Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Awful title aside (I prefer the working title of Die Hard 4.0), this fourth installment of the McClane saga actually delivers some hard hitting action. You can count me as one of those that was worried about a Die Hard movie saddled with a PG-13 rating, and for those interviews where Willis said they shot the script and aimed for an R, only to get a PG-13? I do not buy that for a second. There were plenty of opportunities where this could have been made a hard R, but that was not the route they took. It doesn't matter, in the end, this is a solid explosive summer action movie that does not suffer from the lack of blood and language, it is nore than made up for in the explosive action and with Bruce back in the driver seat of the character that made him a movie star.

Live Free or Die Hard once again has John McClane facing off with some dastardly terrorists out to cause a lot of problems, but the scope has expanded. In the first film, the one that helped to revolutionize action movies, John had to deal with terrorists in a skyscrper. The second one upped the ante and had terrorists on a jetliner. The third upped it even further, targeting New York City, and you do not mess in John's backyard! This time around, we catch up with John McClane trying to reconnect with his daughter before getting pulled, unwillingly of course, into a domestic digital terror plot that would cripple the entire country, and essentially send everyone into the poorhouse.

The plot is executed in typical movie fashion, I did not find the execution to be all that believable, and the portrayal of computer usage was not all that great either. However, despite the over the top way that everything plays out, the concept behind the story, and its implications seem rather frightening and believable within the confines of the real world. The idea of a virtual terror attack, a so-called "fire-sale," is something that is not outside of the realm of reality. Even the way that parts of this plan are executed strike me as believable. The thought of a terrorist group hacking our government systems, gaining control to pretty much all of out nations essential services is something that we should be concerned with. But, the real world implications of a fictional plot is not what we watch a Die Hard movie for.

The action kicks off with McClane being sent to pick up a hacker that the FBI wants to talk to following a system hack they were victims of. The kid (played by Justin "Hi, I'm a Mac" Long) is being targeted for termination by our criminal mastermind, since he unwittingly supplied his piece of the puzzle and is no longer needed and the loose end needs to be eliminated. It is up to our aging, smart-alec detective to keep him alive long enough for the Feds to interrogate him. That is really all that we need to know. The actual plot is pure wndow dressing for McClane to march through increasingly ludicrous, and infectiously entertaining, action setpieces.

The actual terrorist plot plays out more in the background, as it should, allowing us to focus on McClane's efforts to just stay alive, keep the kid alive, and later rescue his daughter from the clutches of evil. Bruce Willis seems right at home inside McClane's skin, and although he may not lay out the f-bombs like he used to, he has not lost his dry wit and inventive use of whatever is at hand to be used as a weapon. I also loved how they worked McClane's aging hero into the story, referring to him as a "Timex in a digital age." It implys that the old ways are no longer able to stand toe to toe with newer ways of waging war. The relic that is McClane goes to great lengths to prove that the old ways are just as effective in the ever changing face of war: "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Willis' interaction with Justin Long is good, there is a chemistry to them, as they navigate the muscle/brains relationship in dealing with the threat. Add Timothy Olyphant (who I initially mistook for Josh Duhamel) to the mix, and you get some nice verbal sparring, not to mention the clever bit part played by Kevin Smith. All of the performances worked, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is quite good as McClane's rebellious daughter, who has a bit more of her father in her than she would initially like to admit to.

Yes, I did miss the blood and the language, and I would very much have preferred them to have been included. However, there is some really hard hitting action that seemed to have a stronger reliance on practical effects rather than digital which added to the realism. There were computer effects to be sure, and a couple that looked, let's say, less than convincing, but overall worked well enough. This is more than worthy of the Die Hard title.

Len Wiseman directed, and it actually has a very good look to it. In his first non-Underworld film he has succeeded in delivering an exceptional summer action-fest. The camerawork is very nice, there is a lot of movement, swirling around the action. It may be flashy, but it works for a big flashy movie such as this.

Bottomline. This is a fun movie. It is big, explosive, over the top, ludicrous, and completely works for what I would expect from a Die Hard movie. This flick hit the spot, it surprised, excited and energized the movie going experience. It may not equal the original, but then again what does? I left the theater completely satisfied and interested in fifth.

Recommended.