MCCLAAAAAAAAAANE...

Didn't realize this is coming out on Wednesday. Anyway, it's early, but it's got an 86% at Rotten Tomatoes (7 reviews) and an 8/10 based on 5 reviews at Metacritic. For those who are into that sort of thing. And here's the Variety review:

>Live Free or Die Hard

A 20th Century Fox release, made in association with Dune Entertainment, produced in association with Ingenious Film Partners. Produced by Michael Fottrell. Executive producers, Arnold Rifkin, William Wisher. Co-producer, Stephen James Eads. Directed by Len Wiseman. Screenplay, Mark Bomback; story, Bomback, David Marconi, based on the article “A Farewell to Arms” by John Carlin, certain original charac-ters by Roderick Thorp.

John McClane - Bruce Willis
Matt Farrell - Justin Long
Thomas Gabriel - Timothy Olyphant
Bowman - Cliff Curtis
Mai - Maggie Q
Lucy - Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Warlock - Kevin Smith
Agent Johnson - Yancey Arias
Taylor - Christina Chang
Russo - Yorgo Constantine
Casper - Andrew Friedman
Raj - Sung Kang
Clay - Matt O’Leary
Rand - Cyril Raffaelli
Trey - Jonathan Sadowski

By TODD MCCARTHY

It's the Luddite versus the techies in "Live Free or Die Hard," and guess who wins. Back for a fourth round after a decade on the sequel sidelines, Bruce Willis enthusiastically resurrects resourceful working-class cop John McClane as the unlikely opponent of computer creeps bent on bringing down a digital-dependent nation. Tone careens madly from serious peril to action camp and everything in between, but the sheer quantity of often outrageous stunts should help overcome franchise mustiness to entertain general auds and rack up solid returns here and abroad.

First two "Die Hard" installments appeared in 1988 and 1990 -- the third followed in 1995 -- meaning that those interested in reviving the series had to confront the fact that much of the target aud for such a picture wasn't even born when John McTiernan's original hit the screen. Fox, scenarist Mark Bomback and co-story writer David Marconi have responded in obvious and safe ways, pairing Willis with a scruffy young computer geek with an anti-authoritarian streak and an aversion to physicality (Justin Long), making the villains disaffected (and very attractive) Yanks rather than foreign religious fanatics, and tailoring the package for a PG-13 rating rather than an R, which is what the previous three entries received.

Helmer Len Wiseman, a musicvid vet with a certain following based on the "Underworld" duo, plays up the incongruity of McClane being forced to confront the technical expertise of very 21st-century baddies who know how to shut down communications, data and security systems with the tap of a laptop key.

When the FBI realizes its computers have been hacked into, McClane is assigned to haul in Matt Farrell (Long), a New Jersey slacker on a laundry list of suspects. Even this isn't easy, however, as French (!) assassins frantically attempt to take Matt out even as McClane endeavors to spirit him away.

In short order, the ultra-efficient culprits, led by ice-cold, black-clad tech genius Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), bring Washington, D.C., to the sort of standstill it hasn't experienced since "The Day the Earth Stood Still." After Wall Street is thrown into similar disarray, Matt sees that someone is setting off a "fire sale," a three-step plan to shut down everything in the country that's run by computer.

While the government -- Homeland Security, FBI, NSA, the armed forces, police, et al. -- scrambles to figure out what to do, McClane tries to keep Matt alive at least long enough to reveal what he knows about the dastardly project in which he was an unwitting participant. At every turn, they are attacked by Gabriel's well-armed goons, precipitating numerous action scenes that are ludicrous on the face of things -- McClane successfully battles a marauding helicopter with a fire hydrant, then a vaulting car, and later rides the wing of a spinning fighter jet -- but so much so that they'll become the sort of audience talking points people will have to see for themselves.

Along the way, the anti-gov nasties also kidnap McClane's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), making the battle "personal," in time-honored tradition.

All the "Die Hard" films have centered upon terrorists, but the ones until now dwelled in the pre-9/11 world; by avoiding contempo reality (there's barely a mention of it), new entry can legitimately be accused of evasiveness, even timidity. But filmmakers largely disarm this sort of criticism by recasting the film as a virtual action cartoon, one you can laugh at and even enjoy for the preposterousness of its propositions. Any doubts about how seriously pic is intended are dispelled in the third act with the arrival of Kevin "Clerks" Smith as the ultimate high-tech geek who humorously handles an overload of exposition and helps close the noose around Gabriel and his misguided cohorts.

