Movie Info

Live Free or Die Hard

Yippee Ki Yay Mo - John 6:27

Would fifty-two year old Bruce Willis bring back the fond memories of violence and humour made popular with his Die Hard Series? When I first heard that Bruce Willis had "come back" to action films and agreed to do another Die Hard movie I was excited but weary of these comebacks from aging actors.

Before watching the movie, I read a few quick reviews and noticed that the movie had a 14AA rating which is down from the R-rating the previous Die Hard movies had. Would this mean less violence?!! What is Die Hard without the gruesome deaths, huge gunfights and improbably situations just wouldn't be Die Hard!

So I went to watch the movie with very little expectations and I wasn't disappointed at all. The movie was typical of the Die Hard movies with lots of humour and the classic John McClane lines. Many people didn't enjoy the addition of Justin Long as Willis' sidekick but he added some great comical moments.

Yes, the violence in the movie was toned down somewhat. There were still tons of explosions, plenty of deaths (many offscreen though) and some great action scenes so it was barely noticeable that the movie was toned down. You still get to see a bloodied John McClane throughout the entire movie.

Len Wiseman (of Underworld fame) did a fantastic job following John McTiernan's three Die Hard movies. This wasn't one of those short sequels where the aged actor shoots a few people and then saves the girl. This was a good 2 hour movie that was packed with great scenes. Wiseman can count himself as one of the better action directors out there with Underworld and Die Hard 4 under his belt.

One of the great things about this movie is that it played on the fact that Willis is older. We see his interactions with his now fully grown daughter and we can see his age when he's running around killing people. Hell, he even gets his ass kicked by Maggie Q. Despite his age, Willis can still kick as and hopefully can do a few more action movies before his body gives out. Sean Connery did it well into his seventies...

Anyways, back to the movie. This time around John McClane is a senior detective for the NYPD and he's been asked to escort a hacker back to the FBI for interrogation. The hacker, Matt Farrell(Justin Long), was participant in a security test held by a "company". Unknown to Matt, the various security tests are being used to hack the United States government and military. It's soon clear that all the participants are "taken care" of and Matt is the last one on the list. Of course that when John McClane comes in.

We follow McClane and Farrell as they slowly surmise that the terrorists, led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), have successfully hacked the entire government and initiating a "firesale". Repeated attempts to kill Ferrell are thwarted by McClane which leads to Gabriel kidnapping of McClane's daughter. McClane goes after Gabriel and Die Hard fans should all know how this ends.

In the movie, McClane escapes death by kung fu, car in elevator shaft, oncoming traffic in a dark tunnel, gas explosion and even a Raptor F-22. In fact, McClane takes out Gabriel in typical McClane fashion. Totally awesome ending.

The humour continues in this Live Free or Die Hard as well. The terrorists are subjected to various methods of death and of course, the infamous one-liners by McClane. The greatest part is watching Ferrell's awed reaction on how McClane dispatches terrorist after terrorist.

There were a ton of homages to the old Die Hard movies. I think I was the only one cracking up in the theatre when McClane was introduced to Agent Johnson of the FBI. Of course McClane's trademaker Yippee Ki Yay Motherfucker is in the movie. How could you have a Die Hard movie without it?

Timothy Olyphant played a brilliant villain and I think he was perfect for th role of the disgruntled hacker with a vendetta. Justin Long as the computer hacker was also a great fit as well. Long has that naive/grungy look to him and I think he was a great opposite for Willis' grizzled old cop character.

Kevin Smith made a minor appearance as Warlock and it was great. As the hacker who lives in his mom's basement, Smith didn't try to steal the movie but added another layer to humour. Maggie Q was good as the evil minion asian bitch who kills people. I was also surprised at Cliff Curtis and his performance as Special Agent Bowman. It was a decent performance and reminded me of Reginald VelJohnson's character in the original Die Hard.

Overall a great movie to watch. I definitely would like to add this Die Hard to my Die Hard collection. It was thoroughly enjoyable. I think the key was to head into this movie with the expectation of explosions, violence, humour and not a lot of plot. I did and it worked out great for me. The same old formula that made the previous three Die Hard movies a success was employed here as well and was never old or stale to me. Len Wiseman did a great job continuing the Die Hard series. Bruce Willis has shown that he isn't too old yet to do action movies. I hope he continues for a little while longer. It's almost like we're growing up with John McClane hehehe. With a summer filled with blockbuster movies, Live Free or Die Hard is one of the better ones.

Dragoncrypt