Movie Review (Live Free or Die Hard)

So John McClane comes back for on more (final?) round. We haven't seen Mr. McClane since 1995 but he hasn't changed much, he's still the baddest guy on the block. This movie is everything a Die Hard fan wants to see. Great pace with good actors combined with mass mayhem requiring a hero. Beyond that there is one particular scene where the camerwaork is phenomenal. In the beginning there is a shot that follows a "bad guy" as he jumps of a ten story roof and traverses some fire escapes down the side of the building in "urban ninja" style. The camera starts above him and swivels down underneath throughout one continuous shot, amazing work!

Now, for the negatives. I really had to dig for these but there were just a few things I though could have been done better. First the "hacker/hacking" scenes were mixed with actual screen shots and typical Hollywood auto cad drawings. The real thing would have looked fine. There were also a couple of scenes, one with McClane and several with the kid from the iCrapple commercials, where the lines they delivered didn't seem to have the intended affect or punch they needed. I'll have to watch the movie again but if I had to blame it on anything it would probably be either the score (music) or perhaps ambient noise in the scene drowning out the vocal inflection. I know it wasn't the actors as they were great during most of the film. Lastly, the same guy in the scene with the incredible camera work earlier was the victim of sub-par camera work in his final scene. His demise was also a touch anti-climatic for me.

John McClane is asked at one point why he does his job since all it ever got him was disowned by his kids, broke and divorced. He looks at the iCrapple kid and sums up today's society perfectly saying "No one else will do it."

This film is great, go check it out!