Live Free or Die Hard

Big, dumb action flick delivers RELEASED IN 2007 and directed by Len Wiseman, "Live Free or Die Hard" is the fourth installment in the Die Hard series. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is ordered to pick up a youth hacker (Justin Long) who's targeted by cyber-terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel and Mai Linh (Timothy Olyphant & Maggie Q). Their goal is to create chaos by taking over the USA's transportation grids and stock market. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays McClane's cute and feisty daughter while Kevin Smith has a small role as a computer geek living in his Mom’s basement. Rigid fans complain that this sequel is "Die Hard in name only" because I guess it deviates from formula but, really, the Die Hard series is ANY challenging adventure that John McClane experiences just as the 007 flicks consist of James Bond in differing challenges; same thing with Dirty Harry. In any case, “Live Free or Die Hard” works as Die Hard sequel or as a stand-alone action flick with Bruce Willis. The story holds your attention while the action scenes are out of this world. They're so over-the-top that some write the movie off as absurd, but everything's done with a quasi-realistic tone so it helps the viewer go along with the ridiculous things that happen rather than tune out. "Live Free or Die Hard" is the natural progeny of over-the-top films like 1977's "The Gauntlet" where the action scenes are so overdone they're cartoony, but entertaining. There's a thin line that filmmakers must tread with these kinds of blockbusters because they can easily fall into overKILL, like 2001's "The Mummy Returns," but "Live Free or Die Hard" evades that ditch by giving us fairly interesting characters and a compelling story. It may not be great but it certainly fills the bill if you're in the mood for a wild action flick. I like the continuity of the series: McClane’s wife (Bonnie Bedelia) is acknowledged here and we meet his daughter, now a hottie, and hear of his son, Jack. We learn of the severe price that John’s bold, serious approach to his profession has had on his personal life. These things are further explored in “A Good Day to Die Hard” (2013), which is basically just as good as this installment. THE MOVIE RUNS 128 minutes and was shot in Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California. WRITERS: Mark Bomback and David Marconi conceived the story/script based on an article by John Carlin. GRADE: B

After completely ruining his daughter's hot date, "McClane" (Bruce Willis) is sent to pick up a young hacker in response to what the FBI think might be a city wide cyber-attack. The youngster "Farrell" (Justin Long) is a cocky geek who is ill-prepared for what now ensues as "McClane" arrives just in time to save him from a barrage of gunfire that turns his apartment into a war zone. They now have to try to get the kid to safety but his pursuers are not giving up. What has this lad done? What has he got? Well swiftly we learn amidst the growing chaos that the not so angelic "Gabriel" (Timothy Olyphant) and his pal "Mai" (Maggie Q) are pulling the strings and will stop at nothing to see both of them go the way of the dodo before they cause mayhem across these United States. Can this unlikely pairing thwart his devious plan? To be fair to both Bruce and Long, they do manage a bit of quite engaging camaraderie as they lurch from one death-defying scenario to another but there's no getting away from it. The story is weak and far too thin to stretch across two hours of action that becomes increasingly far-fetched and repetitive. The cop character's disdainful attitude is also starting to wear out a bit as what limited jeopardy there ever was with these films becomes just a little too much like an exhibition of the stunt arrangers creative pyrotechnics and the lively production design. It's not terrible, Willis still oozes charisma, but maybe "McClane" needs to be put out to pasture now before he does himself a mischief - or bothers to read another lacklustre script.