Live Free or Die Hard
With Indiana Jones and Rocky reemerging in 21st century films, it is only fitting that John McClane also appear in other sequel. I have only seen the first film and now “Life Free or Die Hard” in the franchise. I still enjoy the first movie a tad more but this sequel was well done. I watched the unrated version because I was in a group of friends and I am not a fan of the profanity of that version. Because I have not seen the theatrical version, it is hard to tell how much I like this movie. The vulgarity is the biggest reason why I would probably never want to buy any of the “Die Hard” films. Having said that, the action in this film was lots of fun and typical of the main character. The conflict is also quite genuinely depicted both through special effects, production design and its script.
There are a few actors/characters that you don’t mess with in Hollywood. Schwarzenegger and Stallone are two obvious ones. I would also like to add Braveheart onto that list. The adjective I would use to describe the villain in this movie is stupid. I kept saying to myself while watching the film that Gabriel is completely dumb to mess with John McClane. I like how the first scene with McClaine’s daughter is played out because it fools us into thinking that she won’t be seen in the rest of the film. I noticed that the film’s realism is the same as its predecessors. Our hero almost seems superhuman in that one scene he is hurt and in the next he is doing much better. He is still able to fight. The same thing can be said for the “Indiana Jones” and "Rambo" series. All the action in the film was fun to watch. I love how the Terminator doll triggers the bomb in Matt’s room. I also like how in the tunnel, John is complaining to himself about how one little pickup turned into another battle for his life. He then takes his frustration out on the bad guys by using a car to destroy the chopper and that was cool & funny. This film depicts a cyber terrorist attack quite realistically. I enjoyed that crisis in the film. The scenes where McClane battles Mai and “the squirrel guy” (as one person I know calls him) were entertaining. It is a little coincidental that the warehouse where the final scene takes place is so conveniently close to where McClane has his showdown with the jet fighter. I would imagine that the van would have been long gone by that point with no way for McClane to follow on foot. I was waiting for one line as I watched “Live Free or Die Hard” and I got to hear at just the right time. It was very fitting that McClane said “Yippee ki yay *&@#!” before killing Gabriel. The cast did pretty good in this movie. Bruce Willis convincingly creates an older version of John McClaine and that was important for the film. Justin Long has the second best performance in the film after Willis’. Long was very funny and annoying but we still rooted for him. It is always fun in this genre to have a character who is afraid and completely opposite of the hero. It is good balance and there was good chemistry between the two actors. Timothy Olyphant was good as Gabriel but to have Kevin Smith as Warlock was perfect casting. I was glad to see that Patrick Tatopoulos from “Independence Day”, “Godzilla” and “I, Robot” was the production designer. I like his work.
Before learning the origins of the script for this movie, I could see how it was similar to “Enemy of the State” and it turns out that the story of “Live Free or Die Hard” was co-created by the same guy that wrote that film. That is probably why I had a nice time watching this movie. Because of the use of language however in the unrated version, the film was not as great as it could have been for me. I am glad that the filmmakers held back somewhat in terms of language when compared to the preceding films but it was not enough in my opinion. Some day, I may see the theatrical version and have a different opinion.
3.5 Stars