20th Century Fox Starring: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long
Directed By: Len Wiseman
Rated: PG-13
20th Century Fox
As you probably know if you frequent this site, I am a huge fan of Die Hard and Die Hard 2. By the same token, I absolutely hated Die Hard with a Vengeance. My reasons were (are) that the film breaks continuity with the first two films in a major way. Whereas John McClane (Willis) and his wife had made amends and were living together in Los Angeles in the second film, and John had become a detective on the LA police force, in the third film John is back on the New York City police force and is estranged from Holly as if the second film never had never happened.
I went into Live Free or Die Hard with the sad knowledge that I (apparently) was the only one who felt betrayed by the discontinuity of the third film. I figured this installment would follow Vengeance's established continuity, and I was correct in that assessment. Rather than beat up on the movie for that choice, however, I have come to think of this as the "alternate Die Hard universe." The first two films take place in one universe, and the third and fourth in another. Silly, I know...but it's something I had to do so that I could get over all of this and move on.
So.
This time around, John McClane is ordered to transport a suspect named Matthew Farrell (Long) from Philadelphia to Washington DC as part of an investigation into an apparent widespread attempt to hack government computer systems. What is supposed to be a routine assignment (as always) turns into a life and death struggle with McClane right in the middle of things. Thomas Gabriel (Olyphant) is engineering a huge computer takeover that will make him very rich, and he is trying to tie up loose ends by killing all of the hackers who were unwittingly involved, including Farrell. What he didn't count on was John McClane's ability to handle bad guys.
Let me start by saying that this is a pretty good action movie. Although the plot is pretty far-fetched (as many cyber-plots tend to be), the pacing of the film is good. The action scenes range from "hey, that's pretty over the top" (John and villain Mai Lihn (Maggie Q) fight inside an SUV that's dangling in an elevator shaft) to "oh, please, you've gotta be kidding me" (an aircraft starts blasting overpasses of a highway out from under a fleeing McClane, and a vehicle-less McClane actually takes down the plane). But a little suspension of disbelief goes a long way. (Please remember to bring a good supply with you.)
The acting is up to at least Die Hard with a Vengeance standards, but John seems to have left a lot of his edginess in the other universe. He's still snide and he still cracks wise, but he somehow seems a little older and a little more tired these days. (I guess we all are.) The script is fairly shallow, as are the other characters in the film--they have yet to bring us a villain in the series that could equal Hans from the first film. Still, there are some laughs and some good one-liners. (Although it must be said that giving the film a PG-13 rating eliminates the series' signature line: "Yippee kay ay, motherf****r!" The line is there, but John fires his gun to cover it up for rating purposes.)
One other thing that bugged me is that all of the street exteriors that are supposed to be in the nation's capital are actually shot in Baltimore, Maryland. This is blatantly obvious to anyone who lives in the area--but, admittedly, it probably won't bother anyone who has never been there. The distances traveled time portrayed are way off as well. But again, the suspension of disbelief numbs the sting.
As much as I try, I have trouble loving the films set in the "alternate Die Hard universe." But this one is at least one that I can stomach. Once, anyway.
Bottom line: It's an okay action film...but there's just no recapturing the spirit of the original, apparently.