Fourth Time's Charming, Under A Scary Reality's Shadow

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2007)

When the Sept 11. attacks occurred, the slam-bam, action adventure film genre seemed in poor taste, deader than a doornail and needed no eulogy since glory-loving politicos and bluenose parents groups crucified films that were over-sized, vile, bloody comic books, without the powers or costumes.
Me? Reality and fantasy need boundaries, despite the violent actions of religious fanatics or alienated young men. Being a budding screenwriter, I find censorship of creative expression a form of social cowardice. Social cowardice is a communal disease that neither discriminates nor halts, and there'll be no one to write a proper, honest eulogy for the human race.
That said, "Live Free or Die Hard" has a pretty big window directed at the world today while being the fourth chapter (in 12 years), of the irascible, "no quitting allowed" NYC magistrate, John McClane (Bruce Willis). Under orders from the FBI, he's assigned to play bounty hunter, fetching Matthew Farrell (a dimpled Justin Long of "Accepted"), a shut-in computer hacker (is there any other kind?), since a lot of hackers across the nation are being liquidated, C4-style. The murders are the doing of sacked government IT expert Thomas Gabriel (a sharkish Timothy Olyphant of "Deadwood" and "Catch and Release"), who wants to electronically shut down America's infrastructure. Guess who has to be the fly in the ointment?
At 130 minutes and composed by director Len Wiseman (the "Underworld" films) and scribes Mark Bomback and David Marconi, the fourth "Die Hard" is something Sam Peckinpah, the late master of modern action films, would helm since Mr. Willis (a recent, fun character actor in films like "Frank Miller's Sin City", "Lucky Number Slevin" and the maltreated-by-audience gem, "Grindhouse") has McClane, while fighting the bad guys, as an outdated "cowboy" in the 21st century, scowling rightfully at humanity's infant-like reliance on technology and "who given a damn" loss of the human spirit. A surprise and an echo of Ronald Starr's Heck Longtree from Peckinpah's "Ride The High Country", Long's Ferrell is a stubborn anemic, a cyberspace lay about, but he has to help end the "fire sale" (the computer term of an national infrastructure's shutdown), since it's no flaming bag of poop on a porch.
Like his James-Bond villain-like predecessors, Mr. Olyphant's a dastardly rogue, flanked by martial artists Maggie Q ("Jackie Chan's Gen-Y Cops") and Cyril Raffaelli (the breathless "District B13") Added touches are done by series fan and shameless fan boy auteur Kevin Smith (the View Askew saga, Olyphant's co-star in "Release") as a mama's boy hacker who's adversarial towards authority figures (he and Mr. Willis should work together again) and lovely starlet Mary Elizabeth Winstead (also of "Grindhouse") as McClane's estranged daughter who doesn't want to play the helpless muse/hostage for the bad guys. She's sweet and knows how to sucker punch.
The PG-13 rating's the only true visible flaw, because giving it to the recent chapter of a R-rated film saga is like giving a tiger a baby bonnet to wear. Sure, money must be fleecedI mean earned from the teen audience, but R-rated films, I fear, will be like NC-17-rated films, barely made and unmarketable. Then PG-13 and PG-rated films will fall. Only decent, family-oriented film will be made, and the disease will never stop, unless some people like me will scream bloody hell and a half. Guess I'll wait for the unrated DVD version, but this film, like McClane, has a loud bark and bite.
Is it better than the last three? Nah. Despite the shadow of real terrorism, "Live Free or Die Hard" is a good, damn fun addition.