Terrific movie, but why the hell is it rated PG-13?

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2007)

Of all the action heroes that have appeared on the big screen throughout the years, Die Hard's John McClane still stands out as the most charismatic and likable, thanks to his down-to-earth attitude and reluctance to being defined a "hero". These characteristics are retained in the franchise's new installment, Live Free or Die Hard (or Die Hard 4.0, as it is known in Europe), which manages to be fresh and exciting even if it's been 19 years since the series began.
The fourth movie shows us a different world from what we were used to: after 9/11, the main fear is not that we will be attacked by foreign terrorists, like the first film's Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), but that the enemy might strike from within our own country. And that's exactly what happens: a man named Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) and his crew manage to breach the USA's main computer networks, controlling everything from telephone lines and traffic lights to the stock market. If he isn't stopped in time, he can destroy anything in the nation that is run by a computer - which is practically everything. The real bad news, however, is that he has made sure all the people who could put an end to his work are dead. Only one remains: young, nervous hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long, the Dodgeball guy who kept getting hit in the... well, you know), who has to get to Washington D.C. alive in order to understand what is going on. And who is is charge of keeping him alive? That's right, it's McClane (Bruce Willis), who would really rather be at home and try to fix his own problems: you see, he's divorced and his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) refuses to talk to him. But there he is once again: in the wrong place at the wrong time, ready to kill some bad guys and save the day.
The previous entry in the series, Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), suffered mainly from being set in the entire New York City area, whereas the unique element of the first two movies was the tension deriving from a single location (the Nakatomi building and an airport respectively). Fortunately, director Len Wiseman (Underworld) knows what fans expect from a Die Hard film and gives them exactly that: although the threat in the film involves the US in their entirety, the script allows Wiseman to stage all the major action scenes in smaller, limited zones (a highway notwithstanding), mirroring the sense of claustrophobia that defined the franchise in its early years.
Another thing that has been left unchanged is the McClane character himself: his worsened private life makes him even more reluctant to do this kind of stuff again, but he has to because, as he tells Farrell in one of the movie's most revealing scenes, no one else is willing to do it. The true appeal of the franchise has always been in its unconventional leading man: even though he gets a kick out of blowing up stuff ("Did you see that?" Matt asks him after he has killed one of Gabriel's henchmen; "Yeah, I saw it, I did it!" he replies ecstatically), he prefers being elsewhere, handling everyday things and putting his life back together. Unlike Rambo or the Terminator (the two characters that ruled the action genre at the time he made his first appearance), McClane is vulnerable, and he gets hurt a lot, which is why people root for him all the time. Willis has a great time reprising his favorite role, and he deserves extra praise for not being afraid of showing that he has aged, becoming a little less skilled at dodging blows from the enemy but nevertheless still determined to go all the way with it (similarly to Danny Glover, who famously kept saying "I'm too old for this sh*t" in the Lethal Weapon movies).
Great support comes from Long, Winstead and Maggie Q, but the real value comes from the villain: having learned from his Deadwood costar Ian McShane, Olyphant ditches the OTT mania that made his Scream 2 character risible and goes for underplayed intensity instead, playing Gabriel as a realistic, unsettling update of Hans Gruber.
If there is a problem with the movie, it lies in the rating: a PG-13 is an open contradiction of everything a Die Hard movie stands for, and even if the violence is strong enough to demand an R in places, there is an overall feeling that something is missing.
The PG-13 also means that another series trademark, the frequent profanity, is essentially limited to "sh*t", and the absence of more offensive insults is particularly felt in Kevin Smith's cameo: without the swearing, it's hilarious; with the Clerks director's notorious foul language, it would have been comedy gold. But die-hard fans (pun not intended) needn't worry: the franchise's immortal catchphrase is included, and once Willis delivers it it's confirmed beyond any doubt that John McClane is the best action hero of all time, and it was worth waiting twelve years for his return.
Yippee-ki-yay indeed!