I have to confess: I wasn't one of the kids growing up on lots of stupid 80s action. There was no Seagal, Norris, Lundgren or Stallone for me. But what I did have was Bruce. Bruce Willis to be exact. He was my hero. I remember watching Armageddon in theaters when I was 10 and it blew me away so badly that until this very day I consider it my favorite Willis movie.
But we all know where Bruce's initial fame came from: Die Hard. I have to admit that I didn't watch it until I was 15 or 16 and since I was already spoiled by too much fast cut Bruckheimer bullshit I didn't realize what a good movie it was until after repeated viewings. Die Hard went on to become a blueprint for many copycats and spawned two sequels during the 90s. Then it got quiet around John McClane and his white shirt until the series got revived in 2007 for a fourth movie called Live Free or Die Hard. But how good is it compared to the old ones?
The film confronts John McClane with Internet terrorists who pose a threat to the whole US while he is also protecting a young hacker and trying to win back his lost daughter. Phew, that's quite a bit for the old man. But luckily Bruce hasn't lost any of his wit, power and badassness. Actually he is the most memorable part of the movie, probably because after all these years he has this role nailed down perfectly. Too bad the rest of the fourth Die Hard is not as awesome as old baldy Willis is.
To its credit, the action scenes are really good, there's not too much tiring CGI around and the stunt work is amazing. But what really pissed me off were the unappealing and boring tech surroundings, fighting around grey meaningless machinery gets really old quickly. Then there's the main villain played by Timothy Olyphant who might just be the blandest and least threatening villain ever. I mean, it's hard to follow up big calibers like Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons but Olyphant is just so charisma free, he's the total opposite of Willis. The casting of Justin Long as McClane's sidekick is also rather ambiguous. At times he is really funny and shares a good chemistry with Willis but then there are also scenes where he's just a lighter version of Jar Jar Binks for the Die Hard universe. Nevertheless the most obvious annoyance is the running time of 128 minutes. 128 MINUTES?!? This is an action flick, not a David Lean epic, cut 20 minutes and it'd be a huge improvement.
With all these points being made one might think I didn't like the movie. But that couldn't be further away from the truth. I enjoyed it for what it was, an average action movie with a great hero, that's all there is. If you don't compare it to the old Die Hard movies you will have a good time with this one. Otherwise just go and rewatch Hans Gruber and his minions taking over Nakatomi Plaza.
