After months of disappointment, John McClane comes seemingly out of nowhere to remind moviegoers just why seeing an action movie is supposed to be great. With all the suspense and tension of a season of “24,” ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ knows how to condense a tedious day into the only two hours that really matter.Series revivals are always a scary time for long-time fans – all the hope and excitement of an additional film can be marred by a bad revival, with the potential to damage the earlier films as well. ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ only solidifies the greatness of the Die Hard franchise, and restores John McClane to the position of pre-eminent action hero.After a gang of cyber-terrorists hack into the U.S. government’s security and computer systems, all hell breaks loose across the country. John McClane (Bruce Willis), originally sent to arrest hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long), needs Farrell’s cooperation because he may have the knowledge necessary to track down the offenders. Madness ensues.The film is both beautiful and incredibly satisfying, with each explosion outdoing the last. Willis’ stint in a semi and a gripping fight with sexy cyber-terrorist Mai Linh (Maggie Q) are some of the more memorable sequences.Bruce Willis is still fantastic as McClane, and even at 52 delivers a better performance than most 20-somethings in similar save-the-world situations. A smart script also helps Justin Long in his best performance yet. The majority of films have a tendency to thrust characters into dangerous situations with little to no effect on their state of mind, with former average Joes suddenly comfortable with bullets flying over their heads. Long’s delivery is what you should expect of someone who is thrust into situations of Die Hard proportions – one of complete shock and anxiety. This bit of hard-to-find realism adds immeasurably to the film, which already features a largely believable enemy threat.Though at just over two hours it may be long, it escapes that “did they hire an editor?” feeling that plagued recent CGI-chugs ‘Spider-Man 3’ and ‘Pirates 3.’ Unlike previous Die Hard films, the newest entry is PG-13, though except for the abundance of eleven-year-olds in the audience you probably wouldn’t notice it. Director Len Wiseman handles the film much better than his Underworld series.May’s huge blockbusters were very successful, but it’s doubtful the production crew could animate themselves out of a box. John McClane would just rip his way through.
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