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Live Free or Die Hard
Reviewed by Theo Michelfeld
Posted: July 1, 2007              

The Die Hard franchise, like its hero John McClane, is not to be underestimated. Though past its prime, and apparently overmatched by hipper, more vital competition, this rampaging dinosaur of an action series delivers by far the best sequel of 2007, putting Shrek, Spider-Man, and those goofy Caribbean Pirates to shame. In fact Live Free or Die Hard offers more entertainment for your movie ticket than all three of those fussbudget sequels combined. Two months ago, who would have guessed it?

Bruce Willis, now 52 years old, doesn’t look a day over 51 in this new installment, as he dangles one-handed in an elevator shaft, throws himself out of a speeding police car, and gets himself kicked through a two-story window by a female martial artist. As Detective John McClane, he is once again somehow the only cop around when you need one, thrust into the hero’s role when a bunch of high-maintenance, smarmy, Caucasian terrorists cook up a high-tech, diabolical, financially-motivated scheme that puts regular Joes like you and me in harm’s way.

With his trademark combination of preposterous resourcefulness and low-tech brawn, McClane punches, shoots, drives, and wisecracks his way through the ever-diminishing gantlet of bad guys, occasionally connecting with the film’s arch-villain by cell phone or CB radio to tell him he’s a “jackass” or a “jerkoff” or otherwise taunt him, until the final face-to-face confrontation yields an improbable but inevitable victory for the barely-breathing underdog. Whoops, I just gave away the ending.

Considering it’s been 12 years since the last Die Hard film, and 17 years since the last good one, the formula feels welcome. In particular, the filmmakers are wise to highlight McClane’s fast-thinking problem-solving skills, and focus less on the supposedly tension-filled “buddy comedy” dialogue that all but derailed the franchise back in 1995. That said, there is a dweeby sidekick is this film, played by Justin Long, who many will recognize as the floppy smart-aleck from the Mac vs. PC commercials. Long plays a computer hacker under McClane’s protection, and the character serves mostly as a verbal punching bag in the film’s cross-generational banter, until he finally starts hitting guys with wrenches and so forth, fighting crime the old-fashioned way, and earning the respect of our grizzled, antiquated hero. Long has his moments, but a little more genuine Gen-X insight would have fleshed out his character nicely.

Not that it matters much. This film is way more action than talk, and on that score, it’s a blast. It amazes me, considering the deathless popularity of this genre, how frequently action filmmaking is mis-handled by any given director. And then a movie like this comes along and makes it all look so easy. This film’s numerous set pieces are all crafted with that apparently mystical balance of velocity and patience. And they are considerably helped along by the focused, coherent, and engaging plot that ties them together. What’s more, the predicaments, and the ways out of them, are clever, and not merely violent.

It was almost twenty years ago that John McClane got separated from his shoes and then proceeded to foil a whole skyscraper full of bad guys in his bare feet. In that original Die Hard film, McClane seemed to take the baton from Indiana Jones, as our favorite stubborn, fallible hero who would always just barely succeed. Now, word has it the Indiana Jones franchise will resurrect itself for a fourth installment in 2008. Let’s hope that series, and its 65-year-old star Harrison Ford, show the same resilience as Die Hard has shown this weekend. For now, and at least until then, here’s to 80’s leftovers.

Copyright © 2007 Theo Michelfeld