At one point in the middle of the movie, the escorted young hacker, Matt Farrell (Justin Long from ACCEPTED) questions senior detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) on what it is like being a hero.  McClane replies that the pay sucks, his wife has left him and nobody cares.  But someone has to do the job. 

LIVE FREE AND DIE HARD treads the old-fashioned movie hero – a loner with a cause for doing what is right, be it saving a town from bandits as in the old westerns, or in this case, updating the script to the present, saving the U.S. from cyber terrorists.  With a combination of old movie car chases, hand-to-hand combat with CGI and special effects, Len Wiseman’s (UNDERWORLD) fourth film in the DIE HARD series delivers the goods.

LIVE FREE AND DIE HARD is set to open during the July 4th week.  Appropriately, on Independence Day all computers go down in the first step of what is called a firesale.  McClane has to fish out the villain, a sinister computer genius (and surprise, surprise, an American for a change), Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) who will stop at nothing, including punch out McClane’s daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who he uses as bait.

If one can dismiss impossibilities like McClane falling down 200 feet from a truck to concrete and running off, then LIVE FREE works perfectly as an action flick.  The music, pacing, especially the editing are impressive.  The piecing together of a speech from various presidents during Independence Day indicates the extraordinary work done by the editing team.  The dialogue (script by Mark Bomback) is sharp with cyber jargon, McClane’s one-liners and a minimal of vulgarity.  The ‘f’ word is never heard – one is silenced by an explosion – while the ‘s…’ and ‘***censored***’ words occur only once or twice.  Yet, the viewers’ adrenaline is maintained constantly at peak point by efficient direction and storyboarding.

The film also pits the old vs. the new.  The hackers’ world, jargon, music are totally different from McClane’s old school.  The script effectively captures the differences resulting in a bright pairing of Willis and Long.  But it is the action that essentially makes the movie.  The flying trucks, blackout in the tunnel, blow-up of the White House, shootout in an enclose apartment and climatic fights are all well executed.  And there is no distracting romantic interest.  This is replaced by a no-nonsense father/daughter patched relationship.  One minor flaw involves the villain (knowingly) remaining connected by cellular while his location is bring traced.  But still, how else would McClane capture his prey?

Yippee Ki Yay Mo for LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD!