‘Live Free Or Die Hard’
“Live Free or Die Hard” may not turn out to be the biggest blockbuster of the summer, but it is definitely in the top five. John McClane hasn’t changed one bit since his last movie twelve long years ago. Bruce Willis spends the whole movie protecting an important computer hacker, thwarting the bad guys, and protecting his daughter. While he’s doing all this he is being attacked by helicopters, military jets, and a crazy kung-fu Asian chick who beats his butt most of the time.
Long, perhaps best known as Mac from Apple’s ubiquitous television ads, is very funny as a wry, sarcastic computer nerd whose running, panicky commentary (”I skinned my knee,” he tells a bloodied McClane, “and I think my asthma is acting up”) provides a sympathetic counterweight to Willis’ bemused detachment.
Timothy Olyphant, as evil genius Thomas Gabriel, doesn’t do much acting; he mainly spits out his lines through clenched teeth and stares unblinkingly at computer screens. But don’t get us wrong he still makes a good bad guy. And of course he spends the whole movie frusterated at McClance and trying desperately to kill him with anything he can use.
Director Len Wiseman’s respect for this sacred tradition should satisfy even the die-hardest “Die Hard” fans. Wiseman, whose previous efforts include the two “Underworld” movies, knows how to shoot an edge-of-your-seat action sequence. There are scenes, most notably one involving a jet and an overpass, in which he takes things just one step too far, but generally, Wiseman shows he’s more than capable of taking over the “Die Hard” reins.
Early in the movie the villain taunts our hero, calling him “a Timex in a digital world”; McClane, characteristically, takes the dig as a compliment. Two hours, countless butt-kickings and hairbreadth escapes later, we know why. You see, if there’s anything to be learned from this movie, it’s that technology is fickle, information is currency and bad people are often quite good with computers. And the only thing that can possibly save you is a crusty demeanor, a profound distrust of technology and the uncanny, possibly superhuman ability to cheat death 867 times in 128 minutes.