Live Free or Die Hard Indeed!

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Possibly the best action movie of the summer.
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Goldeniangel
Goldeniangel
12,556 Followers

And here I thought sequels could only go downhill...

Maybe it's because I watched "The Marine" last week, but "Live Free or Die Hard" is one of the best action movies I've seen in a long time.

Not only is there an actual plot, but for some reason when Bruce Willis spews those expected cheesy lines, he doesn't sound cheesy. I mean, sure, the line is expected... but instead of groaning when he says it, you find yourself surprised that you feel absolutely no need to groan. Maybe it's because he actually uses emotion when he spouts those cheesy lines, you can actually empathize with him. There's love in his voice when he says "They have my daughter", not just the usual hard-liner, kick ass, macho man that's upset about the loss of a possession as opposed to a person. No, John McClane actually sounds like it pains him to think about his little girl in enemy hands, although of course he's just as dedicated to kicking the bad guy's ass as any other anti-hero would be.

I think my favorite thing about the movie was that it wasn't the typical action-flick that's been coming out lately. CGI was used in some scenes, but honestly it didn't seem like all that many. I'm pretty sure they went back to the tried-and-true method of stunts... which makes things even more cool when you're watch. It's hard an gritty, as opposed to being smooth, and for some reason it makes you believe more in the movie.

Of course, the amount of abuse that McClane goes through before the end of the movie is unimaginable. There's no way anyone could go through what he does and pull it off, he really died about 80 times over during the movie... but as he looks up from his latest death-defying feat and laughs in amazement at the fact that he's still alive, you kind of wish it could be real.

And at least he looks like he's hurting. He limps, he groans, he's bleeding everywhere and all over everyone... and true to his character he laughs with glee as long as he's hurt the bad guy worse. Granted, he doesn't have any hair to mess up, but I bet if he did then it would be. No one tries to make him the perfect hero who can get through everything without a scratch... McClane is down and dirty with it, by the end of the movie he's covered in bruises, scratches and grime. No attempt is made to clean him up. And he'll limp and groan with pain right until he realizes he has to pull it together to get the job done, then his adrenaline is up and he's off and running on a leg that's bleeding through his pants.

Amazingly, for an action flick, the plot is actually pretty fantastic and well thought out, not to mention scary as hell for those of us living in the age of technology. The bad guys are using computers to take us out, they look very much like those new-age action heroes are smooth and slick, typing away at their keyboards at the speed of light, and doing everything by remote. Even the lead henchman is like that, springing around like a toy - agile enough that you start to think he MUST be CGI - and pissing McClane off to no end. The idea is that the bad guys are throwing the entire country into turmoil, taking away everything that connects us. Our phones no longer work, the traffic system is gone, emergency services overloaded, and they take over our TVs so that our only information comes through them. Then the power starts to go out.

For a young American college student, sitting in the movie theater, this is definitely the end of the world. Because we know it can be done. The incompetent American government in the movie has placed all the financial information of our country into ONE computer system, they have no backups for their own operations. In fact, they show themselves to be pretty useless all around - which the head of the F.B.I. seems to realize as the only government operator with any brains, and he rails against their incompetence. As the country erupts in chaos, McClane hopes that his government can be held intact, only to be reminded by the college-aged computer hacker named Matt that it took FEMA five days to bring water to the Superdome.

In this age of cynicism and lack of faith in the government, my friends and I sat back and worriedly watched, knowing deep in our bones that something like this could actually happen. Not on the grand scale, I do believe a firesale would be possible but I also believe that the people who could pull something like that off would have the motivations to do so. But small terrorist attacks... my cell phone is glued to my hip... what if suddenly I couldn't communicate with my friends? I don't know their numbers, what good will a land line do me? Not to mention that the land lines can be taken out too, because they are also run by computers. Our bank accounts, our retirement funds, the traffic lights, the news, computers... what if it was all taken away in a second?

And so as McClane raced to save his daughter and the United States, my heart was pounding. I didn't just want him to succeed, I NEEDED him to succeed. Our entire culture is built on computers, our entire way of life... and seeing that taken away was downright terrifying. "Yes," my brain tells me, "That's what it would be like... that's the kind of panic, the kind of fear that we'd all be feeling... if those things were taken away from me, where would I be?"

Which is why McClane is so fantastic. He uses the technology sure, takes all the help that Matt can give him to stop the bad guys, using technology against them the same way they used it against us. But in the end it's his own determination, skill, and stubbornness that gets him through to the end.

I'm so used to seeing movies where technology has to be avoided, make sure you don't trip the alarm systems! Find a way to take out the cameras - or at least to show them something else... but here the bad guys have taken over the technology and you can't get it back from them.

So what? Says McClane, he doesn't even understand the technology (I had fits of laughter when he put his hand over the Web-Cam, thinking that the bad guys wouldn't be able to hear him, it was so something one of my parents would do). No need for fancy technological tricks to take out the alarms or cameras, McClane gets on the walkie-talkie to tell the enemy where he is, "Yeah, I'm on the third floor, and I'm on my way to you. And when I get there I'm gonna kick your ass."

Oh hell yeah.

We're talking old-school, kick ass, action flick. I laughed my ass off at his witticisms, cringed in my seat going "OH!" at the shocking violence and explosions, and cheered as McClane overcame obstacle after obstacle. And not because he wanted to, not for fame not for glory... but because there was no one else to do it. While bureaucracy ran loops around itself, John McClane went out and got the job done. Let's hear it for the local police!

It was more than worth the $10 it cost me to get in there. At midnight.

In fact, I'm thinking about going back for a second round.

Yippee-kay-yi-yay mother fucker!

Goldeniangel
Goldeniangel
12,556 Followers
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7 Comments
librentlibrentalmost 16 years ago
Yippee ki yay!!

I finally got to see this movie the other week on DVD and I agree totally with your review. Its definitely a movie that will be added my collection.

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 16 years ago
own the camp

I really enjoyed your review. Halfway through I was thinking to myself "this would be so rediculous if it weren't said with such conviction." Beautifully, you pointed out the same truth about the movie. I can't think of anything more entertaining than the fact that on an erotic literature website I found a review of the fourth Die Hard movie that demonstrated an appreciation for it that is truly inspiring. I'm not being sarcastic.

USA! USA!

AnonymousAnonymousover 16 years ago
Now!...Yes

Great Review,....yes now this has made me really move my ass to the theatre....thanks

AnonymousAnonymousover 16 years ago
Great Review

But I disagree, Transformers wasn't better. 1408 was a close second to Die Hard. But you can't beat Bruce.

AnonymousAnonymousover 16 years ago
Great movie but...

I rather enjoyed the movie as well, but I definitely thought that Transformers was better. And yes many will say it falls under a different category, but to me it doesn't really matter. Both were good. Transformers was better.

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