Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Director Len Wiseman's ardency for completely over the top action scenes and unrealistic stunts make the movie feel surreal, taking the series completely out of its former "real world" restraints. Which is a shame as the plot, if taken serious, would have possibly made for the second best film of the now twenty year old series. John McClain went from a completely realistic world to riding on the wing of a fighter jet. The character has gotten older, slower, and his witty one-liners feel incredibly forced. It just felt like he was there in name only.

The movie has McClain as an old vet that is seemingly given menial work simply to keep him busy, having the digital age pass him by more and more, making his maverick style obsolete. When the FBI is hacked from outside sources, they quickly have officers from all around the area seeking out some of the nations most notorious hackers. McClain, ready to call it a night, is asked to pick up one of the suspected computer nerds and bring him in for questioning. When he knocks on the door of Matthew Farrell, played by Justin Long, everything goes to hell.

He has seemingly helped a group of terrorists lead by Thomas Gabriel, a former Department of Defense leader (Olyphant) and is the last name on their list of people to get rid of so they can be tracked down. So now it's up to McClain to keep him safe long enough to get him to the Feds. But when Gabriel makes it personal and brings John's daughter in to things, well, we've seen what happens when people mess his his family...

Long's character is a fresh addition and supplies plenty of comic relief and emotion when needed. His reactions to the people around him, seeing what has happened due to something that he was a part of, the look in his eyes speak louder than words.

Olyphant plays an acceptable villain, but hardly a memorable or menacing foe like Rickman or Irons before him. He plays a character who, while seemingly knows the importance of keeping the country safe, sends it in to mass hysteria. Then plans to bring on the new dark ages, while stealing all the money in the US. Digitally. What does he plan to do with it all exactly? Go to the bank and ask for a withdrawal? Would money even have any value any more if the entire nation was in a panic? Did he have an exit strategy nobody cared to mention? For a seemingly smart villain, he sure doesn't appear to have the ramifications of his actions in mind.

The Die Hard franchise has always had detractors and apologists, for every person that loathes With a Vengeance, there's someone ready to defend Die Harder to the death, and vice versa. Live Free or Die Hard is sure to be yet another film in the series that will find both a balance of love and hate from fans. For those who bemoaned the lack of Willis repeating his famous line, get over yourselves. This movie is wall to wall action with plenty of gun play, car chases, and blood. It doesn't need four letter words to articulate what is going on. And if your one defense is that it's more realistic if he cursed, the presence of a guy jumping around a room like Neo from The Matrix proves that realism isn't exactly what the director is aiming for here. If you can look past that, there's a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn movie to be found here.

Live Free or Die Hard --a title that was lambasted on the internet yet actually makes some sense given the context of the film-- is in the strange state of showing up every single threequel (are we really going to start using that word now?) how to get the job done and entertain audiences. While the Pirates film was busy wrapping up the plot lines to everyone on the boat, and a few inanimate object, John McClain was sending a car straight in to a helicopter after narrowly avoiding death in a tunnel. While Spider-Man was acting all hardcore and emo the way he ate cookies and danced to jazz music, John McClain was busy shooting a guy out the window with the added assistance of a fire extinguisher. And while Shrek was busy becoming a daddy, John McClain was busy riding an 18-wheeler under a collapsing bridge while getting shot at by a fighter jet. Who knows, maybe when those other movies get around to a fourth installment they can have the same amount of energy that this movie did. For now, all I can say is "In McClain we trust."

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