Live Free or Die Hard trailer

The string of bad Hollywood blockbusters continues... God I miss the 80's.
These franchiises piss me off. Like McDonald's. How thin can they go with the beef already?

Pros:
Some great (revolutionary) camera shots.
Music from original Die Hard
Justin Long's subtle comedic timing

Cons:
Weak story that never went anywhere
Poor writing (ridiculous one liners)
Bad acting (Kevin Smith)
Poorly thought out and contrived action sequences
Weak antagonist
Sloppy editing

No heart.
 
I'll agree on the sloppy editing! Some of the wide shots dialogue was from different takes, and you COULD TELL! LOL

BUT!

I STILL LOVED THE FILM! That's right! I was genuinely entertained for 2.5 hours, and nowadays that is becoming a rarity!

Me and my girlfriend both liked the film a lot. It was predictable, but fun all the same! Great writing and acting, I thought!
 
SPOILERS?

I DON'T THINK SO... BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RISK IT QUIT READING THIS ENTIRE THREAD! WE'RE ALL DANCING AROUND IT AT THIS POINT!




I'm glad you guys noticed the sound edit... hey how about the sound as they drove in the car? Man... I'll bet anything that was real, genuine location sound... virtually untouched... as they sat in a car mock-up in front of a green screen.

I got better sound then that by running EMWs over the driver and passenger seat on a recent project... plus... uh... the back window was broken out! I don't think it would have sounded like they were in an echoey elevator with ZERO wind noise if they were driving down the highway at 70mph with a window missing from the car... let's mix in just a BIT of wind or traffic noise guys! C'mon!

Also... yeah... what's up with Kevin Smith? His acting in this was really surprising me... in a bad way.
 
ZFarms said:
i'm pissed it's pg13... john mcclane is a BAMF (bad ass mother f***er) and it should be shown, now they can't with a pg13... he's supposed to cuss, etc... i'll see it but ya im pissed at a pg13 rated DIE HARD movie!
Click to expand...

This is true. But they can get away with some cursing. Not a lot, but some. I hadn't even thought about that. Lets hope a non-rated directors cut is released when it goes to dvd.
 
I've supported the fourth installment of Die Hard since it was first announced, and rest assured, I took a lot of flack for that.

First off, check RottenTomatoes.com if you're lazy, and you can see that the ratings are actually good! If you're the more active type, see the scene between McClane and Farrell as they're driving to the natural gas facility (I can't remember the exact name or the city). The character of John McClane still has that 1988 charm, but his words are tinged with the sensibility and cynicism that comes with age. One of the most endearing traits of John McClane in "Die Hard" was his tendency to make millisecond decisions while still avoiding the hero stereotype.

As we all know by now, real heroes don't call themselves heroes -- they're ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This unique approach to the action genre (in 1988) didn't fair too well in Die Hard: Die Harder or Die Hard with a Vengeance, but it was resurrected in Live Free or Die Hard.

Enough of my thoughts, go see the movie! I think the skeptics around here will be pleasantly surprised, that is, those skeptics with a special place for Die Hard in their heart. I'm probably not alone here, but I watch the original with my cousins when they make it home for Christmas, which is usually every other year.

I love Die Hard and the greatest villain ever, Hans Gruber (When there was a mystery behind Vader, he was number one...). I would die happy (Hey, that'd be a good end for McClane in the Fifth movie, Die Hard: Die Happy :grin: ) if I made an action film that great -- I don't care if they do butcher it for FX broadcast around Christmas, it'd be sweet to have a movie with longevity.

Also, I noticed the lapse in sound editing... that's my only real gripe.
 
Just to clarify... I DID enjoy the movie... it's just that at times I was annoyed by rediculous, unmotivated actions.

