Live Free or Die Hard

Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Maggie Q, Yancey Arias, Yorgo Constantine

Directed by: Len Wiseman

RS: 2.5of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

2007 20th Century Fox All Movies

It's easy to joke about Bruce Willis, now past fifty, returning for a fourth chapter in the Die Hard series. It's been a dozen years since the last one. Shouldn't Willis be winded by now or prepping for AARP meetings? Even his former wife Demi Moore married a younger man. OK, I said the jokes were easy.

Know what? Willis gets the last laugh. Live Free or Die Hard may not be much a movie -- it's a series of increasingly nutty stunts clumsily strung together -- but Brucie boy is truly an analog hero in a digital age. The role of no-frills New York police detective John McClane still fits him like a glove and he looks as fit as a guy half his age. What's your secret, dude?

There's no secret about the movie. It's another techno-thriller with Die Hard slapped across the title. The bad guy this time, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant, a master at smilng menace), is a former government employee determined to shatter the U.S. defense system because the feds wouldn't listen to him after 9/11. It's a fire sale, everything goes if it's run by computer. A big cheer here for Hong Kong action hottie Maggie Q as the villain's right hand and erotic obsession.

Anyway, back to the plot. It's up to McClane to transport a young New Jersey hacker, Matt Farrell (Justin Long from the Mac commercials), to Washington, D.C., since the FBI believes he may have helped the bad guys, even inadvertently. Remember 16 Blocks, the 2006 movie in which cop Willis was assigned to transport criminal Mos Def from jail to a courthouse? Same thing, bigger stakes. You'll be happy to know that director Len Wiseman (Underworld) doesn't let the fate of America get too much in the way of the surprisingly entertaining byplay between Willis and Long. The hacker is appalled that McClane's taste in music stopped at Creedence.

Unlike the first two Die Hard flicks, set respectively in an L.A. highrise and a D.C. airport, the fourth chapter repeats the same mistake as the third by painting on a broader canvas and dissipating the claustrophobic tension. But there's no denying that the stunts are terrific fun. "You killed that helicopter with your car," enthuses the hacker to McClane. That he does. Seeing isn't believing. But, hey, who needs realism in a summer popcorn movie? Live Free or Die Hard gets the action job done and you better believe that Bruce is still the man.

Check out the trailer and a Bruce Willis interview here.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Jun 26, 2007)

Your Turn

Give us your review of
Live Free or Die Hard

Review 1 of 5

3of 4 Stars

The greatest appeal of John Maclean has always been the human dimension, the unlikely hero in the face of crazy odds, his quirky humor in the face of oblivion. In the first movie, it was would be terrorists in a highrise office. In the second, it was para military extortionists in an airport. All surroundings we are familiar with, no hyperbolic settings in super fortresses or underground bunkers. It made Maclean's feats of herosim believable. Willis returns to a new world where computer networks control everything and hackers rule. It is great fun to see Willis's return to the screen. The first half of the movie has him unwittingly involved by virtue of a supposedly routine apprehension filled with great car chases and shootouts. The second half of the movie has Maclean somehwat out of his element, relying on his sidekick to help save the day. There are some wayout action sequences involving fighter jets and power generation plants that are somewhat cartoonish. In the end it's Maclean's will to rule the day that wins out. It was great to see one of our favorite action heros back on the screen although not quite as fun as his first two romps.

Jul 8, 2007 22:23:02

Review 2 of 5

3of 4 Stars

Movie was great - want to know where I think the plot and theme came from?

Anyone read the book 'Pearl Harbor Dot Com'? Not sure where the producers claim the script came from but it is pretty much identical to the fully laid out plot in that book which dates back to 2001 by a guy called Winn Schwartau.

Jul 6, 2007 15:07:59

Review 3 of 5

4of 4 Stars

I actually give this movie 3 and a half. The fact is, this movie is about one thing and one thing only - Bruce Willis kicking butt. Okay, actually there's more to it than that - there's the chemistry between him and the guy from the Mac commercials (who is a pretty good actor from the looks of it); there's the daughter who is basically her dad with long hair; there is the bad "girl" who makes Keira Knightly in Pirates look like a daisy (watch out Steven Segal); and, best of all - the 'splosions - LOTS of 'splosions. I mean, come on, we know some of the stunts are gonna be outlandish; we know that Bruce is gonna have a million bullets aimed at him and none are gonna hit their target; we know that wherever he goes, there is going to be millions of dollars in damage and he will never get the bill, and you know what? - we don't care. Why? Because that's what we go to see when we have Die Hard on our movie ticket. If you go in expecting Terms of Endearment, I'm sorry, but you'll be sorely disappointed. If you go in wanting to see some of the best stunts EVER in a movie and the bad guys get their hineys blown off, while Bruce walks away with minor cuts and maybe one bullet wound, then you're gonna LOVE it. My friends and I all agree - this is one of the best movies so far this summer. It won't let you down. Oh yeah, and Transformers rocks too - it's pretty much Die Hard, but with robots and about 10 times the 'splosions. Either way, Bruce is back and I hope he can pull off a fifth one - if the nursing home lets him out, of course.

Jul 3, 2007 23:57:12

Review 4 of 5

3of 4 Stars

The "hacker" stuff was a little much... BUT......,

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie by the time the credits started rolling! I was like the other skeptics. "PG-13??? YIPPIE KAY AYE MOTHER-FATHER?" If you go into this movie knowing it's not going to be Nakatomi Tower, or With a Vengeance, you can save yourself a lot of whining. Die Hard 2, to the fans, was not a very good movie. THIS ONE makes up for it! There's wasn't much potty language, but realistically, I don't think anybody had any time to drop any F-bombs on account of them having to constantly dodge the real ones. At first the dynamic between McClane and the Mac Geek seems a little "ah here we go again, clash of the generations", and it doesn't seem like a real Die Hard movie until about 30 minutes into it, but once we start recognizing Shoe-less John, a lot of that goes away! The hacker stuff seems to get sort of hokey, at times, but a lot of Die Hard fans won't have trouble letting that slide since John couldn't be bothered with it; he's too busy kickin' ass and takin' names! The action scenes keep you on the edge of your seat at all times. This is definitely the next level of action flicks (best since Casino Royale). Some of the blows McClane delivers are so intense, even Chester A. Arthur felt them.

There's no rehashing of old characters to forcefully remind you it's a Die Hard flick. That means no Sgt. Al Powell, no Zeus, no Holly Gennero side story, no Inspector Cobb, hell, not even a Gruber family member! Also, there's no jurisdictional cliché argument he had with the LA cop or Airport Cop from the sequel we all like to pretend never happened.

Trust me, by the time he says "Yippie Kay Aye..." your jaw will drop! A MUST SEE for Die Hard fans!

7/10

Jun 27, 2007 17:14:21

Review 5 of 5

3of 4 Stars

I don't know that is a negative review. 2 and 1/2 stars, come on. This film is better than Spider-man 3.

Jun 26, 2007 19:59:27

Previous Next