Live Free or Die Hard is the best sequel so far this summer
Written: Jul 01 '07
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Great action scenes, lots of funny dialogue
Cons: Nothing major
The Bottom Line: Quit wasting your time and money on all these live-action superhero cartoons and go see a real action movie.
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| phungus's Full Review: Live Free or Die Hard |
Live Free or Die Hard stars Bruce Willis once again in the role that launched his superstar movie career back in the 80’s. This time, he’s fighting a bunch of homegrown terrorist computer hackers. Director Len Wiseman of the Underworld series had a lot of fun with this one, and the result is one of the best movies so far this summer.
Like the past several summers, 2007 has been all about the big sequels. So far, I’ve not been too impressed. While I did like Ocean’s Thirteen, I absolutely hated Spider-Man 3 and thought Shrek the Third was a bore. I disliked the second Pirates of the Carribean movie so much that I haven’t bothered to see the third one, but I heard it wasn’t much better. I’ve been waiting for at least one really good action movie to come out this summer, and now I’ve finally seen one.
It’s been 12 years since Bruce Willis last played supercop John McClane in Die Hard with a Vengeance, but he still knows what he’s doing. In this movie, he is now a senior detective who is asked to pick up a computer hacker and escort him in for questioning after a number of renowned computer hackers had been recently murdered. When Willis shows up to get the kid (played by Justin Long of Jeepers Creepers), the bad guys are waiting and a huge gun battle ensues. From then on, it’s a big chase where McClane tries to protect the kid as well as his country while an evil bunch of hackers (lead by Timothy Olyphant) pull out all the stops to basically shut down the country.
As someone who works in the computer field, I often laugh at the way computers and technology are portrayed in movies. Most of the time, what people do with computers in movies is laughable and ridiculous, but in this movie I was actually quite impressed by the way technology was used. It’s still not completely believable, but what the characters did still was more plausible than the silly stuff in movies like Hackers and The Net.
The action sequences in this movie are great, and they combine real stunts with CGI for a perfect blend. If you regularly read my reviews then you’ll know I’m not fan of CGI in action movies because I often feel like directors are lazy when it comes to doing stunts and the like. It also drives up the cost of movies and the result is too fake, in my opinion. I’d much rather see a miniature building blown up than a giant computer animated graphic, because I can always tell the difference. This is one of the many reasons why I did not like the recent Spider-Man 3 - most of the movie was basically just a cartoon.
As for the action sequences, there are numerous gun battles as well as car chases and some unique duels. By duels, I mean McClane and a police car versus a helicopter full of guys with machine guns. There’s also McClane in a big rig versus a fighter jet. You have to see it to believe it. Throughout the movie, I noticed one original thing after another, and that is quite impressive. One of the best fight scenes in the movie is between Willis and a French actor/stuntman named Cyril Raffaelli. If you were impressed by Cyril’s moves in this one, then you really need to see him in the French action sci-fi movie District B13. He’s like a white Jackie Chan with a French accent.
Bruce Willis once again shines in this role and the entire movie has more comedy than any of the previous ones. McClane is getting older now and a little frustrated by the messes he keeps getting into, but he takes in all in a sarcastic stride and gives us plenty of funny comments and one-liners along the way. You’d almost think McClane is having fun here. He is sort of turned into a superhero in this movie, as he’s a little too invincible, but it’s quite forgivable.
I was glad to see Justin Long in a big movie and he gave a solid performance as the young hacker caught in the middle of all the problems. Long has been making movies for a while now and is also in the current run of Apple Computer commercials. Most people think of him as ‘that kid who looks like Keanu Reeves’ but he also has a good sense of timing that makes him fit into comic roles quite well. Finally, Timothy Olyphant was good as the hacker super villain behind all of this. The best Die Hard villain will always be Hans (Alan Rickman) from the first movie, but Olyphant is given a few scenes to show off his evil grin.
If you like this series, then definitely go see Live Free or Die Hard. It manages to avoid almost all the pitfalls of bad sequels, and is really the best action movie so far this summer, if not this year.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
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