Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Live The Sequel Or Die Trying

The wife and I went to see Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth installment of the Die Hard series, yesterday afternoon. The movie is a decent piece of escapism but the franchise has definitely lost its edge. The movie stars Bruce Willis as Detective John McClane of the NYPD and Justin Long (yeah, the "I'm a Mac." guy) as Matt Farrell, a person of interest on the FBI's hacker watch list. Bonnie Bedilia, who played McClane's estranged wife Holly in the first two movies, is not surprisingly absent nor is she even mentioned as in the third movie. The producers did, however, bring in Mary Elizabeth Winstead as McClane's daughter, Lucy.

Early on, we see that Farrell, along with several other unsuspecting hackers, has been asked to provide a small piece of a much larger puzzle. The bad guys, headed by Timothy Olyphant (who plays a great smarmy bad guy and for some reason reminds me of a young Bill Paxton), are obviously planning something big because they're gathering the pieces, then blowing up the hackers after their piece is in place.

McClane is sent to Camden, NJ to pick up Farrell and escort him to Washington, DC after the computer system of the FBI Cybercrimes Unit is hacked (they're rounding up all the usual suspects). Before McClane and Farrell can step out the door, though, the bullets start flying (Farrell is saved from being blown up by McClane knocking at the door) and the fun begins.

Overall, I would give Live Free or Die Hard a 5 out of ten. It's a great way to waste an afternoon and see some good explosions but I wouldn't pay evening prices to see it. First, it's the fourth installment and it's a little tiring to once again see John McClane, the it's-obvious-to-me-but-not-to-any-of-the-"experts" indestructible supercop, be put into an impossibly heroic situation for the fourth time in his life. Plus, for some reason, the writers seem to have forgotten to play upon McClane's quipy sense of humor. It's there but it's very very toned down (I can count the lines on one hand - okay, maybe I'd have to use a few fingers of the other hand but that's it!). As for Farrell, you may remember the character Long played in Galaxy Quest. It's the same stuttering geek, only he's a twenty-something now. Amazingly, Long pulls it off without being an annoying wimp (they are trying to blow him up, after all). I give character continuation and development a three out of ten.

The effects and stunts were cool, I'd give them an eight out of ten. Anyone who's seen the trailer knows about the "You just killed a helicopter... with a car." but you also get to see a semi get shredded by the guns on a fighter jet.

Plot gets a five. The whole "rebooting the system" concept is beautifully chaotic but I didn't spend the entire movie wondering exactly what the bad guys were up to and what their next move would be. I think there was simply too much going on all at once to care. For me, that wonderment was part of the experience of the other three.

Believability gets a two. My willing suspension of disbelief was simply stretched way beyond its capacity. There are far too many situations where McClane should flat out be dead to believe that he could have survived any one of them (i.e. he's in the truck that gets shredded by the fighter jet). That having been said, they did go so far with it that you finally stop saying, "Oh, right!" and just ignore it and enjoy the movie.

It's a long movie (130 min running time or ~2.5 hours with previews) but you don't really notice. Do make a pit stop before you head into the theater, though.

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