Learning that my girlfriend had never seen the silly entertainment that is Die Hard With a Vengeance, I bought the DVD to watch that night. On the two disk set there were a couple of extras that I took a look at but nothing that was really worth seeing (including the alternative ending which was correctly identified as a complete misjudgement and happily dropped). This documentary was screened on CBS ahead of a screening of Die Hard 2, the day before the third film was actually released.
Accordingly it is not really a documentary but more of a promo and this is a problem on a couple of levels. Firstly it is disappointing to see elements of a documentary as part of the film because it suggests that it is even considering to pass itself off as such. Naturally it is pointless as one and I wondered why it bothered to look back in any way on the films. Really what this is about is promoting the third film but I'm sad to say that it isn't a good promo. It makes heavy use of clips without adding a lot of value but the biggest weakness is the use of celebrities. Samuel Jackson is weak and clunky as a presenter but he seems as natural as a wetland compared to the others. Abdul-Jabbar, Brothers, Gretzky, Ice-T, Kaelin and others are all pretty painful to watch because they all fail to speak with any interest about the subject which is annoying and offputting. Of course it is not as bad as the total low-point which is a series of mock-audition tapes with the celebrities delivering lines from the films in "hilarious" ways. It was extra annoying for me because it grabbed my attention when Jackson announced some audition tapes knowing who else was originally offered the role I was intrigued, only to find a collection of horribly unfunny celebs mugging.
Overall then a mostly pointless promotional film that must have barely worked even for an audience looking forward to the third coming out that weekend. Viewing it on the DVD having already seen the film just exposes it for the unfunny, lazy affair that it is.
Accordingly it is not really a documentary but more of a promo and this is a problem on a couple of levels. Firstly it is disappointing to see elements of a documentary as part of the film because it suggests that it is even considering to pass itself off as such. Naturally it is pointless as one and I wondered why it bothered to look back in any way on the films. Really what this is about is promoting the third film but I'm sad to say that it isn't a good promo. It makes heavy use of clips without adding a lot of value but the biggest weakness is the use of celebrities. Samuel Jackson is weak and clunky as a presenter but he seems as natural as a wetland compared to the others. Abdul-Jabbar, Brothers, Gretzky, Ice-T, Kaelin and others are all pretty painful to watch because they all fail to speak with any interest about the subject which is annoying and offputting. Of course it is not as bad as the total low-point which is a series of mock-audition tapes with the celebrities delivering lines from the films in "hilarious" ways. It was extra annoying for me because it grabbed my attention when Jackson announced some audition tapes knowing who else was originally offered the role I was intrigued, only to find a collection of horribly unfunny celebs mugging.
Overall then a mostly pointless promotional film that must have barely worked even for an audience looking forward to the third coming out that weekend. Viewing it on the DVD having already seen the film just exposes it for the unfunny, lazy affair that it is.
