Budget theater movie this week is the fourth installment in the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard. I can't believe it's taken me this long to see this one. And given the dreck I've seen the past few weeks, it looks like I should haven't waited so long.
This movie is just pure action and makes for a great popcorn flick. Sure most of the action sequences are utterly preposterous, but they are done in such a great, "hold your breath and brace yourself" style that you can help but enjoy yourself. And kudos to them for coming up with some new and inventive ways for creating massive carnage. You can't help yourself but sit there and marvel at all the destruction that is taking place on screen.
Of course, if this were any action film, this would be enough and we could move on. However, given that this is a sequel in a storied franchise (the first in twelve years, no less), the question is, does this film do the Die Hard name justice? Unfortunately, it's not a resounding yes. The film doesn't ruin the franchise's legacy, but it also doesn't feel like it completely fits within the franchise either.
I think there are two key aspects that were needed here: more swearing and some authority figure for McClain to butt heads with. The film is rated PG-13, which means McClain barely utters a curse word. Even his signature phrase is altered to remain clean. Given all that happens to him in this film, you would figure he would be cursing up a storm. Yet, he remains relatively civilized throughout it all. And another appealing aspect of the McClain character was that he didn't care about anyone and was going to do whatever he wanted. In the past, that typically meant disobeying his superiors in the police dept. or the gov't. In this film, nobody stands in his way to take down the villain.
Speaking of the villain(s), they aren't necessarily memorable, but they do an adequate job of causing mayhem. Maggie Q gets a chance to kick some ass and Timothy Oliphant does a nice job of expressing building frustration in his failing efforts to kill McClain. It's a shame though that our current world standing forces us to make Americans the villains in films instead of the typical foreign terrorist.
This is another frustrating aspect of the film; its desire to be so modern. At one point, someone tells McClain that he's a Timex watch living in a digital world. Well, you know what, as far as I can tell, a Timex watch can still tell time and John McClain can still defeat any terrorist. People are going to come to a Die Hard film to see kick-ass action, not hear a message about how our government has become our own worst enemy.
One last negative I'll mention is the editing, particularly the audio editing. There were a number of times where it looked like the words didn't match up with what the actor was saying. Or else, it sounded like they didn't enunciate what they were saying. I'm wondering if maybe this film had originally intended to have more coarse language, but then for whatever reason decided to cut it out so that they could get a lower rating and have more people see the film.
I feel like I'm overanalyzing this film, given that it's just mindless entertainment. And as mindless entertainment, it's great. When you just want to shut your brain off for a couple of hours and enjoy stuff blowing up, this is a good movie to watch. I know Bruce is getting up there in age, but I still would love to see another installment. There will always be terrorists out there that need to be stopped, and frankly, there's no better guy (save for maybe Jack Bauer) who I would want to take them down. Yippe-ki-yay motherfucker indeed! Grade: B+
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