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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"...by far the most pleasant surprise of the 2007 summer season." --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- No "sidebar" comments for this review. Yet... ...
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Live Free Or Die Hard
Click picture to order any DVD/Blu-Ray edition A Review by TechtiteNow this is more like it! With so many recent summer sequels that seemingly try to reinvent the wheel, along comes a sequel that simply offers fans what they want: another Die Hard movie. The result is the best sequel of the summer 2007 season so far. In fact; it's likely to be considered as the best Die Hard since the original movie. I admit that's a lot of praise to swallow in just the first paragraph. Then again, let's be humble; when it comes to Live Free or Die Hard, it's not like we were expecting a Shakespearean play. The idea behind any Die Hard movie is quite simple: a gang of criminals attempt a crime of megalomaniacal proportions, and it's up to John McClane (Bruce Willis) to save the day. In this case the criminals are attempting to commandeer every computer network, at once. Suddenly everything from the typical traffic light to a cell phone and even the nation's airwaves (!) are controlled by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). Who is he, and what does he want? That's what McClane will find out...just before kicking his butt. Not unlike the prior sequel, McClane is joined by an ally; the yin to his yang. Matt Farrell (Justin Long) is one of the hackers who inadvertently helped the criminals achieve their lofty internet-wide goals, under the ruse of a simulated "security test." All of Justin's computer buddies have been tracked down and killed by the criminals, in order to tie up all loose ends. McClane arrives to Justin's apartment for a simple "police escort" kind of job, when all heck breaks loose. The action picks up from there. I should take this time to explain why this film is as much fun as the original. You see; to this movie critic's eyes, what made the first film so cool was the whole "tough cop caught off guard" angle. John McClane was so caught off guard, he didn't even have his shoes on. Yet this barefoot cop gets the job done with such items as a fire hose used as a bungee cord, and an explosive chair thrown down an elevator shaft. These were the kind of bizarre, split-second "solutions" to a problem that made the first Die Hard film so much fun. Which brings us to this sequel. No matter how incredulous the odds; it's just an enjoyable spectacle to see how McClane will defeat each of the bad guys. One bad guy thinks he's safe as he shoots at McClane from the side of a helicopter...until McClane drives over a fire hydrant, which smacks the helicopter with a strong jet of water, sending the villain flying. Another bad guy attempts to find "safety" from McClane in an indoor office...until McClane drives a delivery van through the window. Ha! Sure, the film has its suspension of disbelief. That's half the fun. Nobody ever said they believed it when that explosive bus in Speed jumped over that gap in the bridge. Who cares, as long as the film is fun to watch? This film has similar scenes by the bushel. The obvious example, spoilers intact: the way he defeats the enemy helicopter is, well...unique. When Matt approaches McClane afterwards and asks what he was thinking when attempting to down a chopper that way, McClane smugly answers, "I ran out of bullets." That's what makes a fun action movie. Adding to the fun are the two newcomers: Matt, and Lucy. Who's Lucy? Well, remember that this is nearly 20 years since the first movie, and daughter Lucy McClane is all grown up now. Yet what I really loved about Lucy is how she is not the rubber-stamp hostage going "eek." Lucy is her father's daughter, after all, and her daddy is John McClane. She might not have the ingenuity her dad has to get out of a jam, though I liked how she made it a challenge for the criminals to kidnap her, kicking and punching all the way. You go, girl. The end result is a film that is, indeed, just a hair away from being as good as the original movie, which after all, was stuck completely in one boring building. What the first film did have, however, was the ultimate in Die Hard villains: specifically, Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber. As hard as Olyphant tries to be as villainous as Gruber, much like prior villains in this film series, he can only work in Rickman's shadow. However, it is equally fair to say that Olyphant's character in this movie is a far better performance as a villain than I've often seen in movies...even most superhero movies, for that matter. One more thing: don't let the PG-13 rating fool you. One might wonder how could they have made a decent Die Hard sequel, yet maintain a demographic-friendly "teen" rating? For years I've seen many an R-rated film get watered down for a larger PG-13 audience, with abysmal results. This film was exactly the opposite. This film might not have blood flying everywhere, and yet its action rivals other classic PG action movies like, say, the Indiana Jones films, or a James Bond movie. What will really surprise, you, however, is how the film ingeniously allows McClane to say his trademark R-rated "Yippie-ki-yay..." line, without breaking the PG-13 barrier. That, to this critic, was more surprising than how McClane downed that helicopter...and pretty ingenius. Yet the real success with this movie is how successfully it bested its competition, in a summer movie season filled with sequels. This sequel was put up against green baby ogres, a fleet of undead pirates, a super-villain made of pure sand, and who knows what else? It winds up, to this critic, besting every summer sequel released so far. After tons of attempts to reinvent that sequel "wheel," along comes a sequel that simply gives fans what they want. The end result is a film that not only serves as a great finale to the film saga: if they bring back Lucy and Matt, I'd love to see even more.
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