Live Free or Die Hard (2007) (1 Viewer)

[Mark Kalzer]

Strange. I found this pretty dissapointing. I just felt somehow, despite a few good sequences of explosions...that I had already seen all of this before in so many non-Die Hard movies.

The John McClane/'I'm a Mac guy' duo tries so hard to match the McClane/Sam Jackson duo, but just cannot find any kind of rhythm beyond, "I'm old", "I'm young...and digital..." The old guy vs. new guy thing has been done to death countless times before, and it hardly goes any deeper then 'You listen to old music? Ewww!' Mr. "I'm a Mac" performs a single emotion for the entire film, up until the extremely predictable small moment of heroism. Somehow I just felt it was a huge missed opportunity. The Kevin Smith character 'Warlock' to me would be a far greater match as it remains clear no one in Hollywood can play the geek like Kevin Smith! He has a sharp natural wit which 'I'm a Mac' cannot match. To me...the classic duo would be McClane, the tough and rugged, with the Kevin Smith, the overweight, social reclusive and extremely sarcastic, but still brilliantly minded computerwise. Why must all sidekicks be fit and thin? Is it not time some fat slob saved the world? (With all due respect to Kevin Smith... I love the man!)

I also had problems wrapping my head around the plot. I am a firm believer that it should not be expected of a viewer to turn his brain off during a movie, and maybe my expectations are too high... but I just could not help but keep wondering why this plot had to involve John McClane. In a scenario he clearly knows nothing about... he immedietely concludes, in the middle of the streets, amidst all this chaos and with no real resources, it is up to him to save the world. Why? How is it remotely possible that he and his hacker friend could know more then the US intelligence? And why must it be he alone (with sidekick) who goes to to that central hub station if it is so seemingly obvious a computer terrorist target? The whole thing seemed awkwardly shoehorned around McClane, if only because this is what a franchise film demands. Somehow, McClane has to be worked in, and this time it isn't as simple as him hanging out in a bathroom in an inconvenient time.

Finally the PG-13 thing, I cannot ignore. We've been told it was always intended to be this way, but it was glaringly obvious that they were overdubbing parts. When the lips are quite clearly saying 'fuck' repeatedly, we're hearing something else, and the dubbing work is utterly atrocious. This is a mature action movie sanitized for the wrong reasons, and in the wrong ways. Inevitably, I can only shake my head at this Hollywood mentality that if you murder people mercilously, (Which McClane the cop does repeatedly without even thinking to figure out who these guys are) smack innocent women around, that is okay, but only as long as you watch your language! Exactly what message is this industry sending to teenagers? They should be quite confused indeed. (Our Canadian ratings system acknowledges that teenagers have heard all these swear words before, hence 'Billy Elliot' is free of the absurd R rating) Usually the ratings system has little effect here in Canada, but at times like this, it is really grating to see mature films sanitized in such ludicrous manner.

Just how long does hollywood intend to continue to market the same stuff over and over again?

 

[Malcolm R]

As long as people keep paying to watch it, most likely.

At least we haven't reached the point that produces films like "Ass" ("It won 8 Oscars that year...." Idiocracy reference )

 

[Diallo B]

i was disappointed with this as well. nice ode to the action movies of the 80's but this type of movie has passed its prime.

i was bored and the movie seemed far too long. the premise set in the movie would make a great movie but that great movie was not found in this vechicle.

i dragged a female friend of mine to the movie and she was kicking and screaming all the way. i told her that rotten tomatoes is rarely wrong and it received a fresh rating. well rt was wrong on this one and she let me know it for the rest of the evening.

if you really want to see it wait for the dvd. seriously.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Did anyone else laugh when the FBI agent assigned to drive McClane and Matt to the NSA introduced himself as "Agent Johnson"? McClane does a great double-take, but I think my wife and I were the only ones in the theater who got the reference.

Interesting to hear this described as a "nice ode" to 80s action movies. To me, that's a good thing, because there haven't been many entertaining action movies in recent years, and this one was a silly riot from beginning to end, right down to Lucy's, "Today my name is McClane." For me, at least, Rotten Tomatoes got this one right.

Hey, I've seen reality, and it never looks anything like the movies.

M.

 

[Brent M]

I picked up on it as well, but I don't think too many other people in the theater did.

Also, I've gotta say that McClane's quip to Gabriel "your girlfriend is at the bottom of an elevator shaft with an SUV rammed up her ass" is one of my favorite movie lines to come along in quite some time.

 

[TravisR]

I liked that too. It's a pretty good in-joke since it's not super obvious. At least, I haven't seen too many people comment on it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Which one?

 

[ThomasC]

I didn't laugh, but I smiled.

 

[Michael Reuben]

The other one.

Sorry, ThomasC, I missed your post on the previous page. But I knew if there was one place where I'd find others who enjoyed that moment, it'd be here.

M.

 

[Dennis Castro]

This was basically an average action flick with Bruce willis in it and the Die Hard name slapped on it. It wasn't great but it didn't suck.

