Rating: C+
Dir: Tony Scott
Star: Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Chelsea Fields, Noble Willingham
[12] While Die Hard 2 plunged virtually straight into mayhem, this film starts off by trying to set up characters and a complicated scenario involving corruption, gambling and politics. The point of this is not clear. It’s a Bruce Willis film, f’heavens sake. We know precisely what’s going to happen – Bruce will end up in his vest, bloody but unbowed, smiling his famous “shit-eating” grin. Nothing should get in the way – not family problems, or brushes with the law. Catch some z’s, as until the Bad Guys (redneck boss, effeminate hitman) turn up this could almost be Kramer vs. Kramer (except that didn’t have gratuitous exotic dancing). The sound of nose entering brain will alert you to phase B: which piles mayhem upon mayhem and wins the award for Best Offensive Use of a Stuffed Toy before fading to the obligatory moral, which seems to be “The family that slays together, stays together”, judging from the chortles accompanying the final death. Probably reprehensible, but did you expect anything else?