What’s Aged the Best?
Racial partnership; hangover; New York; Gruber reveal; deadlines; Zeus’s brains; Katia’s entrance
In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:31Read transcript
- The black-white partnership directly confronts racial suspicion and unequal power while requiring cooperation against the European villains.
- McClane’s desperate need for aspirin makes this a great hangover movie.
- Location filming and the police-station line urging a reluctant officer to take a call remain pleasures.
- The revenge-minded brother works better than a similar Another 48 Hrs. device; hiding Simon until around minute fifty increases the impact of his appearance.
- Simon’s impersonation and visibly wounded response to McClane insulting Hans add enjoyment and depth.
- Targo’s elaborate background as a Hungarian explosives expert working for Iran is relished.
- The Gruber-name reveal and flashback to Hans falling are enjoyed.
- A passenger unknowingly entering an action-scene cab and commandeering a civilian Mercedes are reliable comic pleasures.
- The battered, hungover everyman who can still rise to the occasion defines Willis’s distinctive action persona.
- Repeated deadlines, sometimes running in real time, and loss of radio communication sustain urgency.
- The dummy mission, school-bomb search and heist create a multifront narrative anticipating later action movies.
- This performance may exaggerate the familiar Jackson persona, but Pulp Fiction is agreed to be its main source for impersonations.
- Zeus solving St. Ives establishes him as the puzzle-solving brains; the initial attribution to McClane is corrected.
- An action villain using Simon Says is an appealing device.
- Katia’s sunglasses, slicked-back hair, cigarette and bloody knife attack make an exceptional entrance, compared favorably with Edie Falco in Cop Land.