Die Soft 4.0

Rating: 2/10 (23 February 2012)

Plot: A group of cyber-terrorists wreck havoc in the USA by shutting everything down and a single cop along with the help of a hacker must stop them.
After watching all four Die Hard movies in Blu-Ray I decided that I would review the worst of the series. Yes, you heard that right the worse of the series. Like so many great action franchises of the late 80's, (Rambo, Terminator, etc), it started wonderful, it had a good sequel, the third one was meh and then comes the fourth one which makes you wanna throw something at the TV screen!
The plot of all Die Hard movies, although far better than your average action film, was pretty simple. However what it lacked in storyline it made up in building tension and keeping you at the edge of your seat. In the first movie for example, McLane was quite skilled and clever, but he was just a single guy who could bleed, who was afraid and who was always outnumbered. In here however the whole movie is just an excuse for loud explosions, gunfights and car chases you know popcorn entertainment! Moreover McLane seems to have gained some supernatural powers, withstanding WAY too much damage contrary to the more realistic McLane of the past.
Willis handled the protagonist's character pretty good so far. He was badass but he was also human. He was witty and charismatic but he was also quite realistic, an action hero that you could actually like and give a damn about. Here he is just a blunt, generic protagonist. Also, instead of the genuinely sweet romantic chemistry between him and his wife we now have the typical garbage of the 21st century. Divorced with a daughter who hates him and yada, yada, yada what happened to good ol' romance in our days? (Cthulhu, I feel old!). Finally the annoyance called Justin Long, whose character is supposed to be the comic relief here, but instead he ends up being an irritating sidekick who I wish would die as soon as possible.
The worst disappointment comes from the bad guy though. We had Hans Gruber who was magnificent, then we got Colonel Stuart who was quite decent and then we've moved on to Simon Gruber who was okay, I guess. Here the bad guy is a boring, walking mass of non-menacing nerdness. Instead of the powerful aura of Hans Gruber, Thomas Gabriel made me feel that I could kill him just by using foul language. Furthermore the misc. characters here consist of nameless bystanders and generic goons, where in previous Die Hard films you could actually remember their names and faces. Oh, and lets not forget the extremely stereotypical Kung-Fu Asian bitch that almost all movies have these days *throws up*
It's all badly directed and meaningless action scene after meaningless action scene and like in most modern films everything is color-filtered with an ugly glue-grey that is supposed to make everything cooler but instead makes it look dull. Finally like with most action flicks, everything simply defies logic and while I can deal with some stupidity when it comes to Hollywood-made action films this is plain ridiculous. Some cyber-terrorists destroy a whole country with a couple of Alienware laptops while a single hacker tries to kick their digital asses with a help of what else? His own laptop!!! Boring, stereotypical, way to predictable and as adrenaline pumping as sharpening a pencil, Live Free Or Die Hard is a stupid piece of US Propaganda, perfect for cinema zombies, but not for those who appreciate the art form of movie making. Avoid!!!
FINAL VERDICT: US Propaganda meets Popcorn Entertainment (2/10)
[+] Err popcorn tastes good!
[-] Boring, non-existent plot and dull, stereotypical characters. Action scenes that will make you feel sleepy. Hollywood made US Propaganda at its worse. Ugly color filtering.
Also Check: Cliffhanger (1993) – Die Hard (1988) - Phone Booth (2002) – Taken (2008)