"Live Free or Die Hard" or get out of the way .....
Yet another original spoiler-free Urban Docent movie review
So as I've said before, summer is about popcorn flicks without pretense — not only does Hollywood rarely turn out "important" films, it hardly does anything of any substance over the hottest months of the year.
With that in mind, let's talk some "Live Free or Die Hard" ....
PLOT: What do you really expect? Bruce Willis is John McClane ... and there are some over-the-top bad guys doing bad stuff ... and about half of everything immediately adjacent to McClane gets blown up, smashed, killed or otherwise wrecked. Snappy one-liners abound, and people die in just about every way imaginable.
I liked the first and third installments of this franchise more than the second and fourth. While those funny and a little annoying Mac-vs-PC commercials have helped boost the career of one Justin Long, he is unable to out perform Samuel L. Jackson's "Zeus Carver" from "Die Hard with a Vengeance." Unless you're a real fan, you'll be tired of Long long before this one's done.
How does Willis do in his reprisal of a signature character? There was noticeably less figuring things out along the way and acting accordingly for this McClane incarnation. If anything, everyone's favorite detective is bitter, cynical and rather nasty; there is a lot more bile and venom in his cutting remarks rather than his flippant obscenities of the past. And the action of getting to the bad guys was handled more like every other similar movie you've seen, unlike the sequences of the previous installments.
Speaking of action, that's about all this one has going for it. There are some really great car-related stunts and a lot of fire. McClane is again bloodied and bashed before the curtains fall, but there was never a really "holy crap" kind of moment like in the other installments. For all the mayhem he has to overcome, you never get the sense that McClane is in as much danger as he was in the Nakatomi building.
Overall, this is summer blockbuster material presented at not necessarily its best. There are just too many over-the-top sequences that remove the main characters from ever truly seeming as though they might not make it. And the Willis comments are for the most part obscene, but he is not at all funny or close to witty; McClane comes off kinda tired and over it all already.
Because we have a nearly 20-year history over three films to compare/contrast with the current rendition, I am giving "Live Free or Die Hard" a C in the overall franchise line and the lowest possible C- for a stand-alone grade. This one could have been a lot better ....
As much as I love the occasional popcorn flick, this summer looks to have the most hollow and vacuous releases of any summer I can remember.
Pirates of the Caribbean, Die Hard, Transformers, Fantastic Four? Count me out.
Simplicity as an escape can be entertaining, but a steady diet of this tripe makes us all a little more stupid.
At least, that's my opinion.
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