Action & More Action

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2007)

Live Free or Die Hard This is the first time I have ever seen any Die Hard film even though it is the 3rd film in the series. That does not matter as like other franchises, the plot in this one is self-contained having nothing to do with any of the others as far as I can tell. Everything makes sense, maybe too much sense.
The plot is about a Washington insider getting a bunch of computer geeks to write him a bunch of programs which are an attack on the US Computer infrastructure. He then takes the programs & starts an attack on the country. It plays like a save the country plot for most of the film- until it is revealed late in the film what his real purpose is - spoiler - money.
The film starts with a computer geek who wrote the program being killed. Our villain is systematically killing them off so he can cover his tracks using a team he has put together. Our hero (Willis) is then assigned to pick up one of the geeks still alive. His first scene is one where he is trying to protect his daughter's virtue (?) from a boyfriend at college. Sounds a little hokey, but it works.
From there, this film takes off like the original film SPEED with plenty of action. It does a great job developing the villain's top Hench woman played ably by Maggie Q (who also did some fine work in Mission Impossible 3). After Willis & the Geek take care of her, they go after the top guy who has kidnapped Willis daughter.
This film has plenty of action & some light comedy along the way. It is this summer's action thrill ride, runs over 2 hours & never gives you a second to rest until the end.