Head shaven and still in fine shape, Willis has no trouble convincing that he's still capable of handling heavy action. Long's character spends so much time seeming desperate that thesp has little opportunity to give him other personality traits, leaving Matt a basically rote creation. Olyphant is all unruffled smoothness as the vengeful villain, while Maggie Q, as Gabriel's martial arts-proficient g.f. and Winstead as McClane's initially estranged daughter provide incidental hottie moments.

Set pieces' outlandishness notwithstanding, pic's physical aspects feel convincingly real.

Camera (Deluxe color, widescreen), Simon Duggan; editor, Nicolas de Toth; music, Marco Beltrami; production designer, Patrick Tatopoulos; supervising art director, Troy Sizemore; art directors, Beat Frutiger, James Hegedus; set designers, Greg Hooper, Geoff Hubbard, Anshuman Prasad; set decorator, Robert Gould; costume designer, Denise Wingate; sound (Dolby/DTS), Steve Nelson; sound designer, Cameron Frankley; re-recording mixers, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer; visual effects supervisor, Patrick McClung; visual effects, the Orphanage, Digital Dimension, Riot, Pixel Magic, Amalgamated Pixels; special effects supervisor, Mike Neinardus; stunt coordinator, Brad Martin; assistant director, Dieter Busch; second unit director, Brian Smrz; second unit camera, Jonathan Taylor, Gary Capo; casting, Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood. Reviewed at 20th Century Fox studios, Los Angeles, June 22, 2007. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 129 MIN.
______________________________________________________________________
WIPEMEHDOWN

i want my yippee kiyay mother....

You can say "fuck" once in a PG-13 movie.

...and he said even though the language is toned-down compared to the other films, it's also the most violent.

I'm gonna try to see it tonight - I need some good escapist fun in my life right now.

I tried to get fired up about this one. I really did.

But, no.

***This has been another negative bignick post.***


They white!!! I'm mad!!! Yup!

______________________________________________________________________
WIPEMEHDOWN

another franchise milked one too many times.

>another franchise milked one too many times.

this is one of the few trilogies where the 3rd was just as good as the first imo.

but this doesnt even look like a die hard movie at all.

since when was john mclaine doing all these insanely over the top ridiculous stunts?

they just turned the franchise into an all out, extreme action movie... and i still will see it for cheap thrills, but i cringe at it being called "Die Hard"

remember the whole boat scene at the end. sam jack was shot in the leg by an automatic weapon, but he limps around?? how many times did mcclane get fucked up, and he still keeps going? the boat explodes AS they jump into the water, and they live??? the ending...you mean they couldn't hit mcclane with another automatic weapon, but he can get them with a handgun (yeah, i know, he shot the wires--which is easily believable--but how'd they miss him?)???

i haven't seen the movie (obviously), but nothing i've seen in the previews is any diiferent than what he was doing previously. one thing i will say though, is that while the "drive a car into a toll booth and then into a helicopter" is cool, it is a lil over the top, but i think that's what i expect. over the top, but fun and exciting.

between some dude unexplicably missing shooting him in the open with an automatic rifle and destroying a helicopter with a car.... or having a car come flying at you to be blocked by 2 other cars.... or sliding down a broken highway strip as an airplane is attacking you. NONE of the other die hard were over the top in action like that.

This is one of the best action movie trilogies of all time. It has a GREAT looking trailer. AND the reviews have been great, including fantastic notices in LA Times AND NY Times.

You couldn't keep me away if you tried.

i will be seeing this. shit looks dope as fuck.

holy shit i'm seeing this shit.

http://www.myspace.com/thievinstealberg
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The plot was somewhat underdeveloped, like all action flicks, but not annoyingly so.

There was great comic from Justin Long (And to a lesser extent Kevin Smith and Bruce himself)

Good action scenes - nothing super-spectacular but definitely solid.

Perhaps my favorite real action flick (so I can exclude The Matrix) since True Lies

...in my hometown paper that said it's up there with True Lies and the original Die Hard as one of the best straight-up action films of the past 20 years.

Oh MAN.

Anyone else roll their eyes are Justin Long's prominent 30" Apple Cinema Display in his apartment?

in your face ads in every fucking movie. Instead of the usually Halo, logo, controller, console full screen shots we got full screen Gears of Wars shots.

