Live Free or Die Hard (…or Die Hard 4.0, if you’re in the UK)
- Official Site
- Metacritic Rating: 69
- My Rating: 8/10
I didn’t have high hopes for this fourth instalment in the Die Hard series. It’s been almost 20 years since John McClane first took on Alan Rickman in a Los Angeles skyscraper, and 12 years since his last screen appearance in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. And it’s fair to say that while the first film was, not to put too fine a point on it, awesome, the series started to go downhill with the first sequel, which saw McClane, in Willis’ own words, “trapped in a plot”. Willis himself must be about 150 by now, and his recent action films (Hostage, 16 Blocks) haven’t exactly been fantastic.
But in a sense those lowered expectations helped make this film so much better than it could have been. There is a knowing sense of fun that runs through it, just as there was in the original trilogy, and Willis is not afraid to play up the fact that he’s getting past it. The plot – a cyber-terrorist “switches off” the United States to steal bank details, because he was slighted by the government in the wake of 9-11 – is, largely, irrelevant. We’re only here for the big bangs. And we get them. There are some spectacular set-piece stunts (one involving a car and a helicopter is particularly fun) and a few really good fight sequences, and to see how analogue McClane fares in a digital world.
Surprisingly, he copes pretty well. There are, naturally, plenty of jokes about him getting too old for it, his lack of hair, and so on. But, unlike Harrison Ford in Firewall, Willis is still in very good shape, and has no problem putting on the sweat-soaked vest once again.
Willis has a sidekick – a hacker who may or may not be related to the computer problems sweeping the country – who basically serves the same role as Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard: With a Vengeance: reluctantly dragged around by McClane, he ends up saving the day. Entertainingly (for me, anyway), he’s played by the “I’m a Mac” guy from the US Apple ads. McClane also has a daughter, who, annoyingly, gets kidnapped by the bad guys. Nothing like a good cliché. But, of course, Willis is on screen practically all the time, and to tell the truth, the film is slower when he’s not there.
The main bad guy, Thomas Gabriel, isn’t bad enough. When you consider quite how fantastically evil Alan Rickman was, this chap is a little disappointing. I don’t know who played him (and can’t be bothered to look it up – OK, Timothy Olyphant, I looked), but he’s not terribly old, and doesn’t have enough stature or menace about him. I understand what the director was trying to do in casting him – this is the “new” terrorist, more brain than brawn – but I’m not sure it works. His henchperson is Maggie Q (last seen as Tom Cruise’s sidekick in MI3) who is rather a dab hand at kung fu (or karate, or some other martial art). She’s entertaining enough, but the relationship between her and and Gabriel (and McClane) is far too similar to that of Jeremy Irons and Sam Phillips in Die Hard: With a Vengeance for my liking. Kevin Smith, bizarrely, puts in an appearance as a Star Wars-obsessed, cop fearing, über-hacker – again, he’s entertaining emough, but somewhat wasted in so small a role. I’d have loved to have seen Smith as the real bad guy – that would have been good fun.
Stunts, explosions, fights, humour – all present and gloriously correct. This is a great popcorn movie for the summer. Just count the number of times I’ve used “fun” or “entertaining” in this review. Seriously, if you feel in need of some explosions this summer, you could do a lot worse than watching Live Free or Die Hard (or Die Hard: 4.0).
Ratatouille next, I think, if I can find somewhere showing it in English.