the show name

there is gcrnmwire mine is TFG1podcast and Mike

what is your Twitter? Mine is at Birdman Dodd.

Steve, what is yours? At SCP -21. And we hope

you enjoyed this episode of MWIRE and wish that

you'll join us next time when we'll be talking

about the national treasure films. For now, I

am TFG1 Mike with Steve Megatron Phillips and

Mike the Birdman Dodd. I was going to say, and

our super special guest. Sorry. That's all right.

Any moral words of Optimus Prime? Transform and

roll out, and thank you for listening. Until

next time. Hey guys, for MWIRE Movie Week in

Review, I've been Mike the Birdman Dodd, and

obviously we've been talking about the Die Hard

franchise for the last hour and change. So, in

topicalness and coolness, as I always say when

I sign off on air, live free or die hard. We'll

catch you guys next time.