Die-Hard-a-Thon, Part 4 - Live Free or Die Hard: Unrated (2007)

Director: Len Wiseman

Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Country: United States

Rating: Unrated (originally PG-13)

Run Time: 129 minutes

Live Free or Die Hard came a whopping 12 years after Die Hard With a Vengeance. In the last decade, it seems to have become a new filmmaking trend to revive classic franchises for a new contemporary audience. Star Wars, Rambo, and even Tron all came back after 20 plus year breaks. And while it's obvious that these revivals are done purely to make more money off of the franchise name, there is always an opportunity to craft some good art and entertainment too.

Unfortunately, Live Free or Die Hard is a perfect example of solely cashing in on the franchise name. Not only does the film barely resemble a Die Hard film, but everything else is completely geared towards the contemporary audience of 2007. Gone is the bloody violence, gone is the foul language, gone is the memorable villains, gone is the hilarious Bruce Willis, and gone is the gritty fight sequences. Make way for a high tech plot, lots of CGI, and PG-13 violence. Don't get me wrong, Live Free or Die Hard is fun and generic blockbuster entertainment. It's just that this is not a TRUE Die Hard film. What could have been a memorable and exciting revival of the action franchise that has come to define action movies turned out to be no more than an average action film that had the word "Die Hard" slapped on to it.

12 years later means no more hair and no more talent.

Summer of 2007 was a time that I remember quite well. I was in high school and I was just starting to go see movies with my friends more often and not as much with my dad or grandpa. However, I did see Live Free or Die Hard in the theater with my dad and I remember thinking that it was pretty awesome. This was all before I had even seen Die Hard 1, cared about the difference between PG-13 and R, and thought movies like Disturbia and Transformers were the best movies of the year. I remember watching the theatrical cut on DVD at a friend's house a few months later and having a lot of fun revisiting it. This film really does play perfectly to the mindset of a young high schooler. You think the action scenes are all awesome, the jokes are hilarious, and that the image of a car flying into a helicopter is the coolest thing ever.

But than you grow up, graduate from high school, watch a thousand more action movies, and realize that Live Free or Die Hard is just an average piece of studio blockbuster filmmaking. There was a lot of hype for this movie. Much like the original Stars Wars films, the original three Die Hard films held a special place in action fans' hearts. But than much like the Star Wars prequels, Live Free or Die Hard came out and disappointed a lot of the Die Hard fans. Where's the blood? Where's the cursing? Where's the John McClane I know and love? It turns out that this was around the time when the PG-13 rating was coming in to assert its dominance over the box office and take its place atop the money making throne. Sure, studios could make an R rated action film and make money. But the studios could also make a PG-13 action film and make even more money!

For my viewing of the film, I chose to watch the Unrated cut that many people have recommended. The Unrated cut of the film digitally restores all blood and adds all of the cursing back in as well. It's clear that Len Wiseman shot the film with both ratings in mind. So we can at least thank Len for that. And while I think that the added blood and language helps boost the film from a 5/10 to a 6/10, it can't make up for the other flaws of this film. The film still feels like a generic studio blockbuster even with the R rating. I don't want to write an entire article on just the rating of the film so we have to move on at some point. For those who want to hear more about the PG-13 rating, check out Vern's discussion of Live Free or Die Hard on his site. He goes ballistic!

This image is the reason Len Wiseman made Die Hard 4.

Live Free or Die Hard finds John McClane once again in the wrong place at the wrong time (one of the only elements of the film that really makes it a Die Hard film). A group of cyber terrorists enlist hackers to create a software for them to take over all of the electronic communications on the East Coast. In order to eliminate loose ends, the terrorists send explosive viruses to the hackers' computers and kill all of them but one. That one, Matthew Farrell (Justin Long), is about to delete the virus thereby activating the explosive. However, Farrell is interrupted when John McClane shows up at his door. McClane's commanding officer ordered him to check on Farrell because he may be a suspect in the recent hacking of the FBI.

Due to this delay, the cyber terrorists send in their gunmen and immediately attack John and Matthew. John is immediately wrapped up into the thick of things as he has to defend Matthew and stop the cyber terrorists from shutting down all of the electronics across the East Coast.

One of my biggest issues with this film is that John McClane is completely in service of the villain's plot. Almost every scene in the film relates to the villain's plot in one way or another. In the first three Die Hard films, we really get to know John McClane and get a lot of scenes that allow us to check up on John's life. This film has only one of those scenes (John beats up his daughter's boyfriend at the beginning of the film). And after that it's straight to the plot. What I mean is that we get no time to get reacquainted with "John the human". All we get is "John the unstoppable action hero". This film is all about the cyber terrorists and their evil plot and hardly about John having to deal with yet another bad day in his life.

Timothy Olyphant is no Hans Gruber or even Simon Gruber.

John McClane simply doesn't feel human any more in this film. McClane went the way of Paul Kersey from the Death Wish films. He started off as a vulnerable and relatable action hero who somehow became an unstoppable action hero. McClane has come a long way from killing his first terrorist in Die Hard to literally taking on a jet with a semi-truck in Live Free or Die Hard. McClane is also pretty humorless. None of his attempts at humor felt natural at all. It's a shame that McClane's trademark humor is so absent in this film because it makes his character less special from other unique action heroes.

