Live Free or Die Hard

A Quadrilogy Worth Your Time
Adam Valen Levinson
Freelance Movie Critic
      Yippie-kay-ay, John McClane's back.
      It's been twelve years, but Bruce Willis has returned as the hard-lined (slightly wrinkled) cop from New York. This time, he and super-hacker Justin Long (who seems typecast from the Apple commercials) team up to shut down a virtual "fire sale" — a computer attack designed to dismantle every element of the United States government, triggering chaos, panic and big, big explosions.
      Awesome.
      Willis' brawn and gun-toting know-how are everything Long's character, Matt Farrell doesn't have in his arsenal. If you're ever tired by how calm McClane is as the world crumbles around him, just watch Farrell have kittens for a few moments. But who wouldn't? We must put our suspension of disbelief to good use in order to accept that McClane and others haven't died dozens of times by the end credits. Bad guy-accomplice and high-kicking fox Mai Lihn (Maggie Q) is sandwiched between a fast SUV and an unforgiving concrete wall, yet remains just as unkillable as before.
      Luckily, McClane is equally resilient. Wipe the blood off and move on — there are too many bad guys to kill and not enough time to kill them. His unkillability and his steadfast dedication to justice help him begin to fix his relationship with his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who had adopted her mother's maiden name.
      The movie isn't pretentious, and neither are its stars. On the Daily Show for pre-release publicity, Willis presented some of his failed proposals for the film's title: Just Start Blasting Anything That Moves and Just Can't Kill Him, Just Can't Blow Him Up. He also said he has "low expectations," for his films' reviews. But while his titles fit perfectly, there is something refreshing in an action movie that claims to be nothing else. So for this movie that is set during the Independence Day weekend, grab your holiday patriotism and go watch Willis blow things up without any signifying.
      Yet, if you choose to think about it, something in Die Hard 4 is a tad frustrating. For most of the movie, the villain's motives are entirely unclear. Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), a programmer once fired and destroyed by the government, is back for revenge. Okay, but why take D.C. hostage? He finally rationalizes, saying that the country would be better off — he's doing us a favor by showing how vulnerable we are. It might have been a make-you-think moment, but by this point all your thinking neurons have probably been fried by Mr. Gabriel's pyrotechnics.
      But maybe, is a message in Die Hard. Do we rely too much on technology? Have we lost touch with ourselves and the country? Dude, who cares, there's an F-15 on the highway.

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Photo:                                   Matt Farrell: You just killed a helicopter with your car!
                                  John McClane: I was out of bullets.
Live Free or Die Hard
130 Minutes
Release Date: June 27, 2007