Set Several years after De Harder, this time around, John McCleane (Bruce Willis) now lives a lonely and divorced life as a currently suspended New York Detective.
When a shoe shop is the target of Simon's first New York Bombing, John is called back in (demanded so by Simon)
The first game up is for John to stand half naked in the middle of Harlem wearing a sign that says "I hate niggers'. 
Just down the street in an electrical stop is Zeus (Sam Jackson).  His nephews see John, inform their Uncle and to prevent the gang from killing John, intervenes and as a result almost gets beaten up himself by the gang and also becomes an unwilling participant in Simon's dangerous games where the boys must stop a New York Subway Train bombing and a Local School bombing.

With the fourth in the action series seemingly still in Production Limbo (Reginald Val Johnson from #1 is suppose to return) The Die Hard series, though with quite a few moments that require many moments of suspension of disbelief, have all been thoroughly entertaining and John McTerien helmer of the original obviously saw this as he returned for #3 to direct it. 

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
Third times a charm they say, and what we have here is Roadshow's third and final (?) attempt at remastering this Movie for DVD.  This time around though Roadshow got a UK source transfer and it is be far the best of the lot, though still not that great.
Again presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and anamorphic to boot, the main problem of aliasing is also present in this version, which is a real shame, though other than the terrible look of version #2,  EVERY other version of this particular movie released on DVD suffers the same fate of aliasing (and the non anamorphic USA region 1 version was laughably THX approved).  The look of Die Hard 3 is a very natural one with intentionally bright scenes.  I'm inclined to believe this is part of the reason for this being an overly sensitive transfer in all areas. 
The good news is that the picture is very sharp throughout, with a fair amount of detail, but it looks as though some noise has been introduced as as result of what might be over sharpening og the image. However, unlike the first release, the colour, contrast and brightness levels are under control for the most part, though I found the colour saturation to a bit a little too high for my tastes, but at least it is consistent (so if you see it as a real problem you can always drop your colour level a touch)
I also came across two glitches in this movie, not present in the previous versions.   During Chapter 14 at the elephant pond are two spots of shimmering.  My first though was video drop out of some sort.  the first is at 58:13 (John sitting on fountain) and the second is the 2 shot of John and Zeus at 59:36. 
Roadshow also opted to go RSDL on this DVD and the layer change is at 107:07 (from chapters 20 to 21) and is a fade to black.  Personally, I don't like the use of Fade to Blacks to cover a layer change as it has always looked too obvious when attempted.   Given the placement was between two totally different scenes (and a reel change) it wouldn't have seemed all that out of place anyway as the action was abruptly halted to begin with.  At least it's better than having a flipper (than god it's not a BV title)

As has become standard with Roadshow DVDs of recent times, there are 2 audio tracks on this DVD, both English, with one being Dolby digital 5.1 and the other Dolby Digital 2.0. 
The 5.1 mix in particular is a cracker with very enveloping sound.  The soundtrack is not overly bright (something I truly hate) and has an aggressive bass attack and copious amount of stereo surround activity (something I  do like :-)
The syncing impairment of my 717 was engaged again with this DVD, but is not evident through my DVD-ROM setup.
The Third audio track on the disc is the dormant MPEG variety.  Due to the authoring system used for Roadshow DVDs, this track is automatically encoded and can't be removed (a little trick by Philips no doubt to enforce the now defunct MPEG audio on DVDs)..so has not been encoded with any actual audio to overcome this. 

With this not being a remastered Special Editions (like their excellent Austin Powers Spec Ed) the extras are basically the same, though the interviews are now 16:9 Enhanced, the menus are backed with audio (TRIVIAL NOTE if you listen carefully to the song on the main menu it plays at the original speed unlike in the movie which is increased for PAL synced playback), and there's now Lovin Spoonful's Summer in the City music Video and the Dolby Digital Canyon Trailer (along with the theatrical trailer, and biographies)

Though by no means is this a superb looking DVD, it's still better than the first two attempts, is 16:9 Enhanced UNLIKE the THX approved (yeah right) region 1 version, and is a great movie.  With FOX region 4's upcoming releases of Die Hard 1 and 2, also 16:9 Enhanced, this region 4 version from Roadshow is really the one to go for.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
     Fronts: B&W 602
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Rears: Jamo Magic 14
     Subby: M&K V125 

- reviewed 14th November 1999