There's a scene in , set inside a tunnel, that's such a model of old-school, macho, car-tossing, sledgehammering, whiz-bang moviemaking that the audience I saw it with burst out in applause - honest-to-goodness, spontaneous applause. It's as if by clapping together we could erase the memory of a largely inept summer of morose superheroes, goofy CGI'ed-to-death Silver Surfers, ineffectual ogres and, most egregiously, all those lumbering, babbling pirates. Thanks be to Bruce Willis and his chrome-domed, indestructible John McClane, for he has given us the mindless (but not dumb) popcorn movie (with extra butter) that we all crave, that we all deserve.
Sometimes we need two hours of heroes bantering, villains frowning, long-legged women kung fu-ing and things blowing up spectacularly, with the odd car flying toward the screen. Live Free or Die Hard delivers, again and again, putting it up there with the best Hollywood action flicks of the past 20 years, including and yes, even the original , from way back in 1988. I will resist the temptation to utter the printable part of McClane's catch phrase, just because it would be so easy to give into.
But I'm thinking it right now. And you will too, as this fourth (!!
) installment of the series unfolds in all its retro, back-to-the-'80s moviemaking, with that NYPD cop - a "Timex watch in a digital age" - dispensing villains and quips in fine style. The plot is relentlessly up-to-date, though, with post-9/11 paranoia and much of that Enemy of the State -style computer hacking wizardry, where a platoon of unshaven, ironic-T-shirt wearing hackers can get you into any computer, anywhere, with just a few keystrokes. McClane is given a routine (yeah, right) assignment - transporting a twentysomething hacker (a very funny Justin Long, from and those Mac ads) - to D.
C., just for some simple questioning. It seems hackers have been turning up dead, very dead, and McClane is soon embroiled in one of the movie's many jolting action scenes, which all involve henchmen with lots of bullets but very bad aim.
There's an evil genius (Timothy Olyphant, as icily calm as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber) with an apocalyptic plan to bring the U.S. to its knees with just a few computers and some cold-blooded violence.
He makes a big mistake, though, when he kidnaps McClane's daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). That's not going to sit well with the aging but still unstoppable cop. Director Len Wiseman's stunts are mind-bogglingly preposterous, so gleefully ridiculous that most of you won't be able to help cackling with glee - though that Harrier jet does get Far Too Silly.
The plot, however, mostly makes sense, and never stops moving for more than 30 seconds. And there's plenty of humor, mostly in the bantering between tough-guy Willis and nerdy Long. What more could you want from a summer movie?
It lacks for nothing.
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