Live Free Or Try Harder
Die Hard 4.0 (nee Live Free Or Die Hard - a title at least as nonsensical and thus great at Die Harder) is a terrific action movie. IF what you want from your action movie is lots of stupidity, stunts and one liners. Which luckily I do. Nevertheless it feels less like a Die Hard movie than another part of the Transporter sequence. What Die Hard, and Die Hard 2: Die Harder had that made them part of this series was the sense of confinement. And what the sense of confinement gave us was that John McClane was the only person who could sort this out, because he was there. And he couldn’t get out of there either. Die Hard With A Vengeance made him the object of the bad guys revenge, and as such McClane HAD to be there. But it had lost the lustre with its tricksy roaming styling. Die Hard 4.0 pretty much relies on McClane’s goodness as a cop - yes he is again in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he continues to do his job until the end. There are a few moments where he could bow out and leave it to the professionals here (up until his daughter gets kidnapped, in a nice wink to the original). Is there really room for sidekicks and car stunts in a Die Hard film?
Well yes, but only just. The film is at its best when it lurches from one confined set piece to another. And yet our yucks in the cheap seats were mainly reserved for the ridiculous vehicle stunts (the water hydrant scene in itself was worth the price of admission). Yet Willis holds it all together with another gruff, likeable turn as McClane, and has a particularly touching scene where he mentions how rubbish being a hero is. And they managed to get a sidekick who is actually not annoying. So what if the film is cut to shreds to take out the swears? That’s just like watching Die Hard on ITV: “Yippee Kai Ai Kemosabe” anyone? Without McClane it would not be a Die Hard film (and at times the film is a touch too similar to non-Die Hard Willis starrer 16 Blocks). But saying that it is like The Transporter feels like an insult, when actually it isn’t. It was fun, what more can I say.
Except Yippee-kai-ai-great-big-trucker.
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henry s on July 19th, 2007
the film’s title is a riff on the New Hampshire state motto: “Live Free Or Die”…
Pete on July 20th, 2007
I knew that, and frankly even if I didn’t Live Free Or Die Hard is still a better (if odd) title that Die Hard 4.0. Particularly considering that computers have always played a part in Die Hard films, so it not a fact that needs to be highlighted.
That said it does allow the release of Die Hard 4.1, which one assumes would be the hard R rated version of the film with the blood and th swearing all put back in!
FT's CarsmileSteve on July 20th, 2007
is that why the editing is so shocking, cos they were cutting swears? i’ve seen dubbed films more exact than some of the dialogue in this.
also, my fave bit was the grand theft auto homage, where the bonnet flew off the front of the car and then he launched it into the helicoptor, just like some sort of insane stunt bonus…
FT's Pete Baran on July 20th, 2007
Yes, that is why the editing is appealing and you rarely see Willis’s mouth for a whole sentence when he is speaking. He doesn’t even say “Yippee Kai Ai Motherfucker” really, its more Yippe Kai Ai BANG! as he shoots himself.