By Daniel Bradley
Yippeee-K… yeah. I was apprehensive, it's all been done before. But this film must have been several Soviet tonnes of fun to work on.
So was this a vain attempt to milk more money from the franchise? A cynic might say so. But did we enjoy it? Certainly.
Playing the part of a disgruntled parent trying to talk sense into his estranged-delinquent son, Bruce has the care-free attitude of my own father. Unafraid of the authorities, the general public, and quite prepared to run an armoured transport off the road in Moscow if he feels he's not being listened to. Not believable in the slightest, one keeps thinking 'You can't do that, bollocks!' - and yet, you go with it because it's so attractive. Going abroad and reeking merry hell, the action sequences, car chases and set pieces were quite satisfying.
But this feels like only 4/5ths of a movie. It's missing a few scenes that I'll be heartbroken to find on the cutting room floor section of the special features. Extra, 2 minute scenes of more havoc and chaos caused by everyone's favourite white vested vigilante cop would have made a good film perfect. What we see is a string of long, well done action sequences that are astounding realistic. (Example: The car chase has been done before, but can you remember seeing the drivers in their vehicles as they flip end over end?)
The immortal line is uttered, the vest appears, we're reminded continually that 'I'M ON VACATION', but whereas we're used to seeing John crawling around vents, this is more like John behind enemy lines. And he's so much more confident with it. Most excellent.
Best Bits: *gun shots* 'I'm on VACATION!' *more gun shots* - The wonderful 20 minute car chase.
Worst bits: Not long enough, they got the pacing slightly wrong.
For fans of the Die Hard Quadrilogy, MacGyver, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Rating: 7/10
