Hey all!
Caught the new Die Hard tonight and I can say with absolute resonance that the summer doldrums are broken. Live Free r Die Hard was everything I was hoping to get out of this movie. Tons of great action sequences, the best man vs woman fist fight I have EVER seen, and plenty of the old John McClane witty banter. Don't get me wrong, Die Hard 4 is TOTALLY over the top, but its presented in such a way that they never take it to far out of the realm of possibility. Sure they stretch the boundaries of the realm, but not much more than With a Vengeance did with the semi truck water tunnel sequence. I am sure you saw in the preview with McClane taking out the helicopter with his car and fighting the F-35 jet, they pushed a little more CG than we may come to expect from the gritty old school style of the previous films, but considering today's movie market place, I feel they did an excellent job on the movie.
Willis is great even in his 50's really making us remember why McCLane is such a great character, and remembering why it was Bruce Willis that created the action genre we know today. You get all the good and all the bad in one wisecracking package, and its definitely worth your $9.00 for a ticket.
I also had worried that the PG-13 rating would take away from the movie, but honestly I didn't really notice the language (or lack hereof) in the movie, and they toned down some of the more gruesome images of McClane killing the bad guys, but nothing I would comment to have a negative impact on the film.
The supporting cast was good. Justin Long as the nerdy tech guy (not too much of a stretch) and Timothy Olyphant as the bad guy was a perfect bit of casting. A guy like Olyphant, who is criminally underrated, can pull of the more traditional bad guy role of the Die Hard films, thief covering his own intentions with a bigger picture. This film isn't breaking new ground, but it doesn't need to.Its great the way it is.
My only complaint would be the god-like powers the hackers have, though it's a minor one. Precedence is pretty much set that a hacker in any movie can do anything in just a few seconds and Live Free is no exception. Once you accept that.. just enjoy the action as Bruce Willis does what he does best, get the shit kicked out of him kill some bad guys and crack some wise.
I really hope that this film does well, I'd love to see Willis reprise the role one more time and take the franchise full circle. Each movie has opened the field of play a bit more, Die Hard was just 1 guy in an office building, Die Harder was opened up to a full airport, With a Vengeance sees McClane all over NYC, and Live Free finds McClane all over the upper eastern seaboard. I'd love for them to strip down the film 1 more time and rekindle the one man against the odds in a small space again. But let's face it, as long as the movies re well made I am gonna keep watching.
I'll try to hit another update tommorrow with a rundown on my quick trip to Flagstaff.
Yippee-ki-yay mother fucker!
End of Line.
Gerrad!
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