Live Free Or Try Again. Entertaining but sooo overrated.

Rating: 4/10 (6 July 2007)

I was really hoping for the great summer blockbuster, and thought this would be it. But I felt really disappointed the whole way through. And I walked out of the theater feeling like, "Okay, how can I salvage what's left of my day?" This story -- and I use that term loosely -- is driven by this new style of bad guy that seems to popular in Hollywood these days. They are the omnipotent, omnipresent bad guy who see everything, know everything, and can do anything. So how can you battle them? How can our hero prevail? Oooohh wow, I can just envision the writers patting themselves on the back. It must seem so suspenseful! This omni-bad-guy has appeared in the last 10 Harrison Ford movies. You can't move without them knowing it; they've taken over your computer. Where do you turn? Eegad.
Remember the first Die Hard? How do you get outside help with no phone? Puase for suspense. You pull the fire alarm, brilliant! Bruce Willis watches with glee as the red flashing lights of the fire trucks pierce the night and approach, no doubt soon followed by police cars. And we feel his agony when the red lights stop flashing and the trucks slow down and turn around. Now THAT was interesting! Here we have a lot of car crashes (I mean, A LOT). Think: Blues Brothers in Chicago car crashes. Only here it's supposed to be serious, but it's not; it's just silly. Consider this: if every traffic light in your town suddenly turned green at the same time, would every intersection involve a 60mph collision? I think not. Everything might grind to a halt, sure. But in Live Free Or Die Hard, all the lights turn green and all hell breaks loose (I haven't ruined anything -- that happens in the first 15 minutes).
There is very little original here. And the leaps of faith needed for this flick require mental iron-man triathlete.
Like so much other pulp shoved out the Hollywood meat-grinder nowadays, this movie LOOKED good, and had all the right ideas. But without a good story, with build-up, with drama, you just have flash after flash. There's no real REASON to care about these characters.
I STRONGLY suggest you wait for the video and rent it. But no matter, you will flock like everyone else to spend your $10. Decently entertaining, but disappointing. Enter the theater with NO EXPECTATIONS and you might be entertained -- as your brain slowly shrinks a little more.