Kaaboooooom.

Rating: 9/10 (1 July 2007)

Sometimes you get a little tired of the "Follow The Money" good guy/bad guy theme. Movies are riddled with them lately. But you must be aware that movies like the Die Hard franchise will always be around. In the 60's when my television viewing started taking on a wider scope that expanded beyond Saturday morning cartoons, movies were a great way to pass the time, and you had pretty much the same things then as you do now: Westerns with bad guys, good guys, horses and guns; Space movies with good guys, bad guys, space ships and ray guns; War movies with good guys, bad guys, tanks and guns; Cop movies... yeah, you can guess the rest.
And Live Free or Die Hard is no exception. Good guy, bad guys, cars and jets and motorcycles and semi trucks and guns. When put that way, it doesn't sound like something worth going to see, but if you like fast moving over the top stunts, at this moment there is none better. Bruce Willis resurrects his role as John McClane, and I don't use resurrect lightly: He's old, he looks tired. He's destitute pretty much with a divorce and kids that don't want to have anything to do with him. So, seeing where we left off with Die Hard with a Vengeance, it seems McClane had just about done everything to screw up anything that would be considered a social life. So what else is there for him to do but save the world. Johns not nearly as self-mumbling in this movie as in previous movies, and in light of that, much of the levity that he usually brings to the screen is subtle and the tone gets pretty serious. The bad guy he is pitted against starts out like he just wants to "upset" the US Government off, but in the end, and I'm sorry if it spoils it for you, all comes down to money again.
The story is predictable in the sense you know something in the way of some incredible stunt are coming, but the stunts themselves are pretty damn cool. Not quite as gross as a zombie tearing your limbs off, but still, McClane slowly chips away at the bad guys resources until there is nothing left but to ... Well, I'll stop there.
I still like this for what it is: And Action Movie. And just like many of its older counterparts, they are merely there to entertain. So, on entertainment alone, I give this a thumbs up.