Turn your intellect switch off, and it works great!

Rating: 9/10 (6 April 2008)

Isn't is interesting to see how a series will morph over time. Take the Death Wish films, for example since they've been on TV so much lately. In the first film we are introduced to a simple man taken to the brink by incredible circumstances that force him to fight. By the third of those films, the ordinary guy had become a legitimate action figure; killing an entire army of punks in the streets. The Die Hard films have taken the same route. In the original, we are introduced to a tough and resourceful cop named John McClaine. He is forced to fight for his life and that of his wife and he is able to survive one dangerous situation after the next. But the guy was HUMAN! Remember him crawling into the bathroom after his bare feet were cut to ribbons by broken glass, and the agony as he pulled some pieces out while he talked to the cop over the radio? Remember him pleading, "please don't let me die!" as he was about to jump off the building with a firehouse tied around his waist? That John McClaine is just a memory by 2007....
Live Free or Die Hard if nothing else is an exciting film. That's good, because any logic to this plot of cyber-hackers shutting down our nation's infrastructure just cannot be found. The story takes place over the 4th of July holiday weekend. A former web designer for our government has hacked into all government computers and basically shut down the entire country. I'm no computer geek, so I won't say something like this would be impossible, but it doesn't seem likely. John McClaine now is an agent for the Dept of Homeland Security and he tracks down Justin Long who unknowingly helped the bad guy hack the system. The bad guy (Timothy Olyphant) now wants Long dead, and it is up to McClaine to keep him safe and of course save the entire country from this manic and his army of henchmen. Since the plot would seem preposterous on many levels, it is a good thing the film is packed with incredible stunts, violent deaths, and massive explosions. There are also plenty of funny one-liners, as you would come to expect from a Die Hard film. Kevin Smith has a hilarious cameo as a computer hacker type of guy known as the Warlock who helps the good guys out.
Taken as a pure action fantasy, this film works quite well. Maybe one down side is Timothy Olyphant as the mastermind. He is just too bland for such a role. A film like this needs an Alan Rickman, or even an Eric Bagosian (Under Siege 2) for some humor. How can a villain in a movie like this not be having any fun? In the film's defense may be the fact that this guy was supposed to be a government bureaucrat type who may not have had a colorful personality. The film did some good business last summer. Bruce Willis looks pretty good for his age, but some of the stunts his character goes through are simply preposterous. And Maggie Q is pretty hot! Taken for what it is, the movie is really a lot of fun. 9 of 10 stars.
The Hound.