Paladin
07-03-2007, 05:17 PM
Live Free or Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maggie Q, Kevin Smith and Cliff Curtis. Directed by Len Wiseman.
First, I beat Reaver to the review! Yay me!
Second, I am a huge fan of the John McClane character. The movies may be good or bad, the writing may be brilliant or iffy, but Bruce Willis does this character with an ease few actors with recurring roles can pull off.
With those two things said, on to the review....
Live Free or Die Hard takes place many years after Die Hard With A Vengence. McClane is a disillusioned man: divorced, estranged from his children, and if not bitter about his descent from hero to media has been, he's at least come to terms with it. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's it. That's what made him "that guy".
No Die Hard movie would be complete without a villian pulling off some grandeous scheme that uses the differences in how authorities respond to terrorism vs. how they respond to robbery in order to pull off the heist of a lifetime. In this movie, that villian is ex-FBI computer crime expert Thomas Gabriel (played by Timothy Olyphant). He's found a way to bring down all the technology which holds society together: communications, transportation, energy transmission... everything in one cataclysmic crash and plans to use this event to pull off a theft of unimaginable proportions. And he knows it will work. He warned the government it would work and they fired him for it. Seems like a bit much to go to to prove a point. Anyway, in order to pull this all off, he's gotten hackers from around the country to do bits of code needed for various parts of this master plan. And once he has the code, he eliminates the hackers (presumably because they are the only ones who could interfere, but more likely just because he's a prick). It's here where McClane get's involved, as he's sent off to pick up one of these hackers and deliver him to the feds. Only, he gets there just in time rescue the kid (Long) and drags him to D.C. just in time for all Hell to break loose. And once Gabriel decides to target McClane's daughter Lucy, McClane turns into a one man army to get her back, even if he dies in the process.
This movie is probably closest in action to Die Hard 2: Die Harder in that McClane is pretty much on the offensive throughout the whole film, rather than reacting to the dictates or actions of the villian (as in 1 & 3). As the hacker on the run, Justin Long turns in a decent performance, but he is a far cry from Samuel L. Jackson as a reluctant sidekick. He's likeable enough, but fairly useless unless something needs to be done with a computer or cell phone. And Kevin Smith as the hacker Jedi "Warlock" seems to be pretty much just being himself.
Still, this movie is what it is... a summer popcorn flick. It's neither as slick nor as intelligently plotted as the original, but it's about on par with the other 2. I enjoyed it alot. So turn off your brain for 2 hours and go watch John McClane be an action hero one more time.
First, I beat Reaver to the review! Yay me!
Second, I am a huge fan of the John McClane character. The movies may be good or bad, the writing may be brilliant or iffy, but Bruce Willis does this character with an ease few actors with recurring roles can pull off.
With those two things said, on to the review....
Live Free or Die Hard takes place many years after Die Hard With A Vengence. McClane is a disillusioned man: divorced, estranged from his children, and if not bitter about his descent from hero to media has been, he's at least come to terms with it. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's it. That's what made him "that guy".
No Die Hard movie would be complete without a villian pulling off some grandeous scheme that uses the differences in how authorities respond to terrorism vs. how they respond to robbery in order to pull off the heist of a lifetime. In this movie, that villian is ex-FBI computer crime expert Thomas Gabriel (played by Timothy Olyphant). He's found a way to bring down all the technology which holds society together: communications, transportation, energy transmission... everything in one cataclysmic crash and plans to use this event to pull off a theft of unimaginable proportions. And he knows it will work. He warned the government it would work and they fired him for it. Seems like a bit much to go to to prove a point. Anyway, in order to pull this all off, he's gotten hackers from around the country to do bits of code needed for various parts of this master plan. And once he has the code, he eliminates the hackers (presumably because they are the only ones who could interfere, but more likely just because he's a prick). It's here where McClane get's involved, as he's sent off to pick up one of these hackers and deliver him to the feds. Only, he gets there just in time rescue the kid (Long) and drags him to D.C. just in time for all Hell to break loose. And once Gabriel decides to target McClane's daughter Lucy, McClane turns into a one man army to get her back, even if he dies in the process.
This movie is probably closest in action to Die Hard 2: Die Harder in that McClane is pretty much on the offensive throughout the whole film, rather than reacting to the dictates or actions of the villian (as in 1 & 3). As the hacker on the run, Justin Long turns in a decent performance, but he is a far cry from Samuel L. Jackson as a reluctant sidekick. He's likeable enough, but fairly useless unless something needs to be done with a computer or cell phone. And Kevin Smith as the hacker Jedi "Warlock" seems to be pretty much just being himself.
Still, this movie is what it is... a summer popcorn flick. It's neither as slick nor as intelligently plotted as the original, but it's about on par with the other 2. I enjoyed it alot. So turn off your brain for 2 hours and go watch John McClane be an action hero one more time.