Or, Live Free or Die Hard as it is in the states
Dir: Len Wiseman
Writ: Mark Bomback, David Marconi; some characters: Roderick Thorp; A Farewell to Arms by John Carlin
- Bruce Willis … John McClane
- Timothy Olyphant … Thomas Gabriel
- Justin Long … Matt Farrell
- Maggie Q … Mai Lihn
- Cliff Curtis … Bowman
- Kevin Smith … Warlock
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead … Lucy McClane
What better way to mark America’s Independence Day than with a trip to see this film? The makers of Die Hard 4.0 obviously agreed with me, why else would they have had it open on Wednesday otherwise? And it was the perfect popcorn action flick. Not a lot of plot, or character, but plenty of explosions and much violence. Remember violence from 80’s films? It was all about the death count, the casual shootings, and the big explosions, not like the torture and slow deaths you are more likely to see today.
The plot isn’t that important. Suffice to say that there are bad guys. They do bad things. John McClane stops them. End of, baby, end of.
Course the fact that Willis is now in his fifties might make you wonder does he make a believable action hero. And I’d have to say yes. Totally believable. Afterall, if Rocky could do it, then so can McClane. And yes, it is silly, at one stage McClane “kills a helicopter” with his car. But it is also totally enjoyable and entertaining. And the action scenes are damn cool.
I guess you could say that I enjoyed this film. Just don’t think too hard about it, or wonder at the fact that the bad-guy is a carefully chosen american, and that there is mix of ethnicities to the cast. Guess they didn’t want to bring too much politics into this film, and that is as it should be.
Course, maybe I enjoyed it so much cause I’ve always been a Bruce Willis fan, right from those Moonlighting days. As for recommending people to go see it, well it is a total no brainer. Do you like action films? If so go. If you are in the mood for something with plot and storylines and want to think then I’d give it a miss. But if you are a fan you’ll love it, just try and catch it on the big screen cause I’m guessing it won’t be as much fun at home.
IMDb | Stainless Steel Droppings | Full2 Fallto | LifeParticles | hint of sarcasm
Tags: A Farewell to Arms, action, Bruce Willis, car chase, Cliff Curtis, David Marconi, Die Hard 4.0, John Carlin, John McClane, Justin Long, Kevin Smith, Len Wiseman, Maggie Q, Mark Bomback, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, mindless fun, Roderick Thorp, silly, Timothy Olyphant
