Live Free or Die Hard aka Die Hard 4

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Directed by: Len Wiseman

Written by: Mark Bomback

Starring: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Justin Long and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

So I had a very nice vacation and now I have a whole slue of things that need to be reviewed and shared with the public! I've chosen the latest installment in the Die Hard Franchise, and no I'm not going to once again type the entire title again because you should have already read it twice before getting to this point! The difficulty of this review is choosing how to review it. Do you review it as a Die Hard movie and how it fits with the series? Or just as a movie that you hoped would keep people from watching Transformers and preventing Micheal Bay and company from making a sequel and give Bay his second flop, his first being the Island. That's off subject a bit but still relevant to Die Hard 4.0 as some call it. So let's do both, first as a Die Hard movie then just as a summer movie.

I think everyone can agree that this movie doesn't really feel like a Die Hard movie, it's PG-13 rating pretty much saw to that also the fact that it had no involvement from anyone on the first three movies and the fact that it's been twelve years since Die Hard with Vengeance which made Samuel L. Jackson an even bigger star (before everyone was tired of him) So really as a Die Hard film this movie fails. The plot is bigger than the person, the danger never enough to kill our hero, and most of the comedy done by supporting characters rather than Willis himself. I'm sure there's a thousand other reviews just bashing this movie because of this so I will not dwell on it.

As a movie I have to say I really liked it. The explosions were nice and I could see what was being blown up (unlike Micheal Bay) The comedy made me laugh and actually not hate Justin Long for once. Really they could have made this just another Bruce Willis movie and I think people would have gone and seen it. Timothy Olyphant (Upcoming Hitman) did a great job as the villain. He just has that look for the perfect Bad Guy which will probably keep him type casted which is too bad since he's a really good actor. Cyril Raffaelli (District B13) was also badass in the movie and they were able to film his "Parkour" style to look amazing. He was like a superhero bouncing everywhere and never using wires. Kevin Smith makes a cameo more than likely due to him working with Timothy in "Catch and Release." and tries to pull off a Baltimore Accent. He fails at the accent but at least he has a few chuckles that make the awkwardness of the scene worth it. It's also worth mentioning that Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays Willis' daughter, actually has some acting chops on her and is easy on the eyes. She was also in Death Proof and has another movie in Pre-Production so hopefully we'll see more of her... not like that you perverts!

So overall I would say this movie is good, but not great. I'm not going to bore you with the plot since it doesn't really matter you came here to see if it was any good not to find out the plot, everyone knows the plot. Stop the bad guy save the US... from Transformers. I'd give this movie a solid 8.0 in fact if the R rated version is released on DVD they'll get my money again, and once last thing he does say Yippee-ki-yay Mother Fucker but this a gun shot at the same time as the 'F' Word, but at least it made it in there in some form.

Story - 7.5
Sound/Music - 7.0
Look/Style - 8.5
Acting - 9.0
Overall - 8.0