Live Free or Die Hard
Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Kevin Smith
Director: Len Wiseman
Genre: Action / Adventure / Thriller
Duration: 2hr 10mins
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and a brief sexual situation.
Plot: On the July 4th holiday, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle — but he never figured on an old-school “analog” bug in the “digital” plan: John McClane. Yippee Ki Yay!

My review: Needless to say I’ve been excited about this movie since I heard it was in development. I grew up on Die Hard movies and couldn’t wait to get another installment of these great action movies (well, calling the 2nd in the series “great” is a stretch, but you get it). Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth John McClane adventure action movie is no let down for the fans. The story wastes no time throwing you straight into the action with the first gunshots coming in under the 10 minute mark. From there the next 2 hours never let up and it never feels long. The story has been modernized to the “digital age” as John is now fighting a cyber-terrorist, Thomas Gabriel, intent on wrecking revenge for his dismissed warnings of danger. Unfortunately for Gabriel John McClane gets pulled into the fight and pursues him to the very end.

The action is top-notch with constant fight scenes, bullet dodging, and lots of smart mouthing from ol’ John, who does actually start to look old (and at 52 Bruce Willis is due to start showing it). I had some reluctance about this movie landing a PG-13 over its predecessors’ R ratings. Worry not Die Hard fans. This is the hardest PG-13 movie I’ve ever seen. The foul language is a little shallow and that’s just fine (don’t worry, ‘Yippie’ is in there, you just don’t there the MF part), but the violence is deep. The bodies pile up quickly and often as well as even one baddie who meets his demise in a turbine! How they managed to keep that at PG-13, I don’t know, but by the end I never felt the action had been watered down to reach a lower rating for a wider audience.

I was pretty pleased with the casting for the most part. Bruce Willis effortlessly returns to the role of John McClane and brings along everything we’ve always enjoyed about him. I fully expect this to be his last chance at this though due to his age, 52, although Harrison Ford shows it’s possible. Justin Long did a great job of coming on as a “tag along” to McClane and earned my respect as he managed to keep up with Willis when it came to the one liners and their delivery. Then there’s the bad guy, Thomas Gabriel, who is played by a shallow and unimpressive Timothy Olyphant. This guy brings nothing to the table and is really the weakest part of the movie. When a movie franchise begins on Alan Rickman as your bad guy and nearly wraps up with Jeremy Iron it’s a real shame to close things on such a disappointing note. I’ve never been wow’d by Olyphant and nothing I saw in his performance gave me reason to change that perspective. Fortunately his role is semi-limited as he plays most of the masterminding from afar and so his lackluster involvement is of little influence.

I would definitely recommend Live Free or Die Hard to all action movie fans. Even if you’ve missed the earlier Die Hard films you won’t have a problem with this as there’s little back story needed, just an appetite for McClane style mayhem and destruction! I think it’s safe to say this is the best action movie I’ve seen so far this year and the rest of the summer is going to have a hard time topping it.

My rating: 4.5/5 stars
High point: Fantastic Action
Low point: Timothy Olyphant as a villain

Live Free or Die Hard Movie Trailer:

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