Just when I thought old fashioned action movies were dead...

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2007)

"Live Free Or Die Hard" is a delight. It brings back old fashioned action movies that have been substituted by martial arts movies ever since... well, ever since "Die Hard With A Vengeance" came out. John McClane even makes a little reference to that when he just runs over a martial arts-fighter with his truck. This man doesn't fight with any hipster techniques. It's John McClane, for Christ's sake.
I've only really come to love the "Die Hard"-franchise in the past couple of months. The first three parts were on TV and watching them one after the other they become more and more fun (although, part 3 remains the only really good movie, in my opinion). Add to that the wonderful song and video "Die Hard" by a band called Guyz Nite (you can watch the clip on youtube), and I got myself seriously hyped up for the latest entry in the series.
The wonderful thing about John McClane is that there's really no reason why a whole franchise should be dedicated to him. He could just be any wisecracking cop-character that has ever been played by Bruce Willis. The only thing linking up from one part to the other is that McClane has an ex-wife. That's about the only connection from movie to movie. It's not even Christmas anymore when John is "in the wrong place at the wrong time" and Allen is missed, too. That doesn't really matter, though. The "Die Hard"-moniker just makes sure producers put twice as much effort into developing cool action sequences and promoting the movie appropriately.
So here we are again. This time McClane has a daughter. He's a bit older and not much happier than before. This movie comes off a little darker in tone than the previous ones and due to the absence of Samuel L. Jackson it's far from being as much fun as "...With A Vengeance".
Another difference is that this time, all of America is threatened by terrorists not just McClane himself. His involvement in the events has never been as far fetched, but then the whole story is completely far fetched with the computer terrorists being able to control EVERYTHING - the traffic, the media, the military - with just one mouse click. McClane gets beaten up and thrown around so much in this movie and some action sequences are so far out (especially one with a jet that shoots rockets at our hero) that you constantly have to remind yourself to keep the old brain switched off. At times the oneliners aren't as good as they should be and some action sequences are just too much.
Still, that's part of the appeal of these movies and it's one of the reasons why this franchise is so much fun. After three parts of "Pirates Of The Caribbean" I couldn't say that I want to see any more of these flicks. With "Die Hard" it's different. John McClane beating up terrorists just never gets old. Yippee-ki-yay!