DIE HARD (1988), DIE HARD 2 (1990), and DIE HARD: WITH A VENGEANCE (1995) constitute one of my favorite trilogies like the GODFATHER series. For the sake of brevity, in this collective review I’ll refer to them as DH1, DH2, and DH3.

The main thread that runs all throughout the three Die Hards is the loose cannon of a New York City cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) who finds himself pitted against world-class villains Hans Gruber (DH1), Col. Stuart (DH2) and Simon Gruber (DH3, brother of Hans Gruber). That conflict between good and bad is the central classic plot in all three DHs and it works much better in DH1 and DH3 than in DH2 for reasons I’ll explain later.

McClane’s wife Holly Gennero McClane (played by lovely Bonnie Bedelia) who found herself a new career in Los Angeles is the “love interest” subplot that threads through all three DHs despite her physical absence in DH3.

Police Sergeant Al Powell (played by Reginald Vel Johnson) has a prominent role in DH1 and a minor one in DH2 as a narrative device to knit links between these separate films.

There are specific references to DH1 by the characters in DH2 and DH3, as for example when they greet McClane as “that guy” who was at the “Nakatomi Towers” when “that thing” had happened.

There are also visual clues that establish cross-references like the liberal amount of glass shattered and sprayed all the over the place in DH2 which pays clear homage to that unforgettable naked-feet-on-glass scene in DH1.

The self-important TV reporter Richard-”Did You Get That?”-Thornburg (played by William Atherton) is another link between DH1 and DH2.

That’s why you must watch this trilogy by starting with DH1; otherwise certain scenes in DH2 and DH3 do not make any sense.

Stories in a nutshell:

DH1: McClane takes on a group of hi-tech terrorists who have taken his wife and others hostage at Nakatomi Towers in Los Angeles. Their idea is to steal the $600 million in the corporation’s vaults in a precision-timed operation but McClane interrupts rudely with the manic energy of a cop-cowboy on steroids.

DH2: A band of mercenaries take over and shut down the Washington Dulles Airport to kidnap a drug baron extradited from Latin America. They threaten to kill anyone if their plan is resisted and illustrate what they can do. But McClane’s wife Holly is a passenger in one of the 18 passenger aircrafts circling over Dulles at night and running out of fuel. McClane has no option but kick some serious ass.

DH3: The brother of the terrorist whom McClane killed at the Nakatomi Towers in DH1 is back with a vengeance, blowing department stores in Manhattan, threatening to blow away schools, while robbing New York Federal Reserve Bank with his German mercenaries. This time McClane is a personal target but he pays them back in spades and saves the NYC.

In all three DHs Bruce Willis’s hormone-pumped delivery of a cop who almost is amused by his own frequent brushes with death and destruction is central to the success of this franchise.

His wide-eyed hyperventilating chase scenes and his signature “yippee kay yee mother f****r!” victory hoop is already a part of the action-thriller movie lore against which the success of many characters of the same genre will be measured. Mel Gibson of the LETHAL WEAPON franchise is a name that measures up to Willis’s portrayal of McClane. But there still aren’t too many actors and characters out there to match that perfect fusion between Willis and his character McClane.

What differentiates these three DHs, though, is not the way Willis plays McClane but the VILLAINS he faces.

That’s why I think the DH1 and DH3 succeed where DH2 fails us. Hans and Simon Gruber (played by the gravel-voiced aristocrat Jeremy Irons) are truly scary characters unlike anything we encounter in real life.

Col. Stuart of DH2, on the other hand, starts out as a true psycho but ends up just another terrorist with an above-usual ease with hi-tech gadgets.

When Hans Gruber spirals down to his demise from the Nakatomi Tower in DH1 we are almost sorry for his destruction the way we might feel sorry for the death of the world’s largest white shark. When Col. Stuart dies, however, we are happy that the world is rid of a common pest. There is nothing mythical about him.

DH1 is special because, with perhaps the exception of the TOWERING INFERNO, we have not seen anything like it before. It is original and fresh and keeps us at the edge of our seats until the end.

DH3, on the other hand, is equally fascinating for two additional reasons. The great Samuel Jackson, who plays a pawnshop owner in Harlem who inadvertently gets sucked into the whole mess with Willis, does justice to the racial-tension subplot that adds another dimension to the story.

But another reason why I’ve watched DH3 with mixed feelings in my heart is because the movie was shot in 1995 and in some scenes you can clearly see the World Trade Center towers in the background. It’s such a burden as a movie fan to know what really happened in the Big Apple in 2001. We are certainly living in a different world now and probably it’s going to be very hard in the future to shoot another action-terror movie with big explosions in the heart of Manhattan. Suddenly certain scenes are not “just for entertainment” anymore. Suddenly our hearts no more tolerate that kind of “dramatic license” with reality.

DH1 and DH3 both rate an 8 out 10 in my book. I’m pegging DH2 a bit lower at 6 out of 10.

And if there’s going to be a DH4, dear producers, would you pretty please bring Bonnie Bedelia back. Thank you.

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Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases and hi-tech documentation.

He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

Please visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for customer testimonials and more information on his multidisciplinary background and career.

The last book he has edited: http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

VERA CRUZ — Two 19th century “soldiers of fortune,” one survivor of the Civil War with a “soft spot” for sick horses and social justice (Gary Cooper playing Ben Trane), the other a charming and money-greedy happy-trigger killer (Burt Lancaster at his grinning best, playing Joe Erin), search for their next dollar down in Mexico at a time when the country is torn between Emperor Maxmillian and the nationalist peasant army trying to overthrow him.

