Live Free Or Die Hard: In Theatres Now

So, I decided to celebrate my Independence Day a little bit on the early side this year by seeing the newest film to feature the legendary action hero John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) in Live Free Or Die Hard.

Growing up, I was always a huge fan of Die Hard trilogy: the original was groundbreaking for its time, bringing a return to form to the action hero in cinema. It was also named the greatest action movie of all time the other week by the folks at Entertainment Weekly. Where the first one was all about one macho man with a gun taking down an army of terrorists, its sequel upped the ante by putting him on a race against time at Dulles Airport to stop another group of terrorists and get all the planes in the air to land safely before they ran out of fuel. The third film, Die Hard With A Vengence, is my personal favorite. Teaming McClane up with shop owner Zeus (played by Samuel L. Jackson,) the action was greater than ever and the villian was a relative of the original terrorist from Die Hard. High speed chases throughout NYC, subways blowing up, riddles and games every corner to be turned all added up to one big cat and mouse game. How would they top it?

Surprisingly, Live Free isn't that bad at all. Kept in tact was the humorous one lines from Willis' most famous character (example: "I'm tired of all this kung fu" or "He's like a damn hamster!") while make the action scenes more intense. In the several years since the last film, advances in special effects have only benefited the makes of the newest installment, helping wild ideas like police cars blowing up helicopters to become a reality. The plot, involving terrorists using computers and modern technology to just shut down the universe, proves an interesting villian and enemy to the non-so-tech-savvy McClane, who gets help from Matthew Farrell (played by Justin Long,) a computer nerd but such a strongman with a gun in his hand. Either way, still a good film, and they've kept a series of good films alive. Wonder what happens if they make a fifth one?