Friday, July 6, 2007

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

*** MIGTH CONTAIN SPOILERS! ***

Featuring: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long, Maggie Q

Genre: action, thriller

Plot: greedy terrorists attacks the whole country this time

Acting: not totally convincing, Willis keeps his pensive-amused grin and while it’s amusing to see it it doesn’t always fit the situation

Drama: US seemingly under attack, McClane’s daughter gets abducted… you choose

Action: quite a lot though somehow not as much as in the previous movies… is Willis getting a tad old?

Funny: the dialog is in places… the hacker is just annoying… and the daughter can kick ass, yeah!

Visuals: some of the stunts are impressive

Soundtrack: didn’t notice it

Comments: The longest a character lives the writers just seem to run out of ideas. So first there was a tower building, then an airport followed by a city and now it’s the whole country. Wanna bet the world is next if there ever is a fifth one? McClane hasn’t changed much except for the lack of hair and slightly bigger look, he’s still like a dog with a bone when confronted with a tough situation. We realize he hadn’t made up with his wife, of course since after 12 years Bonnie Bedelia couldn’t possibly look like she’s 20 again, he doesn’t get along well with his daughter, who he obviously taught her defense classes at some point, and he’s apparently surpassed by the today’s world. While pairing him with someone worked more or less in the third movie, pairing him with a weaker one, the hacker doesn’t have much of a back bone and he’s just a whiny kid who would like to be someone but is not ready for it yet, doesn’t exactly work and I pity the kid if the daughter really makes up her mind to ever hook up with him. There are a couple of déjà vu scenes like Willis on top of a plane or Maggie Q’s version of the Terminator bitch who just won’t die. The poor thing gets killed again like she did in X-Men 2, and since I mentioned that I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the hacker was someone like Stanley aka Hugh Jackman in Swordfish. Would that have kicked ass or what? One in all it’s not really a bad movie, but the first sequel was my favorite of all and compared to that there’s too much tech and less action in it. Along with Terminator Die Hard is probably one of the few series whose first sequel is better than the original. Haven’t decided yet if I’m hoping for a fifth one. Probably not.

Rating: 3/5

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