REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

The first Die Hard (1988) movie by director John McTiernan is one of the great action movies of all time. The latest installment, the fourth in the series is called Live Free or Die Hard and stars Bruce Willis as John McLane, divorced New York City cop with the estranged family and a Superman complex even more over-developed than Jack from ABC's Lost. This edition Willis' sidekick is played (quite well) by Justin Long, "that guy from the Mac commercials."

What makes (or breaks) the Die Hard movies in the end are their villains. In the past, the villains have been played by veritable scene munchers like Alan Rickman (Die Hard) and Jeremy Irons (Die Hard: With A Vengeance, 1995). The main reason why Die Hard 2 sucked is that the producers didn't spend the money to find a convincing villain. In the third Die Hard we were also treated to the lovely buddy repartee of Bruce Willis and Samule L. Jackson. Plus it takes place in New York City, on location.



Sadly, this time the villain is played by Timothy Olyphant (HBO's Deadwood) who really is just the poor man's Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point, Showtime's The Tudors). If you want a young, slightly British, pretty boy villain I don't think you should settle for someone who can barely communicate a sense of displeasure, to say nothing of malice and violence which are requisite job requirements of any well-reviewed cinematic villain.



Despite this lack, the first 90 minutes of the movie are crackling fun, with well-directed, suspenseful action sequences and a terrorist plot with enough verisimilitude to plausible real-world events to forestall instant dismissal. Unfortunately, the film is 130 minutes long with what seemed like a 30-minute action sequence of Bruce Willis in an 18-wheel truck battling a military fighter jet on a subway overpass inserted for no other reason but to enthrall 12-14 year old boys. Once McClane saves the country again (surprise, surprise!) the film is over for all intents and purposes but it keeps spooling on, like some kind of party guest who refuses to leave even though the party's over and the music has been turned off for a half hour.



"If they had real guts, the producers would have killed him off at the end," my film companion said as we left the theater.



"Yeah," I replied "but then how could they make another one?"



"Exactly!"



Indeed.



GRADE: B.