Another one of my issues with this film is that I am not a fan of any of these new characters. John feels like an alien to me, I've already covered that. So how about his sidekick? Well, the filmmakers must have never seen a Die Hard film because John hardly ever makes an attempt at being funny. All of the comedic relief has been given to his sidekick, Justin Long. He plays his awkward self and stammers and acts nerdy. But that is just about where all of the comedy comes from. Remember how awesome Sergeant Al Powell was in Die Hard and how memorable Zeus was in Die Hard With a Vengeance? Farrell is like a fart in the wind compared to those guys. I think Long was put into the film because he was all the rage in the mid 2000s with his Mac commercials and the comedies Accepted and Waiting.

I did enjoy Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane though, John's daughter. Her presence helped build the mythology of the series just a tiny bit. It was also nice to see one of John's family members in peril again (only in the final 30 minutes though). The first two films were all about family peril so at least Len Wiseman remembered that aspect of the Die Hard series. I still would have liked some clarity as to what tore John and his wife apart in between Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Die Hard With a Vengeance, but I shouldn't hope for that in this Die Hard.

"Okay, I'll say it! I'm a mac!"

The villains in this film are pretty forgetful. Timothy Olyphant is the lead villain and his right hand woman is played by Maggie Q. I won't bother to give you their character names because if I can't remember them after watching the film than their names aren't worth mentioning. Hans Gruber and Simon Gruber? Villain names I'll remember forever. These? Psh, who cares? Kevin Smith also pops up as himself and adds nothing to the movie. I'm moving on to something else because I'm becoming exhausted talking about the characters in this movie.

It's now time to talk about the creme de la creme of this blog. The machismo, the explosions, the shootouts, the fist fights...the action.

Live Free or Die Hard relies too much on creating visually interesting set pieces instead of truly tense and exciting action scenes. For example, Die Hard With a Vengeance builds up a lot of suspense when John has to deactivate a bomb while on a subway train. If his friend Zeus doesn't pick up a telephone too, the main villain will blow up the train. However, a cop has his gun aimed at Zeus and is preventing him from picking up the phone. Even though we know an action packed explosion of some sort is coming, the wait up to it is unbearable.

Live Free or Die Hard just doesn't know how to create scenes like that. All it knows how to do is create action scenes that look impressive but fail to engage the audience the way that the previous Die Hard films did. I want to remind the reader that I normally wouldn't attack any action scene in any movie like this. However, the Die Hard series is an excellent example of exciting action films with suspenseful scenes that even Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of. They aren't just trying to entertain the action crowd. They want to be a great action packed experience that you will never forget. To see this once great series turn into generic mindless blockbuster fare is just sad and disappointing.

You thought this was a video game screenshot? No, it's Die Hard 4.

I have to say, there are some truly terrible CGI scenes in this film. The CG on the collapsing freeway at the end of the film is laughably bad. The film also fails to capture true to life physics when it comes to its CG effects. During the lights out in the tunnel sequence, John and Matt run towards a pillar. As they leap behind it, a CG truck slides towards them and nails the pillar in the most awkward and unrealistic way possible. It's hard to describe this but check it out for yourself.

I did like some of the action in this film though. Thanks to the improvements with the unrated cut, all of the blood has been reinserted. I loved the first action scene in Matt Farrell's apartment. It's an old fashioned shoot 'em up bolstered by good sound design and lots of apartment destruction. I also enjoyed the parkour presence of Cyril Raffaelli (District B13, The Transporter, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Kiss of the Dragon) as one of Timothy Olyphant's main henchmen. He performs a lot of impressive stunts by jumping and sliding over fences and air ducts. Parkour was all the rage at the time (also seen in 2006's Casino Royale opening action scene).

My favorite action scene in the whole movie is the most basic and simple of them all. John and Matt are walking up a staircase in a large building and are trying to avoid various henchmen. When John turns around to talk to Matt, a henchman comes through the door in front of them. John and the henchman raise their handguns and cross their arms firing past one another's heads. They continue to duke it out until John gets the upper hand, blasts the man's foot, and than riddles his chest with bullets. It's the most old fashioned action scene of the film and it didn't require any CG at all. It just goes to show that sometimes a simple fist fight is more thrilling than a CG harriet jet firing at a CG truck as CG concrete falls all over the place.

Len Wiseman just doesn't know how to craft a good gritty action film. He is mostly known for directing Kate Beckinsale, being married to Kate Beckinsale, and making effects-heavy PG-13 actioners like Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and Total Recall. He's the last person I want handling the gritty Die Hard franchise because he's more about plot and special effects than characters and suspense.

For those who were curious, this is that scene. Best shot in the film.

Live Free or Die Hard is one hell of a weak follow up to Die Hard With a Vengeance (one of the best action films I have ever seen). McClane doesn't feel the same, the villains are blander than ever, the humor is serviceable at best, and the action lacks the original's kick. To summarize my opinion in short: Die Hard 4 works as a fun blockbuster but not as a Die Hard film. You may think I hate this film because I spent about 90% of the review complaining about it. But alas, you don't know bad until you have seen the fifth film in the series...A Good Day to Die Hard In Russia With No Discernable Plot or Effort!

Rating: 6/10 - I am going to recommend the unrated cut of this film only to die hard action fans. I normally would give a film like this a 4 or a 5. However, the unrated cut helps salvage some of the damage. People who crave action scenes will get a kick out of some of things in this film. Unlike the first three films, non-actions won't find much to like here.

Franchise: Die Hard 

Die Hard (dir. John McTiernan, 1988)

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (dir. Renny Harlin, 1990)

Die Hard With a Vengeance (dir. John McTiernan, 1995)

Live Free or Die Hard (dir. Len Wiseman, 2007)

A Good Day to Die Hard (dir. John Moore, 2013)