Live Free or Die Hard
Looking for an entertaining way to kill two hours on a hot summer day?
Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth installment in Bruce Willis' career-defining series, had disaster written all over it, from the silly name and inexperienced director to an iffy plot and a PG-13 rating. But much to my surprise and delight, it was not only tolerable, but actually kind of fun. While it wasn't hard to outdo the abomination of Die Hard 2: Die Harder, this one was closer in quality to John McTiernan's original film and his sequel, Die Hard With A Vengeance, than I expected.
Twelve years after his last bout with a thief masked as a terrorist, John McClane is still working on his pension as an NYPD detective. He's also officially divorced now and has moved on to completely alienating his daughter, hovering over her a little too closely while she attends school down the New Jersey Turnpike at Rutgers University.
After breaking up his daughter's date, McClane gets a call to drive down to Camden, pick up a computer hacker and escort him to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., for questioning. Little does he know that assassins are also coming for the hacker, who has unwittingly aided a very bad man with intent to shut down every computer-operated system in the country.
The very first action scene here offers a sigh of relief as Len Wiseman dispenses with the ubėr-cool, video-game, Matrix-style direction from his two Underworld vampire flicks and plays it straight up. Justin Long (you know him as "Mac" from those Apple Computer ads) also proves himself funny rather than annoying as McClane's new computer geek sidekick, and that holds up for the duration of the picture. (Kevin Smith also has a very funny appearance as the master geek known as Warlock; it's probably his best performance ever in a movie, even his own.)
The Die Hard films have a formula built not only on plot, but on characters, something Renny Harlin forgot while directing Die Hard 2. The original Die Hard and Die Hard With A Vengeance realize the fun comes from the conflict between a repellent cop and the people around him, even the ones trying to help. Of course, the main battle has to be with a ruthless, but civilized villain—the anti-McClane, if you will. Wiseman follows McTiernan's lead and stays focused on the characters, letting Timothy Olyphant fully explore the mind of his well-organized, remarkably focused, strenuously patient and occasionally sarcastic bad guy.
Most important in all of this, however, is that Willis hasn't forgotten that McClane is an asshole at heart; and screenwriter Mark Bomback knows McClane's many character flaws and blunt force approach to relationships are what make him fun to watch. He's a jerk, but we know he'll stand up against the bad guys when no one else will.
Yes, some of the action scenes are over the top, but they're also low on CGI (a movie always get points from me for employing actual stuntman and live action set pieces these days); and it's fun to watch McClane escape death in ways so ridiculous, even he's impressed with himself. Let's not forgot the franchise is called Die Hard.