Review of Live Free or Die (2006) by Aggie C — 08 Jul 2007

John McClane is immortal. He is the modern Dorian Gray. Somewhere out there - probably in Bonnie Bedelia's closet - there is a picture of him, fresh out of the academy in his dress uniform. The picture has become destroyed and damaged over the years. But the real person looks like he always did. In Die Hard 8, he will have to go up with the last of the brothers from Die Hards 1 & 3. He will actually get the picture in his clutches. Then we may see something hurt McClane. Until then, it ain't gonna happen.

That is not to say that watching Bruce Willis put his most famous incarnation into peril time and time again is not fun. In fact, it is VERY fun. In fact, that was the best word to describe this latest Die Hard effort. Fun. The first two movies really had a grip on that, I feel. Jersey cop, who is probably a pretty cool guy in real life, squares off against the no-fun villains. Hans in 1 was a humorless and emotionless aristocratic punk. The mercenaries in 2 seemed more like cyborgs than humans - until their fateful alcohol soaked explosive ending. Then in 3, the villain was still humorless. Jeremy Irons' riddle-spouting Simon - brother of Hans - surrounded himself with similarly stoic aristocratic Europeans. The problem was that life had beaten the humor and pluck out of McClane too. He was just a sour, cursing, dirty, miserable man.

Well, this time out, they certainly did "reboot" the series. McClane is smirking and punning and cranky - just like we love him. His life is still a shambles. He's divorced, his daughter hates him. But he doesn't care. And they paired him with the immensely likable Justin Long. The forces of good have just been made twice as fun-loving. And the villains are all personality-free computer geeks. Timothy Olyphant's Thomas Gabriel seems to view everything in binary - no emotion on the surface, until we find out that it is the fact that he takes things TOO personal that caused this problem in the first place.

Having McClane back in the fish-out-of-water Superman makes the movie a great summer flick. We get to see him get into increasingly impossible and incredible situations. His "old world" violence and creativity thwarts the villains' "new world" calculations and viciousness. The move to D.C. also is nice, keeping the setting fresh.

My wife at one point leaned over and said, "He should be dead." I looked at her - with her complete lack of experience in this genre - and said, "Sweetie, logic plays no part in these films." If you can accept that going in, you will have a ball. McClane should have died years ago. He should have died in Nakamura Tower or the NYC Airport or in downtown NYC. He isn't going to die in a tunnel or a tower or a bridge. He is going to survive. And anyone standing next to him will as well. He is going to get punch, cut, stabbed, shot, blown up, and burned and still keep going. People are going to live through explosions, enormous falls, and vicious beatings - as long as it ramps up the tension.

The stunts were amazing. That scene in the preview of him blowing up a helicopter? Even better in the scene. And that wasn't even the best exchange. The zingers and puns and jokes were great. Justin Long brought his knowing techno-slacker persona and really held his own. The scenes with Kevin Smith were hillarious. All in all, I thought it was a super take on the Die Hard story.

My biggest beef was the stupid PG-13 rating. I am not for violence and language. In fact, if it was R, I would probably have not seen the movie. However, when you have a series that has been established as a certain type of movie - a hard R movie - you can't switch. That was what I had against Alien Vs Predator too. The really sucky part of that rating swtich (in both of those films) was that it happened after shooting. This was so that the "Unrated" version can come out on DVD. But it makes the movie choppy. There will be a conversation going on, with crazy perspective switches going on so we don't see the character's mouth when they have to cut the curse word out. Also, several fight scenes were cut down because they were too violent for the new rating. I didn't want it to return to the F-Bomb laced 3rd movie. But, when your tagline for the entire series involves a F-word, you have to seriously consider whether or not dropping to a lower rating is a good move. Yippy Ki Yay Mother ------! It just made the move seem a bit uneven due to the drastic editing. That was my biggest problem.

I really feared for this movie. It seemed like a desperate attempt by Willis to get another hit. But it ended up being a nice addition to a very exciting and fun series. If they can manage to come up with another twist, I may even be willing to watch that painting get sullied some more for a fifth outing.