Yay.

it was fucking great! Non stop action I loved it. Bruce rules!

whatever CGI there was in the movie was well-incorporated with the action sequences to make it look "realistic".

if i wasn't laughing at how awesome this movie was, i was gawking at how awesome those preposterous action scenes were.

the pacing/plot-action ratio was great.

loved this movie.

If you'd have told me after the first Die Hard came out that one day they would create a sequel to it that would make me roll my eyes numerous times i would have slapped you in the mouth

this is one of the stupidest movies i've seen in a LONG time (and i'll admit not being exactly johnny logic when it comes to movies but i was so bored through most of this that i couldn't help but sit there and think about all the incongruities) and the great thing about the Die Hard movies was THEY WEREN'T FUCKING STUPID (certainly 1 and 3). this shit was an insult. the writing was so sloppy that it was painfully obvious that things worked/didn't work not as part of some plain laid out by the villains but by the lazy ass screenwriters.

they pretty much did what i thought they'd do which was strip the franchise of every single element that made it the standard for action films and turn it into, at its best moments, a standard action film.

oh, and you know what set this and Under Siege apart from the umpteen millions of copycats a great fucking villain. what did this movie give us? a a disgruntled tech geek in the body of the bartender from the Disoronno commercials.

the casting was fucking TRASH. hey remember when the die-hards were chock full of great b/c-listers and excellent character actors? it added a level of class to the preceedings here we get Justin Long (who wasn't bad), Cliff Curtis (who was abysmal and delivering his lines from the scripts of Dolph Lundgren Direct-to-Video movies), Maggie Q (whose 'kung-fu' shit was laughable), Kevin Smith (hey kevin, kill yourself), Cyril Rafaelli (who could have been interesting albeit totally from some other movie but they opted to bullshit on his showdown with McClaine. hey parkour is hot throw him in! what do we do with him? i don't know!) and then the rest of the movie was filled with government agents from 'Movie Government Agents Clearinghouse' and Henchman from 1-800-BAD-DDIE.

the action was alright but i was too bored and pissed about everything else to really give that much of a shit. and it was SO un-die hard and willis was so un-John Mclaine that it felt like i was watching another movie.

there were times where i honestly thought about walking out

Me and my friend also contemplated walking out, but I kept telling him we should at least wait for Kevin Smith's cameo (what can I say, I'm a big fan). Well, long story short, he sucked, wasn't funny, and just like the rest of the movie, a waste of time.

b/c it gave them a license to do whatever they wanted. and it was somewhat grounded in reality.

I like Timmy O but he was not a very interesting villain. Cliff Curtis is usually a great actor as well but the role he played didn't really suit his strengths as an actor. There was a guy drinking beer & talking to himself & the screen sitting in the front row who ended up being more entertaining than the movie itself so no one even bothered to tell him to shut it.

The other Die Hards werent 'stupid'??? Didnt he surf on a fucking truck through a tunnell in Die Hard with a Vengence? Didnt he blow up a plane with a trail of gasoline in Die Harder? Die Hard was the most realistic but he was still killing off WWF size blonde villians while swinging from skyscrapers. Its an action movie, and we havent had one like it in a long time, enjoy it.

its not about the action.

the plot was bad and had a million gaping holes, justin long sucks at life, kevin smith cameo was.... no comment, etc.

you can nitpick on the action in all of the movies, but at least the other 3 had a better story and MUCH better villains.

not as great as the first or the third, but better than 2

i liked it for what it was.

good summer action movie

so-so die hard movie.

it gets a pass though

i dug the homages to the original

SPOILER

the elevator shaft scene
the mexican standoff ending with john loved one at gunpoint
the diversion to cover the hiest
the diversion leading to the response that makes the hiest at the end easier

yeah i enjoyed it

but nonetheless awesome movie

<--- "When times get hard I just pull out my card WITH THE SMILEY FACE! Invite him over to my place!"

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IT ONLY GETS BETTER!

Fun time had by all!!! there's still a gleam of hope for movies this summer!

Cuz this was one of the funnest (i don't care if that is a word) movies of the year.

Lighten up, folks!

i have fun at well done action films

but when you make a shit one i don't have fun

FREE CHAI VANG!

