Dir. Len Wiseman
Writ. Mark Bomback
Act. Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

It would appear that Bruce Willis must be hurting for money if he is going to dust of John McClane and make another Die Hard movie. However, Willis was able to find a good script and a great director to make one of the more exciting action movies in a while and made a very respectable movie for the genre.

Bruce Willis (Grindhouse) is once again Detective John McClane and he is given another simple assignment, bringing an internet hacker named Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long (Dodgeball,) to FBI headquarters. Once again McClane gets caught up in a terror plot when he finds out that the hacker helped design a program that combined with other programs would destroy most of the major computer mainframes in the government and cause the whole country spin into chaos. So McClane and Farrell chase after the madman behind the plan, Thomas Gabriel, played by Timothy Olyphant (Scream 2,) and try and save the country, and McClane's daughter Lucy, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse.)

This movie reminds me in many ways of the great 90's Schwarzenegger epic, True Lies. The mandatory thing that must happen when watching this movie is that you have to suspend your disbelief. 90% of the action sequences are unrealistic with some things defying the laws of Physics…Chemistry, Biology, and maybe even Geology.

That being said I thought the writing was wonderful. I was totally into the movie from beginning to end and I was looking forward to what was going to happen next. Actually the amazing thing is that the scriptwriter, Mark Bomback, made the nemesis Gabriel, fairly menacing, even though he is essentially a computer geek. It is very difficult to make wimpy guys with wimpy jobs look tough. For example, see the bad guy in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. Bomback was able to create a decent bad guy from a job description where toughness is not a requirement. Director Len Wiseman did a stellar job of keeping the action going and enjoyable. This is a mild surprise considering the last two movies he directed were Underworld 1 and 2.

Bruce Willis is as always in this role, a bad ass. I always enjoy him as McClane and find it fun to watch Willis as this character. Even Die Hard 3 is bearable because of Willis. Fortunately this time around he is surrounded by a bunch of actors that actually make the movie enjoyable to watch. Special props go to Long and Olyphant for making their characters enjoyable when they could have been very boring without any effort. I would also like to say the Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a hottie and she is also a little bad a** and can't wait to watch her grow up and develop as an actress and a woman.
Now, I know people will be dogging this movie because of the unrealistic action. I am telling you now, ignore that and sit back and have a bunch of fun. The year of 2007 has seen the release of a bunch of good action movies and this movie is at the top of that list. Live Free or Die Hard is a must see in the 2007 summer season.

Brian - the Naked Gun