Since the Emperor got the most cash, our hired guns agree to serve the Emperor by escorting a certain Countess to the city of Vera Cruz by passing through territory under rebel control. On the way to Vera Cruz, both fighters discover 3 million dollars in gold coins (intended to buy guns for the Emperor from France) hidden at the bottom of the stagecoach carrying the Countess and she is not totally unaware of the fact either. She has her own plans too. All three plot against the other two to scoop the treasure away. Betrayal is not an issue. It’s not even personal. It’s just business.

After a few gunfight and ambush scenes between the Maxmillian’s escorting army and the peasant rebels, justice reigns and Ben Trane emerges as the noble soul who triumphs over crass materialism despite the “soft spot” in his heart that Joe Erin took for weakness. He does not live long enough to correct his foolish ways.

This is the movie to see to learn how a bullet can be pulled out of the leading man’s (Lancaster) arm by the other leading guy (Cooper) by using nothing more than a cold unsterilized pocket knife, while the wounded patient is leaning against a tree and the whole thing is accomplished within seconds too! As soon as the bullet is out, the patient is on his horse, giving one heck of a chase to the unfortunate perpetrator. They don’t make hired guns this tough no more.

Cinematography of Ernest Laszlo is beyond compare. Most of the shots is worthy of a calendar page.

A beautifully shot movie in which Ernest Borgnine and a very young Charles Bronson also do their parts.

A 6 out of 10.

Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases and hi-tech documentation.

He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

Please visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for customer testimonials and more information on his multidisciplinary background and career.

The last book he has edited: http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

I love my Tivo. I would rather have Tivo than cable or satellite. Yes, I would give up my zillion programming options, most of my CDs, and quite a few movies in our selection, if I could only have my Tivo.

Most people tell me that Tivo doesn’t seem like a big help. “I’m afraid I’ll watch more TV,” they whine. I must confess, the first month I had Tivo, I watched more TV than ever before. I would sit down and thumb through the movie list, starting with ‘A’, and pick movies to Tivo until the box was full.

I have now been ‘on’ Tivo for over two years. Once the thrill subsided, my TV watching slimmed down to about where it was before. However, I no longer watch ‘crap’ TV. You know, the programs you turn on when the kids are in bed because there is nothing else to watch? Perhaps you thumb back and forth between two or even three shows because neither one of them makes a difference to you. Well, Tivo makes the quality of television change. Yes, the networks put out a lot of crap, but now you don’t have to live with it. You can watch only the shows you want to. You no longer have to worry about videotapes or cutting outings short because you can watch your favorite episodes when you get home. With the Season Pass option, it doesn’t matter if the show gets bumped to a different day and you don’t get the memo. Your beautiful, intelligent Tivo will make the adjustment accordingly. Take that, VCR!

The biggest selling-point-that’s-not-a-selling-point-cuz-Tivo-would-get-sued, however, is the option to fast forward through the commercials. I am one of those channel flippers; I flip just to avoid the mindless drivel that took even less thought than the shows I watch. If it makes the commercial producers happy, I must confess I do the same thing with my radio. I hate commercials because, frankly, I hate wasting time. Tivo, of course, will never market this because all of the advertisers would die if the consumers knew we didn’t have to be subjected to their insanity, but it’s true. Now, in the defense of the companies, the Tivo fast-forwards clearly enough that you can view snippets of various commercials. Occasionally, my husband and I will stop fast forwarding and actually rewind to catch a glimpse of a commercial or a movie preview. But we get to make the decision. Now, if I have a one-hour show that I want to see ASAP (like a season finale or the shooting of JR), I wait fifteen minutes after the program has started and finish at the same time as the rest of America. But I got to do something else (or watch something else) during that quarter hour.

Speaking of efficiency, I am so glad Tivo finally put out a dual-tuner model. Now consumers can record two shows at once, while watching a third show that has already been recorded. I love this!

The buffer is also a great must-have tool. The previous 30 minutes of whatever channel you are watching, even if you are not recording it, are saved in digital memory. Thus if you sit down and turn the television on, and your favorite movie in the whole world started twenty minutes prior, you can watch it from the beginning, or even opt to record it. If it started an hour ago, you can follow the cute little prompts to record it the next time it comes on.

No Tivo discussion would be complete without a mention of wishlists. You can program your Tivo to automatically record anything on the Tivo that has a keyword, a specific title, contains a specific actor or actress, or was written or directed by a particular person. You want to record every Mel Gibson movie you can find? Great! You can also opt NOT to autorecord these programs and instead scan through the wishlist every two weeks or so to see what is coming up. Should you be one of five people in America who actually uses the television for educational purposes, you can set it to record any show about airplanes, tanks, or the Civil War that you want, just by using the keyword. You don’t even have to search the TV guide!

The biggest, most important reason for having Tivo, however, is because I have kids. Small ones. Ones that don’t go to bed when they are supposed to, that want water and stories and hear scary monsters and sneak down to snack on candy when they think we are busy. Before, my frustration with their actions would grow because (I admit this with shame) they were causing me to miss my favorite show. Now, however, I can pause the show and deal with the lot of them before returning to exactly where I left off – even if the show is on ‘right now’. As an added bonus, I always have something from PBS on my Tivo so my kids have a selection of entertaining, educational programming to pick from. I don’t even have to fast-forward through commercials for those.

Like any new toy, Tivo initially begs to be played with. Once you get used to it, however, you can reclaim your time in front of the television as your own. No more settling for late night infomercials. You can watch whatever quality (or lacking in quality) shows your heart desires. Heck, you can record the infomercials if you want! Television programs today have increased in stupidity, but thanks to Tivo, you can watch only the stupidity you want.

When she isn’t Tivoing life, Nola Redd is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Creative Writing. You can view her fiction and nonfiction writings at http://scottiegaz.Writing.Com/.