fine whine

I've been watching the Die hard movies recently, and tonight ... with a vengeance's number came up. Don't ask me why I've watched it more than once; I offer no excuse other than that I own it and every now and then I feel the need to throw something in that isn't too esoteric or intelligent.

Except that this movie thinks that it is intelligent, or at least brainy. It's got brain teasers in it! Today I realized the simple, blatantly obvious reason why this movie feels so contrived. The first time we see Bruce Willis's John McClane on his feet he's wearing a very offensive signboard on a Harlem street. The "Simon" character who is pulling the strings until the very end (oops, don't want to give away too much) appparently wants McClane dead.

Except that if McClane died in the beginning, Simon's whole plan falls apart. End of story, end of movie, no more billions and billions of dollars (whoops, just gave something away again). Prescient and brilliant though he may be, this Simon fellow could not possibly have predicted Sam Jackson's showing up on the scene. Mister puppet-string puller must have assumed some random good Samaritan would show up.

Who in New York has that kind of faith in human nature?