Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

By Cynthia Fuchs

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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that although this fourth Die Hard movie is the first in the franchise not to get an R rating (which may be more about the culture than the movie itself), it's still full of frequent, noisy, painful-looking violence that yields plenty of injuries and dead bodies. Expect bloody shootings, falls, body smashes, strangulations, punches, slaps, kicks, spectacular car crashes and flips, huge explosions, and ferocious hand-to-hand fights. A boy puts his hand on Lucy's bra during a make-out session; there are also brief cleavage shots and an extended kiss. Language includes an unfinished exclamation of "Yippee-ki-yay, motherf---er," as well as multiple uses of "s--t," "hell," and "ass."

Families can talk about why we love action movies. What is it about filmgoers that we like to see things blow up? Talk with your kids about the difference between real life and fantasy -- even teens (especially if they're driving). Point out that consequences exist -- even if it makes you feel humorless. The fact that violent movies stimulate parts of the brain bears some commentary from the parental units.

Common Sense Media Review
It takes John McClane ( Bruce Willis) about 10 seconds to infuriate his daughter in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. He appears unexpectedly outside Lucy's ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead) dorm room at Rutgers, manhandling the boy she's been kissing. But much like her mother in Die Hard , Lucy doesn't really need John's help -- by the time he arrives on the scene, she's already started fending off the guy's advances. Exasperated by both males' bad behavior, Lucy focuses on her dad: "You are such an a--hole!"

And so John McClane is back, recalling all of the retro rightness and righteousness that he first embodied in 1988. This latest installment -- more than the second and third movies -- grapples with John's cowboy machismo.

Reviving an action-movie style that's quite opposed to recent technological acrobatics, comic book antics, or wire-work martial arts, Live Free or Die Hard presents John as a manly man who spends most of the movie filthy and bloodied, less desperate and sentimental than 24 's Jack Bauer, but equally adept at handling "terrorists," fake or real. He's also great fun to watch, going all scrunchy-faced during amazing stunts.

Based on John Carlin's article "A Farewell to Arms" ( Wired, 1997), Live Free pits John against a digital world. Nemesis Thomas Gabriel ( Timothy Olyphant) is a former Department of Defense superstar upset that his warnings about a vulnerable security system and imminent "information war" were ignored. Now he's seeking vengeance by shutting down all computers, aided by some very athletic associates, his girlfriend Mai (Maggie Q), and the Parkour-inspired Rand (Cyril Raffaelli).

So he can keep up, John is supplied with a hacker sidekick, Matt ( Justin Long, from those ubiquitous Mac ads), whom Gabriel wants dead. Assigned to deliver Matt to Washington, D.C., John is soon communicating with FBI agent Bowman (Cliff Curtis). When the feds (along with NSA and Homeland Security) can't solve the crisis, John and Matt take up the slack. And John's answers tend to be violent: explosions, collapsing highways, "killing" a helicopter with a car.

Throughout the movie, John displays his trademark crudeness (calling Mai nasty names), as well as his compassion and determination (when Gabriel kidnaps Lucy, John becomes unstoppable). John admits that he doesn't understand the geek-speak shared by Matt and fellow geek Warlock ( Kevin Smith), but he's the tough guy here. "I don't think I can handle any more people trying to kill me," offers Matt in between explosions. "You get used to it," asserts John, walking off-screen with a resolve that's both familiar and extraordinary.

Though he's committed, as always, to his "job" (still NYPD) as a means to individual identity, John doesn't claim a national or even an ideological affiliation. Live Free gestures toward a flag-waving U.S. patriotism, set as it is around Independence Day. But it's focused on John's particular renegade-ness. Even if he shares Gabriel's irritation at slow-thinking government officials, John is absolutely heroic -- and always right.

Fans will want to see the first three Die Hard films, as well as True Lies, Speed, and Bad Boys. You might also like Willis in 16 Blocks .