**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Cliff Curtis, Kevin Smith, and Maggie Q.
Directed by Len Wiseman & written by Mark Bomback and David Marconi, based on characters by Roderick Thorp and the article “Farewell to Arms” by John Carlin
2007
130 min PG13
Here’s a theory. Let’s say you need someone to vanish into thin air. There are two kinds of directors in this world: those that need special effects to do this, and those that don’t. And I don’t mean big, flashing FX – a double exposure from 1919 is fine. Think about it: in “Mulholland Dr.,” the two girls are talking to each other, then one looks away, and looks back, and the other girl has vanished. Then THAT girl vanishes. To make sure that the audience knows what’s happened, the director needs to make clear (quickly) the layout of a space and how many people are in it. David Lynch of “Mulholland Dr.” can do that, and so can John McTiernan and Renny Harlin of the original “Die Hard” trilogy. But I think Len Wiseman, the director of the most recent “Die Hard,” cannot. (I don’t know if I could pick up a camera and do it either.)
“Live Free or Die Hard” is the kind of movie where you’re never quite sure how many people are standing in a room. You’re never sure, even in group shots, how many bad guys there are (A dozen? Two dozen? Thirty-five?). When people get gunned down, they disappear into shadows. Like so many PG13 actioners, spatial relationships are always a little unclear.
This all may sound theoretical, but it’s what made the original “Die Hard” films – or at least the first two – special. Cop McClane (Bruce Willis) was a lone hero trapped in a closed system that, however preposterous, we could understand, and we had a basic idea of its rules and how many bad guys there were. He wasn’t a superhero mowing down a limitless army. The trilogy progressed from skyscraper to airport to New York City, which was maybe a little too big.
With “Live Free or Die Hard,” it’s the entire country that’s in danger, as a computer hacker (Timothy Olyphant) has control of, well, basically everything with a microchip in it, and it’s up to McClane and a reluctant good-guy hacker (Justin Long from the Mac vs. PC commercials) to stop him. The villain’s powers are kind of foggy, the number of baddies is kind of foggy, the image is kind of foggy with blue filters and CG slickness, and the closed system is no longer closed.
So “Live Free or Die Hard” is only half a “Die Hard” film, and the other half is a not bad-but-not great computer-enhanced PG13 shoot-‘em-up. McClane still cracks wise and keeps going despite grievous injuries, the sidekick has some good one-liners, and the villain is appropriately hateful. Part of McClane’s appeal is that people in real-life can be such lazy, unenthusiastic quitters; they’ll do just enough to get their paycheck and they’ll talk about things that might give life meaning, but nine-times-out-of-ten they’ll just slug back in front of the TV. But McClane keeps going, despite sleepless nights, blood-oozing sores, and, apparently, no eating. Film Freak Central astutely compares McClane’s relationship with the good hacker to that of the Terminator and young John Connor (the Terminator toy blown up in the hacker’s apartment is not just a gag). The adult is a member of the old guard in a world he doesn’t understand, sent to protect a youngster who is the way of the future, impart moral wisdom to him, and, ultimate, follow his orders.
Cool title, too.
Finished Sunday, July 29, 2007
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