Review of Live Free or Die (2006) by Simon R — 29 Jul 2007

Not to be confused with the recent Bruce Willis venture, this movie proudly displays the New Hampshire state motto, Live Free or Die. The movie is about a want to be criminal Rugged, who wants to glorify his reputation in the town, or at least pull his reputation out of the bottom of a pile of undercooked clams. This man, Rugged, would one day become a thieving legend. He starts out forging rebate checks and selling stolen speakers, well they were actually his speakers, out of his van. He drives a shitty old blue van, not to be confused with a mini van, and is behind on rent and lacks a steady job. While picking off the bar codes off vodka bottles in a liquor store so he could enter a contest multiple times, Rugged runs into an old friend from school who has now become the owner of a storage facility since his father?s death. The friend, Lagrand, is somewhat mentally challenged and is only half owner of the facility with his sister, but he dare doesn?t tell Rugged that for it would ruin his reputation also. Rugged then tries to get a steady job at Lagrand?s place as a security guard of sorts but tries to scam Lagrand and get equity of the business. During their business meeting some meat head picks on the 5 foot tall Rugged, but Rugged backs down. Think that Lagrand wouldn?t hire him after the incident; he and Lagrand go and poison the guy?s drinking water. Later Rugged spots a label on the bottle of motor oil that he used as poison and realizes it could really kill the guy. When he goes back to the guy?s house to warn him the ambulance were there carting the guy off, who dies in the hospital. But unbeknownst to Rugged the guy had some bad clams earlier. Lagrand checks on the guy at the hospital and forgets to report to Rugged the food part of the guy?s demise. So thinking Rugged had poisoned a man to death he starts to clear evidence and runs from the cops, who are hot on his trail.

Overall the movie is funny and sad at the same time while Rugged cowards down and him failing at life. But the Lagrand character, I didn?t care for much. He took too much focus off the real hero of the story. There is also another funny character in the movie who has sent in an application to UFC and has a trick to disabling alarms. The direction is nothing special; almost like our hero the camera work is lazy and bleak, but very fitting. The story does get a bit messy when they start to look into another murder that Rugged may have committed. It feels like there was a lack of substance and they used that as filler. But everything ties up nicely in the end. Even for all his faults, Rugged makes you cheer for him to get on the train tracks to Canada, to be the new Bonnie and Clyde. But the end of the movie leaves you speechless and shows you the importance of legends and myths in every town, how they can leave some shade of hope, or how they can change lives and peoples attitudes. Rugged is one legend that will be missed.

Movies of the Year....

9/10 Diggers.

9/10 Black Snake Moan.

9/10 Death Proof.

8/10 Seraphim Falls.

7/10 Knocked Up.

7/10 Planet Terror.

7/10 300.

6/10 Live Free or Die.

6/10 Maxed Out.

6/10 The Namesake.

6/10 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World?s End.

6/10 Catch and Release.

4/10 28 Weeks Later.

4/10 Reno 911! Miami.

2/10 Smokin' Aces.

1/10 The Hitcher.