Review of Live Free or Die Hard (2007) by Phil P — 12 Feb 2013

"Just sit tight, asshole. I got a check for you.".

With the next installment of 'Die Hard' releasing this week I decided whilst this on TV to watch it. It also gave me a chance to compare the latest two better when I go to see it on Thursday. Iv'e already watched 'Live Free or Die hard' a few times and that's because it's a great action movie. It would drank second in my order of 'Die Hard' behind the original but above 2 and 3.

The reason why it is such a good action movie is because it doesn't get bogged down with cheesy dialogue, overly talkative villains who reveal everything and has a nicely simple plot. That's not to say the plot is too simple it's not - because whilst we know the villain is up to no good we don't know why. And that is the key to why it works it's not straight forward and not a case of 'Because he's evil he's doing this'. The film slowly shows his reasons and how he's able to accomplish everything with relative ease. If every action film used this as a blue print there would a lot more good action films today. It strikes the balance between action films of the 80s/90s and how they're done now. Yes there is a level of predictably the daughter for instance and the ending could have been better but it's not much of an issue.

Out of all the action movie actors 'Arnie', 'Stallone, 'Willis', 'Statham' 'Willis is by far my favourite and that's is because he's not just someone who fits the 'i'm a badass' role he's also a great actor. He's not wooden he strings believable sentences together and when he's in a rough spot spews out his characters frustration believably - which is the key. He may not be in a realistic situation as such but his character is.

Obviously the main purpose is the action, and it's solid throughout with Willis' improvisations like blowing up a helicopter with a car or using a car to run someone over inside a building. They're unexpected and even though i've seen it a few times i'd forgotten some of them - which shows how well they're staged. It's consistent action, then plot, action, the plot it gives you a small breather between each action set piece where we learn about the mysterious villain. For the most part it's proper SFX with action explosions and they're 100% effective but there's also some CGI which doesn't look the best since it's now 6 years old. There's only 2 or 3 CGI moments which confuses me why they're in there when it's used so little (which is a good thing.) - the only thing I can think of is budget. But it's a shame it would have been better without the CGI but some things are unavoidable.

One of the best action films of the last 10 years 'Live Free or Die Hard' is a fantastic roller-coaster with some mystery and a string of great explosive moments. It's not quite as good as the original but then again what films are - 'Willis' and the tam deliver another fantastic entry into THE best action series there is.