YOU'VE READ MY FILE NIGGA (c) Jack 'Mufuckin' Bauer

http://rjcc.stumbleupon.com - what I'm looking at

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

(... and have been since "moonlighting.")

there's very little wrong he can do. i even liked him in that stinker, "perfect stranger" or whatever it was called, with halle and giovanni.

so yeah, i was feelin' his john mcclane comeback, with all the smart comments and sounds. ("ooooh." "heh-heh!") lol

i'd complain about the lack of development in the rift btwn father and daughter (you hate him b/c he makes sure you get home safe? and stopped some dude from groping you? really?), but the movie wasn't about that. at all. so whatever.

tim olyphant is an AWFUL actor. *sigh*

justin long was cool, though. he basically played a more ascerbic version of Mac from the Mac/PC commercials.

The tunnel part was crazy but I loved it. After that things started to not exactly make sense and the action scenes started to get silly, which was disapointing.

Still, I might have to say that this is my second favorite movie of the year and I think Wiseman did a nice job with the direction.

I loved it...

yeah it was fun... but it wasn't even remotely close to being on par with the other Die Hards.

and the plot had countless holes, was ridiculous and was way too computer-y.

the action was... over the top to say the least, but enjoyable.

They clearly jacked other films though.... the plane on the highway scene was too similar to True Lies and that insanely acrobatic henchman (WTF?) was too similar to Casino Royale.

So yeah, it was fun... but it wasnt original, never felt like a Die Hard movie (except when McLaine was talkin to Timmy O over the radio)... as a whole it was just a letdown (oh yeah, and justin long sucks at life)

3/5

this was nothing like a 'die hard' movie.
and willis jumping of the plane near the end got EVERYBODY laughing in the cinema. i thought hollywood stopped making those stupid action movies. boy, was i wrong...

but why make a good but completely mindless shoot em up, blow em up, kick em up, surf em up, bungie jump em up, and call it a Die Hard sequel? that's what i don't understand. I would have enjoyed this film so much better if they didnt make a mockery of the whole John McClane ordinary-guy-becomes-a-fly-in-the-ointment vibe. This film reminded me of that awful Superman Returns, especially that F-35 scene. Actually i won't lie, i actually chuckled at the absurdity of that scene, but after that i gave up all hope of the flick making any sort of concession whatsoever for it's downright silliness.

We're in the marketing age of Hollywood. All that matters is how well you can sell the film. Bruce Willis in "Fire Sale" isn't going to make as much money on the opening weekend as another Die Hard movie.

The R rated action film is going to be on hiatus for some time. Most of the films now will be PG-13 and aimed at not losing kids/teens.

you should know what time it is


FREE CHAI VANG!

YOU'VE READ MY FILE NIGGA (c) Jack 'Mufuckin' Bauer

http://rjcc.stumbleupon.com - what I'm looking at

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

that shit had a grip of illogical parts

besides, the same fanboys were bitching about 2 and 3 when they were released - using the exact same "well it's not just like the original Die Hard!" argument

And maybe they caught like half of Die Hard 3 on cable one night.

There is some silly shit, but in NO WAY does that come close to making it "not a Die Hard".

Trapped in a building, trapped in an airport, trapped by having to do exactly what Jeremy Irons' character demands (and given time constraints). #3 was a stretch but this one doesn't really have that feel. It's the reason I said 16 Blocks felt more like a Die Hard film. He had a place he had to go and was kind of trapped into a destination and had to get someone their in a certain amount of time.

Also, as crazy as Die Hard 2 was, he didn't jump a car into a helicopter, didn't ride a jet, didn't drive through walls with a car and then hit a 90 pound woman who then proceeded to show no ill effects from the collison, didn't suddenly know how to fly a helicopter, etc. I enjoyed the film because I went in expecting over-the-top and didn't mind that it turned into a superhero movie.

I don't even think it sucked, but it's not as good as LFODH, not by a longshot really.

and they can do literally anything you can think of within two seconds!

fuck live free, it was a shadow of the original series at best. i'm sure there'll be at least one more sequel "just because", but that can be the new bald mcclane series for the next generation... i think i'll just stick with the original trilogy.

when the villains jacked on airport tower and made planes circle in the air for a couple hours

THAT WHOLE MOVIE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE

with some guy clicking like a motherfucker on his keyboard (not touching space bar even once!) and he's got all that he wants within 2 seconds.

...isn't Die Hard the movie where a man runs in his bare feet after stepping on shards of glass to the roof of a building, ties a fire hose around himself, jumps off the building as the ceiling explodes (yet the fire hose remains on the roof for a convenient amount of time), he shoots through the window, and gets enough forward momentum to break totally through the window as the fire hose falls from the roof?

