June 28, 2007 -- “Live Free or Die Hard” is the kind of funny, exciting, entertaining action film that “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” was supposed to be. This is the best Die Hard movie since the original film (which was recently named by Entertainment Weekly as the “greatest action film of all time”) made back in 1988 when gasoline cost less than 75 cents a gallon. The United States has fallen on hard times since then, but John McLane (still played by a now-hairless Bruce Willis) just keeps rolling along as strong as ever. This latest Die Hard film is loaded with comedy, some of it unintentional, boasts an effective cop-buddy combination, amazing stunts and special effects and great production design. It is a silly, unbelievable, but very entertaining film.

McLane, now divorced, opens the film by hassling his daughter, Lucy (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead of “Final Destination 3”) and her would-be boyfriend during a date. Soon, however, he gets a call to pick up a computer hacker for the feds, who are investigating a computer attack on a government computer facility. McLane arrives at the hacker's house, belonging to Matt Farrell (Justin Long of “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”). Soon after that, a band of armed men attack the house, trying to kill Farrell because of what he knows of a plot to disable computers and basic utilities in much of the eastern United States. A series of events force McLane and Farrell to become unlikely partners in an attempt to foil the plot and to rescue McLane's daughter, who has been taken hostage by the bad guys.

Much of the plot is silly and unbelievable. Despite advantages, the federal computer experts who are attempting to foil the plot are always a step behind McLane, Farrell and the bad guys. They simply never catch up, despite numerous clues about what is happening. McLane and Farrell have to do all the work themselves, with a little help from another computer hacker called Warlock (Kevin Smith of “Catch and Release”). Warlock is in the movie mainly for comic relief, that Smith (who is also a director of such films as “Clerks”) does very well. The bad guys, however, are not very impressive, except for their extraordinary computer skills and the loads of expensive equipment and killer henchmen they have at their disposal. The main bad guy is a computer whiz named Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant of “Catch and Release”) and his femme fatale girlfriend, Mai Linh (Maggie Q of “Mission Impossible III”).

The bad guys operate the way bad guys always do in these kinds of movies. They hire lots of henchmen to help them and ruthlessly then kill them all off when the job is done, so they don't have to split the profits. It makes you wonder why anyone would work for people with such lethal working conditions. They also have a big army of soldiers whose job it is to kill whoever they are told to kill. These soldiers are always loyal to the death. The film even makes fun of this particular action movie cliche´ when McLane asks Gabriele “Where do you get all these guys? Henchmen R Us?”

This isn't the only time the movie has fun with standard action movie clichés. Some of the stunts are so outrageously unbelievable they are laugh-out-loud funny. It seemed to me the movie was made with unbelievable stunts as a kind of movie in-joke, a parody of action movies. Maybe this humor was unintentional, but it was very funny nonetheless. I found myself laughing at the absurdities in this movie more than I've laughed at most comedies I've seen this year. In addition to the possibly unintentional humor there is plenty of good intentional jokes as well. Kudos to the writers, Mark Bomback and David Marconi, for creating a story with lots of good one-liners that so adroitly walks the tightrope separating comedy and serious action. The production design and art direction by Patrick Tatopoulos (“I, Robot”), Beat Frutiger and Troy Sizemore (“Hidalgo”) is dazzling. These outrageous action comedy movies fail far more often than they succeed. Sequels often fail, too. Of all the big sequels released this year, and there have been a lot of them, this is the best. Kudos to director Len Wiseman for making a good movie for a change, following those two dismal “Underworld” films. It may not make as much money as those other summer blockbusters, but it is the only film of all the sequels so far that I would pay money to watch again.

Bruce Willis is great as McLane and Justin Long is perfect as the reluctant geek hero. The two make an effective screen pairing. Elizabeth Winstead doesn't have much screen time in this movie, appearing as McLane's daughter, but makes the most of it. Cliff Curtis of “Fracture” brings an interesting intensity to the role of Bowman, head of the government's anti cyber terrorism unit. He gets considerable screen time, but his character is doomed to spin his wheels for the entire movie. This is really a waste, and an instance where blind adherence to the Die Hard formula doesn't work. As in the other Die Hard films, this one is overlong, but it is never dull. This film rates a B. By the way, the title of this film is a take-off on the official motto of the state of New Hampshire: live free or die. Pretty grim, huh?

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Copyright © 2007 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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