Live Free or Die Hard
Coming out of “Live Free or Die Hard,” the only words I wanted to utter were, “No More.” I don’t want to see “Die Hard 5,” “Die Hard Rides Again,” or “Die Hard in a Retirement Home.” I just want to watch the franchise to go out on the high I felt watching it’s fourth installment, which recaptured the thrills and entertainment value of the 1988 original which went on to redefine the action film going into the ’90s. See, when I said “No More,” it was the highest compliment I could give the film for what it did right, and avoided doing wrong.
I can’t say that the idea of a new “Die Hard” film- directed by Len Wiseman (whose “Underworld” I was hardly a fan of)- after the mindless low of 1995’s “Die Hard With a Vengeance” was my idea of a good time (much less with a PG-13 rating). But both Wiseman and Twentieth Century Fox left me pleasantly surprised, with the director taking an old-school approach to the action and filmmaking (no slick-ass slo-mo and mood lighting for this film, and little CG for the low-logic, high-thrill action sequences) and writers Mark Bomback and David Marconi doing a clever job of building a modern thriller story around the blueprint of the original film’s storyline (such like-minded elements include a McClane family member in peril, an ally for John with tight-asses for bosses, and a bad guy out for vengeance when a loved one is killed). In that way, “Live Free or Die Hard” reminded me of the approach Stallone- another ’80s action icon- took to “Rocky Balboa,” with surprising success. If the trend continues, might we see a similar approach to “Indiana Jones IV” next summer?
But let’s be honest, the main draw of “Live Free or Die Hard” is to see Bruce Willis back as “wrong place at the right time” NYPD detective John McClane, and his swagger in the role is infectious. He clearly loves playing this role- which defined him as a movie star (though he’s managed to sustain his career through exceptional performances in “The Sixth Sense,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Unbreakable,” “12 Monkeys,” “16 Blocks,” and “Sin City,” among others I’m sure I’m forgetting)- and it comes through in every minute of his performance, whether he’s accosting his estranged daughter Lucy’s non-boyfriend (the daughter’s played by “Grindhouse’s” Mary Elizabeth Weinstead, and she’s very much her father’s daughter), diving from a speeding car he’s aiming at a helecopter, ribbing on a geek named Warlock (Kevin Smith in a cameo that is cool but not terribly funny) at his “command center” (his mother’s basement), or delivering his famous line as to what should be on his tombstone (yes, he does say it, but the last part is mixed down and drown out by the sound effects).
Of course, it helps that the film gives him something to chew on. And as pure popcorn fodder, he’s had worse material over the years (see “Mercury Rising,” “Armageddon,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” “The Whole Ten Yards,” “Color of Night”). At the outset, a mysterious group is reaching out to some of the US’s best computer hackers to supposedly check the government’s firewall system. But little do these geeks know that they’re actually helping a cyber-terrorist/former NSA computer whiz named Thomas Gabriel create what’s known as a “free sale,” which is nothing less than the complete shut down of every government-run computer system (from utilities to government offices to Wall Street to transportation). That the ultimate motivation is billions of dollars of revenue that gets store into something like a cyber “safe house”- which he helped design- doesn’t make the prospect any less unsettling.
What with the hack complete, Gabriel calls for the hackers he outsourced the work to to be eliminated. That includes Matt Ferrell (“Accepted’s” Justin Long, whose nerdy personality fits the role well, even if there’ve been funnier action sidekicks). Once word gets out on the hack, the government does their own outsourcing, sending local cops out to bring hackers in for questioning. I think you can figure out who McClane gets teamed up with…
Admittedly, this is a higher velocity version of Willis’ most recent police thriller “16 Blocks,” where he was also in charge of getting a star witness to the proper authorities on time. But whereas Willis and “Lethal Weapon” director Richard Donner took us back to the character-driven excitement of ’70s police dramas with that underrated film, Willis and Wiseman- while adhering to an escapist mindset that’s very much of the ’80s (an emphasis on stuntwork over CG)- are doing a film about an analog cop, not up to the technological tricks of the bad guys, taking on a digital threat, who aren’t accustomed to the brute force McClane can deliver in the face of their high-tech gadgets. Don’t look for much in the way of logic, but with Willis and the filmmakers paying homage to the spirit of the original film while making the formula accessible to a modern day twist, it’s a good bet you’ll be having too much fun to care. Now say it with me…”Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf@&#er.”
