The fourth film inside of the Die Hard Franchise is Live Free or Die Hard. I already have reviews for Die Hard 1, 2, and 3. So here we go with part 4.
The Good:
The best thing about this movie for me was the relationship between Bruce Willis and Justin Long. Willis is the cranky 50 year old cop and Justin is this 20 year hacker guy their back and forth of them just bickering back and forth is just so much fun to watch. And the best part of the movie.
This movie also has fun action. There is this shoot-out in the first 15 minutes that is exciting to watch and there are plenty of car chases and Willis punching people in the face so if you enjoy that you get that in this movie. Or just a crazy scene where Willis hit a henchman with a car in a building and the car goes into an elevator shaft and they are fighting to not fall to their death, the action might be the most crazy of the franchise, but still fun to watch.
Like the previous films, this film is jam packed with funny Willis one-liners. There is a scene where they get in a dangerous car chase, and Matt (Justin Long’s character) says, “You’re limping and injured.” And Willis, “I know isn’t it sexy.” Or when they go visit Kevin Smith’s character, he says “He says nice poster,” and Kevin Smith says, “So you're a fan of Boba Fett.” And Willis says, “No. I have always been a Star Wars fan”. The film has a ton of Willis one liners to keep you entertained when there isn’t action or chases going on in the movie.
This might be the guilty pleasure of the franchise. This movie feels like Die Hard mixed with Fast and Furious and Mission Impossible. Some people hear and think that it feels off from the franchise. I can understand where they are coming from but I like Die Hard, Mission Impossible, and Fast and Furious so those three franchises mixed together sounds good to me. And that movie is just fun because of that, it’s not afraid to be dumb entertainment.
Finally, I really enjoyed Timothy Olyphant as the villain of the movie. At the beginning I wasn’t sure about his character but the more the movie went along the more I liked to hate him. That’s what Olyphant does so well in the role is you love to hate him. So he makes for a very solid villain that isn’t like a villain we have seen before.
The Bad:
The big problem with this movie is that it doesn’t feel like Die Hard 4. I think the movie would have been better and better received by the public is it was just Bruce Willis over the top action movie. If it was that I would have liked it more but since there was a 12 year gap between Die Hard 3 and this movie, they changed a lot of things and I don’t think it was for the better.
The movie can also slow down at points in time. It would be very exciting action scene then slow down for 10 minutes and it does for a good majority of the back half of the movie. I wish they could have added a few more action scenes and not a lot of people talking in the second half of the movie.
At the beginning of the movie they set up that John McClane and his daughter don’t have the best relationship in the world. And you want to see McClane be this action hero and not him be this loser of a dad. It ties into the third act in some ways but I wish they just cut that plot line out of the movie.
Live Free or Die Hard is the weakest of the Die Hard movies but I think it’s still a fun movie. With another great relationship in the franchise and a villain that you want to see defeated. And my review for A Good Day to Die Hard will Friday, July 24th and my ranking of the Die Hard franchise on Tuesday, July 28th.
The Score: 7.7/10 (B)
Comments