I mean, didn't I see that happen? And isn't that totally silly?

Isn't that also the movie where a guy parked outside of a building has the dead body of a henchman thrown onto his roof, despite the fact that the car isn't parked right up next to the building and would require McClane to throw the body at an insane trajectory to get it there?

Isn't that ALSO a movie with a computer guy that can do damn near anything without any true explanation? And isn't that one of your HUGE complaints with Die Hard 4, when there've been computer hackers established in the majority of the series thus far?

You guys drive me nuts, man.

who bitch about how the writing is corny in Fantastic Four

the writing is corny in the comic book!

Die Hard 2's plot:

villains take control of an airport tower, predict a snowstorm that night and keep planes in the air as hostages b/c they won't give landing instructions

SO A PLANE HAS ENOUGH FUEL TO FLY ABOVE D.C. FOR TWO HOURS BUT CAN'T FLY TO ANOTHER AIRPORT AND LAND THERE?

THAT'S DIE HARD II REALISM!

he probably would have then kicked at someone and the shards of glass would have flown out like chinese stars at a bad guy.

All of the movies had moments that were required some suspension of disbelief but this film went beyond that.

Go back and watch the Die Hard sequels, and make a list of the silly shit in those movies, and place them next to your list of silly shit in Die Hard 4. Is the list longer for 4? Sure, I'm not denying that. But it's still the FUCKING DIE HARD SERIES. If you expected no suspension of disbelief, or even just a bit, then I don't know what to tell you.

I'm really actually surprised that some people claiming Die Hard fans have gotten THIS heated about a lot of the action requiring suspension of disbelief. I mean, sequels DO have to step up the action every time, step up the stakes every time, or people are disappointed. They stepped it up on pretty much all counts. If that's not your cup of tea, then that's fine. But you can't say it's not in the Die Hard tradition.

Shooting the fire extinguisher = Die Hard

I could even accept the doll falling off and hitting the exact key which blows up a bomb that doesn't kill the good guys because they are 10 feet away in another room.

But outmaneuvering a US fighter jet... in a big rig? You can't really argue that that and firing a car into a helicopter would have stood out in any of the other movies.

because i had lofty expectations after ppl in this post were praising it like no other.

i mean come on frank, you put that shit in your sig and it was not good, but even if it was good, it wasnt THAT good to be sig and avatar worthy.

although I went in with no expectations, no trailer viewing and not wanting to see an exact remake of Die Hard again

I guess you also should have avoided the ovverwhelmingly positive reviews it got. Also, you should have watched the trailer cuz you would've known by then that you wouldn't like it and then you wouldn't have had your time wasted seeing a movie you personally didn't like.

>I guess you also should have avoided the ovverwhelmingly
>positive reviews it got. Also, you should have watched the
>trailer cuz you would've known by then that you wouldn't like
>it and then you wouldn't have had your time wasted seeing a
>movie you personally didn't like.

this movie was dope. when the hell did people want to stop having fun at the movies? ok, yeah the shit was a little unbelievable, but it was well done and entertaining as all hell. damn, i felt like i was 10 years old again grinning at all the big explosions and shit.

i was surprised i liked this better than transformers & kncoked up
i expected it to suck

although the jet vs truck scene stunk of excess....I still loved it....and the unrated DVD is going to be the fuckin' shite!!

It did what Die Hard has come to do best.....over the top storylines, just fucking spectacular action sequences, great lines from McClane AND company, and imo some very solid acting.

First, I gotta apologize to Justin Long because I really didnt think he would fit in at all, but he played his part damn near perfectly....he was perfectly cast, and outside of the main villain, I thought the rest of the movie was casted pretty beautifully as well(just something about Olyphant in this role aint sit right with me).

The action sequences were sick, McClane was getting by in even crazier ways than usual(the fire hydrant, the CAR VS THE CHOPPER, the expedition, the fucking truck vs the jet!, the shot through the shoulder....cotdamn, straight up badass and delivering some hilarious lines as well).

This is exactly what I expected from Die Hard, and prob the best action flick I have seen in years. Easily the best film of the summer so far, and a great finale.

i just saw it for the second time and it was just as good as the first time i saw it. total and complete entertainment through and through.

Its supposed ot be a Disneyland of action sequences and in 2007 they can't come up with no bullshit. Though it did seem like it was directed by Michael Bay, at this juncture if it was like 1,2, or that dreadful 3, yall would be all "zzzz" and shit.