Screen Rant » die hard 4.0

Review: Live Free Or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4.0)

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:50:26 +0000

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A fun, (almost) gritty & wild ride with Bruce Willis easily slipping back into his trademark role.

If you’re wondering whether or not to see Live Free or Die Hard I suppose you might be asking two questions:

“Is Die Hard 4 good enough to become a member of the ‘Die Hard’ club?”

“Would it have been better if it were rated R?”

The answer to both questions is: Yes.

Purists (Is there such a thing as a Die Hard purist?) may be disappointed by the trimming required to bring Live Free or Die Hard down to a PG-13 rating, but I’m here to tell you that the movie still works despite that.

Would it have benefited from the additions that would have made it rated R? Most definitely, and that does detract from the Die Hard vibe a little bit – but just a little. An R-rated version would probably have bumped my rating from 4 to 4 1/, but I’ll get to that later.

The film opens with a scene that almost immediately tells us that John McClane is back, and watching Willis portray the character on-screen is almost like putting on an old, favorite leather jacket that you haven’t worn in a very long time. Right away he just makes it feel like we’re right back in his world once again. It looks like he’s back to being a regular old police detective and no, his wife Holly does not appear in the film as they were finally divorced at some point. We do meet his daughter Lucy (played very well by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), from whom he is estranged.

Someone has hacked into the government agency responsible for monitoring cyber-terrorism and the leader of the agency (played by Cliff Curtis) wants all known “black hat” computer programmers rounded up immediately for questioning due to the seriousness of the offense. One of these programmers is Matt Farrell (played by Justin Long, who you’ll recognize from those Apple commercials). A number of black hatters have been killed and Farrell is on the hit list as well. McClane has been assigned to bring him in to the Feds for questioning, and of course as soon as he arrives at Farrell’s apartment, all hell breaks loose and we are catapulted into the movie at full speed.

It turns out that a fellow by the name of Thomas Gabriel (played by Timothy Olyphant) is the man behind all the computer-related chaos that is wreaking havoc on the infrastructure of the country. Of course the Feds (one of whom makes a brief appearance with the name “Johnson” as a nod to previous films) are shown to be slightly behind the curve, if not completely inept and it’s up to our hero and his trusty 20-something demographic attractor to catch the bad guys.

I have to admit that I went into the theater with some trepidation, but hopeful that the movie would turn out to be good. It actually exceeded my expectations, and I found myself being surprised by that as I sat there watching the film. It’s almost all there: the humor, the fight scenes, the action sequences that are almost over the top but acceptable within the context of the film (well, except for the sequence with the jet – come on now!). I have to say “almost” because there were moments where you could just “feel” that it should have been a bit rougher in fight scene or shootout and that McClane should have been dropping an F-bomb. I know, that’s wierd coming from me, but it just fits the established character. And the way they handled masking the famous “Yippe-kay-yay” line was, I’m sorry… just weak. Just leave the bloody thing out completely if you can’t put it in full-on.

What else worked? I thought most of the performances were pretty good: Willis, Winstead, and even Olyphant each did a good job, although Olyphant was a little too “clean”, I thought. Except for the action sequence with Willis and the jet (oh, and the car impossibly getting airborne and taking out a helicopter from below), the rest were pretty much trademark Die Hard bits with the proper balance of suspense and “holy cow!” factor without going too much over the line.

What didn’t work? At first having anyone, no matter how slick hack into the cyber-terrorism command center had me rolling my eyes, but thankfully later on they give an explanation that helps make a bit more sense of that. Also, whose idea was it to put Kevin Smith in this movie as a Star Wars/computer geek? Puh-lease, give me a break. The guy’s almost 40, and yeah, sure that could be the joke: He’s still living in his mother’s basement. Ha ha… cough. Pulled me right out of the film. Also although the main villain was a WASP, he employed German henchmen. German bad guys in a Die Hard film… I think that’s as much a staple of the series as the Yippi-kay-yay line.

In the end, though Live Free or Die Hard is a worthy addition to the series. If they put an R-rated version on the DVD release I would actually rank it right behind the original in terms of where it fits in with the rest. A lot of fun, we get to know John McClane a little bit better and a great roller-coaster ride that’ll leave you feeling like your money was well spent.

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Die Hard 4 Rating Is Unconfirmed And Is It Really The Issue?

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:11:18 +0000

The movie blogosphere is going nuts due to the following quote by Bruce Willis in the June issue of Vanity Fair:

“I really wanted this one to live up to the promise of the first one, which I always thought was the only really good one. That’s a studio decision that is becoming more and more common, because they’re trying to reach a broader audience. It seems almost a courageous move to give a picture an R rating these days. But we still made a pretty hardcore, smashmouth film.”

This story appeared initially at AICN where there is currently (as usual) a huge uproar over the possibility of the movie getting a PG-13 rating instead of an R. Personally, I try to stay away from the talkback area of that site due to the type of rabble that leaves comments there. For the most part it’s the sort of person who says that an equivalent punishment for making a bad superhero movie would be to subject a director to the sort of thing you see in the Saw or Hostel movies as a real, actual punishment.

Charming.

For example, there are some folks over there blaming Conservatives and Christians if Live Free and Die Hard ends up getting a PG-13. What an idiotic theory. If the movie gets a PG-13 instead of an R rating it’s because Fox Movies thinks it will get more butts in the seats at movie theaters. Period.

