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LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD Send This Review to a Friend
If it’s action you want, there’s plenty piled on in “Live Free or Die Hard,” the latest vehicle for Bruce Willis in the slam-bang series. This one, slickly directed by Len Wiseman, is ultra high tech. I’m happy if I can get my e-mail, post my reviews and surf the web. But the computer geeks portrayed in this violent yarn are constantly typing away on keyboards, tapping into supposedly secure systems and screwing up the entire country. Meanwhile, Willis is battling his way bloodying bad guys and surviving endless battering himself while the special effects geniuses are wreaking havoc on everything in sight with spectacular results, such as an upward zooming car wrecking a low-flying helicopter. Of course, Willis as tough cop John McClane emerges victorious, rescues his captured daughter and saves the day. But what an onslaught getting there!
The plot in the screenplay by Mark Bomback, based on a story by him and David Marconi, involves an angry, disgruntled former federal employee who has warned that the country is vulnerable to terrorists, and when he is scoffed at and his reputation is ruined, he decides to prove his point--big time. The indestructible McClane uses his wiles and brawn to aid the FBI. Along the way he rescues an endangered young computer hacker (Justin Long), who becomes his helper amid the mayhem.
The villain of the story is played by Timothy Olyphant, and Mclane’s captured daughter Lucy is portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who gives a cool performance in the tradition of daddy. One of McClane’s enemies is an Asian woman dynamo who gets into a brutal, martial-arts fight with him. Despite her lethal skills, there is something disconcerting about seeing him pounding her as he would a male brute. People do die hard in this flick.
Although Willis is the star and icon, his age catching up with him but in a way making him look even more stalwart, shaved head and all, the real stars of the film are the effects wizards. You can forget credibility, but the wild visuals are likely to elicit cheers from audience members who get off on the stuff. The filmmakers make sure that action fans will get their money’s worth. A 20th Century Fox release.
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