Live Free or Die Hard

This series has it's silly moments, but you can't deny the action. Yes, it's over the top and ridiculous, but it's fun. The villain here is pretty good, and Justin Long brings some humour to it. Even the daughter is pretty good. If they keep making these movies, I"ll keep watching them.

Just went to the world premiere of Die Hard 4.0, and I was positively surprised. It delivers action in abundance, and the movie has a great visceral feel to it thanks to great stunt work, and the fact that Willis really steps up in the fight scenes. The movie keeps up its pace throughout, and the script works quite well, though the tech-talk gets a little heavy at times. I was particularly worried about Wiseman directing, since both underworld movies were a complete mess in my opinion, but he really keeps it tight and disciplined this time around. Is Die Hard 4.0 the second or third best of the series? I don't know, but it is certainly a worthy successor, and all the other blockbusters should look this way to see how its done efficiently, crisp and above all entertaining.

Die Hard 4.0 (2007)-

In some ways it feels that there has been too much time since the last film and as a result I didn't quite feel as connected to the character, like I needed a catch up of what he had been doing in the mean time.

It does have similarities to the third instalment though. As with that one, John has a civilian tagging along and I have to say I enjoyed the way that they bounced off of each other. Farrell gives John the knowledge to complete the task and John keeps Farrell alive to save the world.

There is also another team of experts back in an office trying to keep a grip on the situation and failing, so once again it does come across a bit like an episode of '24' (2002-10).

I did have to wonder if I was reading the map wrong though? How did McClane, a New York cop end up in Washington DC and then get to West Virginia and back to Baltimore and then DC again so quickly? It seems like it would take a lot longer than the time they had.

There's also a lot going on and if you're a bit technophobic, it's very easy to get lost. My advice would be to try and forget the jargon and just enjoy the action. I got completely set adrift, but still enjoyed the journey, despite some of the stunts being quite hard to believe, but that's the style of the film at the end of the day. However, it's also getting harder still to believe that McClane is the only one that can save the day.

With all of that said, I totally wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was, what with the 12 year interlude and it being a third sequel. I thought that I would be playing solitaire or sudoku half way through out of boredom due to repetition and a lack of interest. It's still got the fast pace though and you can't help but like the hero, despite and somewhat because of his faults.

The threat has been brought up to date even if John is still "Old School", but yet it still feels like something the character would react to.

If it wasn't for the technology, you could easily believe that the film was made more recently, as it hasn't really aged, but I suppose that could be said for the other 3 as well.

I really liked it. It's just what you want from an action film and with an established character that you know will win the day.

665.69/1000.

'Die Hard 4.0 (2007)' is enjoyable in a different way to the prior titles in the series. It's a much more glossy action flick, still fun despite being heavily watered down and featuring a protagonist who's almost indestructible. Still, it essentially captures that 'Die Hard' spirit for most of its run-time and is rather entertaining throughout. 7/10

As a matter of fact, it was a better movie than I expected, it was a fun action movie.