Sure, I’m old enough to be a huge fan of the original Die Hard, and it was rated R, along with the two sequels. Would I like this one to be rated R? Of course I would. John McClane belongs in an R rated environment. Is the movie getting a PG-13 for sure? Who knows? According to the official website for the film, it still says “THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED.” At the MPAA website it’s still not listed.

The real question here is will an R rating make a difference? The movie is being directed by Len Wiseman, whose previous two films are the original Underworld and it’s sequel. Nothing to write home about quality-wise there. There are no stellar prior films on the resumes of any of the screenwriters either. The only things in this movie’s favor are:

1. Bruce Willis is in it.
2. John McTiernan is listed as a producer, and he’s responsible for the original film.

That’s it. Can you make a PG-13 version of Die Hard that’s just about as violent and with almost the same amount of foul language? Sure you can. Just reduce the f-bomb to the one famous “cowboy” line from the original and make the gunshot wounds bloodless. :-\

The real question is whether at its core this movie will be any good. There’s talk of boycotts and all that, but I’ll still go see it even if it’s PG-13, although it will bug me, especially since that means that there will no doubt be plenty of 4-9 year olds in the audience with their brain-damaged parents.

I mean raising the rating for Snakes on a Plane really made all the difference, didn’t it?

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If Die Hard 4 Makes Money, Do I Get A Cut?

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:29:40 +0000

It seems that Live Free or Die Hard, the long awaited fourth film in the Die Hard movie series is king of online movie buzz so far this year. This is according to the number of mentions of upcoming movies in blog as tracked by Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

Die Hard 4.0 (as I prefer to call it) even beat out mentions of Spider-Man 3 by 2 to 1, which I find very surprising.

Maybe it’s just the blogs that I follow, but I’ve seen WAY more mentions of Spidey 3 than of Bruce Willis’ upcoming movie. Of course (good) action movies attract a broader market than superhero movies, but it still seems odd to me. After a quick look at my stats I know that here at Screen Rant I’ve mentioned Spider-Man 3 twice as many times as Die Hard.

These are interesting numbers, but past history shows that online buzz is no guarantee of a movie’s box office success (Snakes on a Plane, Grindhouse). Having said that, unless they really screw it up, I’m sure Die Hard will make a ton of money this summer, as will Spider-Man 3. As a matter of fact, this summer is shaping up to be a HUGE moneymaker for Hollywood with those films being released along with the likes of:

Shrek the Third
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At Worlds End
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Transformers
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
The Bourne Ultimatum

It’s looking like a blockbuster summer, folks!

Source: Latino Review

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Much Better Die Hard 4.0 Trailer

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:59:45 +0000

Click on the above image to see a MUCH better trailer for Live Free or Die Hard. It’s the English language international version of the trailer and it concentrates more on the story (what a concept!) and less on the over the top action sequences. It feels much more like a Die Hard movie than the superhero-ish trailer released recently.

This trailer makes the young guy tagging along with Willis NOT bug me, since he seems to be McClane’s “mission.” Here they give the audience the relationship, which is more substantial than the “buddy movie” relationship that the U.S. trailer implies.

Why is it that this movie not only gets a better title overseas (Die Hard 4.0), but it also gets a better trailer there as well?

Go figure.

Live Free or Die Hard (or Die Hard 4.0) opens on June 27th, 2007.

Source: Cinematical

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Full Live Free Or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0) Trailer

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:33:57 +0000

Yahoo Movies has the latest (and I presume, final) trailer for the new Bruce Willis flick Live Free Or Die Hard, aka Die Hard 4.0. Click on the image above to see it in a variety of sizes and formats.

I am a HUGE fan of the Die Hard movie series and the John McClane character, but although I’m looking forward to seeing Bruce Willis in the role once again, I’m more than a bit worried about this movie for a number reasons…

1. The young sidekick.

I guess I’m getting old (although not as old as Willis), but it bugs me that they don’t think he can carry off an action hero movie without a sidekick that falls squarely within the target demographic. I just don’t get a good vibe from a tag-along character that basically says “Wow!” every time McClane pulls an amazing stunt.

2. The WAY over the top action sequences.

I mean ok, I understand it’s an ACTION movie, but holy cow… where will the mentality of having to top anything that’s been done before end? Seriously, watch the trailer and replace most of the scenes Bruce Willis is in with a superhero and then maybe it would make more sense. I expect hyper-reality in a superhero movie, and sure the Die Hard films have always been a bit over the top, but this one looks really ridiculous.

The release date for Live Free or Die Hard has been moved to June 27th so as to get a week’s worth of big box office before the sledgehammer known as The Transformers opens on July 4th.

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Live Free Or Die Hard Trailer Right Here!

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 18:32:34 +0000

Here’s the brand new trailer for Die Hard 4 or Live Free and Die Hard that’s been appearing and disappearing online.

Looks like it’s right in line with the previous three movies and I’m really happy to see Bruce Willis back in the role that’s my personal favorite for him. Of course since he’s getting a bit up there age-wise they just HAD to bring in a couple of “20-somethings” in the form of a hot girl and a guy to co-star (similar to what they did with the last Blade movie, which stank). I guess the studio figures that young audiences can’t relate to a 51 year old action hero without having some folks their own age in there as well.

Like, whatEVER.

In any case, the trailer look cool and it has more action shots than alcoholics at a AA meeting.

Enjoy…

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