With 1 and 3 being the best of the bunch, this one comes in a distant last.

These types of flicks are only as good as the villains. Timothy Olyphant is serviceable at best. He doesn't even come close to touching Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons.

 

[Michael Reuben]

The exchanges about the official review and discussion threads has moved here in Feedback, so that this thread can continue to focus on Live Free or Die Hard.

M.

 

[Brett_M]

I caught this last night in a nearly full house and it was a blast. Some great lines, fight scenes and over the top action -- I loved it. It's number 2 in the series for me, after the original. Willis was charismatic, funny and very capable for his aged McClane performance. I thought the rapport he had with Justin Long was awesome. Long was funny and a better partner than Sam Jackson. As for the PG-13 thing -- the only missing ingredient for an "R" was the language (and nudity) but I did not miss it. Len Wiseman basically directed a Michael Bay epsiode of 24 for this franchise and it worked for me (I love Michael Bay, 24 and Die Hard).

Besides the "Agent Johnson" line, he also said "This is a bad idea!" (DHWAV)when he dropped out of the speeding cop car before it...well...became the money shot from the trailer.

 

[Tino]

I thought Live Free Or Die Hard was a total blast from beginning to end. Great action, great humor, great Bruce Willis back as McClane. Justin Long was the perfect "buddy" for McClane. Tons of fun and a true crowd pleaser.

Best Action film of the summer (YES...better than Transformers).

:star::star::star:1/2

 

[Nelson Au]

I thought it very good, in the sense that I felt like I didn't know how McClane was going to get out of this one and that one.

At the climatic end, I could see that one coming the way they set it up. It was a good trick.

However, it was lacking in something, and I realize now it needed that bit that McTiernan brings to the films. That sense of joy that he spoke of in the commentary for DH1. The bad guy here was just a bad guy, no sense of fun that Hans Gruber had. No good dialogue about men's suits.

I liked the Agent Johnson line too! I guess they couldn't find a place for an Atlantic Courier truck here, or I missed the joke.

Some of the stunts reminescent of T2 and True Lies. But that's probably unavoidable as these film stunts were likely spawned from Die Hard.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Really, really enjoyed it. The best compliment I can give the film is that it felt like a Die Hard movie which wasn't the vibe I was getting from the trailers. Lots of really great action setpieces, great one liners, and the Willis-Long relationship was great and never overstated.

I didn't find the CGI excessive at all with the exception of the jet battle and that was mainly because that was rather poor CGI compared to the rest of the film. And that sequence did feel like something out of place in a Die Hard film but it was still well executed for the most part.

Can't say I felt the violence was toned down (body count seemed like it was probably the highest in the series) and while the language was obvoiusly sanitized it still felt like it was pushing the PG-13 limit.

 

[WillG]

Saw it today and was pleasantly surprised it turned out to be as decent as it was. However, there are some things in my initial pre-review posts that I cannot look past. I still do wish they could have went with the R rating so that the action and violence could be more visceral at they were in the first three films. I don't necessarily think that the PG-13 really hurt the film, but with the R it could have been much more badass. As for the titles, I was dissapointed they did not go with the signature, block lettered "DIE HARD" slamming into each other. I feel that the film really jumped from one action scene to the next, as if it really was made for the current teen audience. I feel the plot was a bit too "global" I liked it better when McClane dealt with a more localized threat (This is the reason I liked the first season of "24" the best when Jack Bauer dealt with a relatavely small but intensly personal threat). Also, I know smoking is "Evil" nowadays, but would it have killed them to put in a throwaway line that explained that McClane quit smoking? I did like the other nods to the original such as the Agent Johnson line, Lucy asserting that her last name is "Gennaro" his uneasiness about flying and the "In the wrong place at the wrong time" line. I do also think what hurt was the use of Super 35. The first three had a very distinct Panavision look that was absent from LFODH.

In spite of all that, it was mostly a satisfying film. I also couldn't help but notice after I rewatched the original Die Hard that they did a pretty good job casting Lucy. The little girl from the original looked very much like a younger version of the actress LFODH used.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I liked the titles because they kind of hearkened back to the first film where the credits were relatively low key instead of the slam-bang title and no other credits presentation of 2&3.

 

[WillG]

True, but "Die Hard" did present the film title with the classic font.

 

[Kevin Grey]

(Reading back through the thread now that I've seen it...)


It's funny that you say that because I remember him doing it in LFoDH and it's one of the moments early in the film that sold me on it being a Die Hard film instead of a generic action film. I think the moment I'm thinking of is when he's firing out the window at Farrell's house.

Otherwise I don't remember McClane using a gun a whole lot after that first sequence, which I appreciated because it made the action scenes a bit more inventive and seemed true to the character- the bad guys are walking around with automatic weapons and meanwhile McClane is using everything at his disposal to improvise.

 

[Holadem]

I guess I missed that. To be frank, I only thought about it after the movie .

You know, after all this hooplah, Williamson pulls a dissapearing act between this thread and the Transformers' ? WTF?

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H