Yippee Ki yea...one more time

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2009)

When I first caught wind of plans for Die Hard 4, I was skeptical. By the time a #4 for any series comes out, the series has long run its course. But then I went to see Die Hard 4 (or Live Free or Die Hard, as I prefer to call it) at the theater, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not because it presented any major turning point in the film industry (which every major critic out there seems to expect out of every movie that comes out), but because it took an old hero and an old series, and gave it a serious tune up. Bruce Willis returns as NYPD Detective John McClane, now many years older, many hairs shorter, and much more worse for wear. He's divorced, he's borderline alcoholic, and his headstrong daughter Lucy (played admirably by Miss Mary Elizabeth Winstead) doesn't want anything to do with him. On the eve of Independence Day weekend (note that the series has entirely broken away from the Christmas eve setting), McClane is called on to handle a routine arrest that spirals into a plot to overthrow the infrastructure of the United States, headed by the disgruntled and ruthless NSA agent Thomas Gabriel (cold played by Timothy Olymphant) and his calculating team of hackers and special ops mercenaries. With the sarcastic hacker Matt Farrel (portrayed well by Justin Long) as his reluctant sidekick, McClane has to do his hero thing: stop the terrorists before their 'fire sale' takes hold. As a whole, LFoDH is good. While the basic premise of one determined cop taking on an entire team of terrorists still remains, it's been updated. Gone are high security vault robberies, plane hijackings, and gold bullion stores of old; the war's technical. Yet at the center we have McClane, perfectly described by Thomas Gabriel as 'a Timex watch in a digital age'. He's a little out of his element, thats true, but it serves only to portray a more vulnerable side of him. He's not Terminator, he's an average Joe unwillingly put into the hero position. Providing emotional balance are Justin Long's Matt Farrel, McClanes hacker partner who is more adept at typing keys than duking it out with terrorists, Timothy Olymphant's Thomas Gabriel, the disgruntled NSA hacker looking for his rightfully earned back pay, and Mary Winsteads Lucy McClane, almost a reincarnation of the original McClane himself (albeit, tempered by female attitude). The acting is delivered well, to cut it short. The action scenes are great, with McClane taking on a team of parkour trained mercenaries, a helicopter, and even a military jet. The cinematography, while not anything to write home about, is still worthy of the film, and overall, LFoDH has exceeded any and all expectations. Take my advice, and see this film. It is a more than worthy sequel to the action packed Die Hard franchise