As for rotten tomatoes... that is my favorite place to read reviews... and this line from this review conveys my viewpoint perfectly:

"None of the scrapes and bruises [Willis] sustains are as wince-inducing as the image of his younger self in the first film, padding across broken glass with bare feet. He was human back in 1988; now he's the Terminator." -Scott Tobias

To me it was way more fun to see a "real person" doing incredible things (as the human referrence earlier in the thread). In the latest Die Hard it's as if they took away all the Kryptonite and we go through the movie knowing that there's no way to harm Superman.

It's still highly entertaining... but it would have been SO easy to respect the intelligence of the audience. As I said before... in the first half hour I thought this was going to be the greatest action movie of all time.

Here's another SPOILER that irked me...

Why is it that his daughter was smart enough to convey "there are only 5 of them left" when he handed her the walkie... then when the same guy is sitting RIGHT NEXT to her in the van... she just sits there and listens to him order the jet to shoot her dad? Couldn't they have put a piece of duct tape or some gag on her mouth and had her trying to yell while he made that call? Nope... she just sits there comfortably riding along TWO FEET from him as he lies to the pilot in order to kill her dad. It would have been SO simple to fix this oversight.

Also... in the elevator truck crash scene... I'll make the leap of logic that he might knock the girl into the shelves... and just ignore her as if she's been handled... (which is enough of a stretch)... but when he drives her into the elevator shaft... they should have had him hit the brakes and slide in... or something... instead of him mindlessly driving all the way into the shaft that we SEE coming. To me that action just didn't make sense. Wouldn't it have been WAY cooler and a lot more believable if they showed him and her both say something like, "Oh SH*T" and have him jab the brakes... but slide right in anyway? Instead he just FLOORS it the whole way, basically laughing about it.

Is the proper attitude to just shut your mind off and try to enjoy the action sequences for what they are... meaning eye and action candy? I got completely tore up in the x-men 4 thread for saying basically the same thing... but this flick is supposed to be rooted in actual reality... not a comic book. I wish they'd kept the complete realism of the first movie and used all their tricks in that spirit, but this flick, for as entertaining as it is... got an unwelcome splash of Hudson Hawk.
 
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I thought it was fun to watch for sure. I'm a real sucker for those awesome dynamic shots that make you go "wow." Story had a good concept and it was definetly alot more epic then I thought, I mean come on they go alot of places in this and have alot of people, panoramic shots of disaster, lots of extras, its very DIFFERENT from the other films IMO.

Justin Long did a great job i think, he fit the bill perfectly. The movie lacked some of the gut wrenching injuries for John like the earlier ones for sure and the villian seemed awful flat to me.

Overall it was fun to watch, entertaining, and had its moments.

7/10

- Kyle
 
it was ok. Felt kind of impersonal. And I felt the cinematography was kind of artlessly monochromatic, like someone just slapped a blue desaturating filter on everything while doing the color timing. A serviceable action-thriller with some great stunts and funny banter, but nothing we haven't seen before.
 
I agree with the entertaining part. The movie was entertaining from beginning to end. A bit of nostalgia from missing those 80'ies "Commando esque" type of movies also helped.

Closer to a Commando and a CHuck Norris flick than the original Die Hard... But a nice Rollercoaster Action ride.

Just had to shut my brain. SPOILER

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The airplane bit was too much... But then again... After the "police car launch", I was ready for anything...

One interesting thing: The Villain Van just drives away in a highway while he faces the plane...And after the confrontation, he finds out where they are ON FOOT, in a blink of an eye? He's Superman! :)
 
Watching this was was like hearing a remix of some old song that I love.

Like turning on the radio and hearing the introduction to Queen and Bowie's "Under Pressure". I start to get goosebumps and excited, but then things take a drastic nosedive and I hear Vanilla Ice's voice. Wha?

Then every once in a while you get to a part that is unadulterated, and you get excited for the original song again!

But for the most part you just roll your eyes and think, "Why did they have to ruin this great, classic song?" and "please make this stop and just play the original."

It also reminds me of every Magic Johnson's attempt to come out of retirement. By the fourth one, you're like, "again Magic? Really? Please spare a little dignity so that we can have fond memories of how you once were."
 
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