Die Hard 4.0

The movie I chose was Die Hard 4.0, also known as “Live Free or Die Hard”. It was released in 2007 and it still remains as the latest and the most profit made movie of the Die Hard film franchise. USA premier was at 22^nd of June and Finland’s premier 5 days later, 27^th . Genre of the movie is action. The stars of the movie are Bruce Willis as John McClane, the ‘hero’ of the movie, Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel, the villain of the movie. Other important actors are; Justin Long and Maggie Q. Len Wiseman was in charge of directing the movie.

For the 4^th time Bruce Willis makes a incredible role as John McClane, ruthless detective of NYPD who does not show any mercy to bad guys. Bruce Willis fits well to his role. He gives the role the touch which makes John McClane charismatic and outstanding. And the proof of Willis’s amazing performance; Bruce Willis won the ‘National Movie Awards for the best performance by a Male’ for his magnificent role in Die Hard 4.0. Timothy Olyphant instead doesn’t fit to his role as well as Willis does. He just doesn’t seem to be unrefined and ruthless as terrorists are used to be seen in movies.

The plot of the movie is similar to all of the Die Hard movies – terrorists do something that they shouldn’t do and John McClane is always there for some odd reason to save the day. Yet again, NYPD cop is in wrong place at the wrong time. This time the incidents happen in Washington, DC, on 4^th of the July, when group of terrorists hack in to USA´s government servers and gain access all of the services and  shut down the security and transport systems of the city and its neighbors. Chaos rules in the whole Eastern-Coast of the USA and when nothing is working McClane has to drag his friend, Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) who knows everything about computers and partners try to get the systems back online.

Overall I think the movie is successful. Still after 12 years Len Wiseman and Bruce Willis have managed to modernize the character very well and the story as well is astonishing itself. I myself really enjoyed the movie and I would recommend it to everyone who fancies the movies like this.

Top Gun from year 1986 is an American action drama movie. It is directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps. The actors in the movie are for example Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and Tom Skerritt

The main character Pete ”Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who is known on his unruliness. His father was also a good pilot but he died in uncertain condition war in Vietnam. Maverick´s bedfellow is a co-pilot Nick ”Goose”Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).

Despite of unruliness pair is send Top Gun-called Navy fighter pilot school at the beginning of the movie. Right at the beginning transpire that the course has two pairs above the rest. They are Maverick and Goose and Tom ”Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) and his co-pilot Ron ”Slide” Kerner. The pilots Maverick and Iceman have always disagreement and a small squabble about who is the best pilot. Both of them would like to have their names to trophy, which is given to the best pilot of each course. Maverick also falls in love with Charlotte ”Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) who is an aeronautical engineer and civilian Top Gun instructor. Their relationship is not uncomplicated.

The film´s turning point comes when Maverick´s and Goose´s fighter plane falls into the sea in a training mission and Goose dies. Maverick get depressed on accident and he is giving up the course because he has lost his self-confidence. The chief instructor Mike ”Viper” Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) tells the truth to Maverick about what had happened to his father war in Vietnam. With Charlie´s and Viper´s support Maverick get back his self-confidence and he graduate from Top Gun.

The course banquet is interrupted, when fresh graduated students commanded to mission to the Indian Ocean. 24 hours later three pilot are in an aircraft carrier. Iceman and Hollywood are send to identify two hostile fighters. Soon discovers that there are six hostile fighters. Hollywood is shot down by hostile MiG. Maverick is send to help Iceman. They shoot down four MiGs and force the others to flee. When they come back to ship Maverick is celebrated as a hero. Maverick is offered the opportunity to choose assignment and Maverick decides to return to Top Gun as an instructor.

The film is a real box-office hit and it is one of the most famous movies from 1980s. Top Gun was the film that led actor Tom Cruise to global breakthrough mega stardom.  When I first time saw the film, I was a bit disappointed because it has been highlighted heavily by the critics. My opinion is that Top Gun is a bit overestimated. The film is mainly based on very impressive looking flight scenes but the plot is quite weak. The storyline promote U.S. national spirit and I don´t be surprised if U.S. Navy is one of the financier of the movie. Top Gun won the Academy Award for Best Music in 1986. The good thing about the film is that the flight scenes are real and those are not ruined with digital effects. Obviously the popularity of the movie is mainly based on  that it has created a new genre.