Cast: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long, Cliff Curtis, Maggie Q and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Director: Len Wiseman
Studio Synopsis: On the Fourth of July weekend, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle…but he never figured on McClane—the oldschool "analog" fly in the "digital" ointment. It’s the beginning of the holiday, but New York City Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) isn’t celebrating. He’s had yet another argument with his college-age daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and received a crushingly routine assignment to bring in a young hacker, Matt Farrell (Justin Long), for questioning by the FBI. But for McClane, the ordinary has a habit of exploding into the extraordinary—abruptly hurtling him into the wrong place at the wrong time. With Farrell’s help, McClane slowly begins to understand the increasing chaos surrounding him. An attack is underway on the vulnerable United States infrastructure, shutting down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), stays several moves ahead of McClane as he implements his incredible plans, known to uber-geeks like Farrell as a “fire sale” (as in, everything must go!).
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 128 minutes
Official Web site: http://www.livefreeordiehard.com/
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/livefreeordiehard/

The Verdict: Live Free or Die Hard is Die Hard With a Vengeance all over again. Like John McClane's last outing, this fourth Die Hard finds our ever-reluctant hero covering a lot of ground rather than being trapped inside a confined space. Except Live Free or Die Hard does not costar Samuel L. Jackson. Instead, you have the extremely irritating Apple pitchman Justin Long as—of course—a computer geek who helps McClane thwart the plans of cyberterrorist Timothy Olyphant. Guess director Len Wiseman thought it would be amusing to cast the Mac man as McClane’s blabbermouth sidekick. Sorry, but Long’s about as funny as a computer virus. Worse, the stone-faced Olyphant’s Thomas Gabriel makes for a terribly anonymous adversary. That’s a shame, because the Die Hard franchise has always prided itself on pitting McClane against the most flamboyant and resourceful of bad guys. Alan Rickman created the template for smart, ruthless Eurotrashy villains with Die Hard. Olyphant’s disgruntled ex-government agent is such a wimp that it’s easy to see why he’s so intimidated by McClane’s daughter Lucy (a gritty but underused Mary Elizabeth Winstead), whom he inevitably kidnaps in an attempt to get McClane off his back. Olyphant’s attack on the United States is so very Y2K: he brings the nation to a halt by crippling the computer systems of various government agencies, including transportation and utilities. His motives are somewhat unclear—is he more interested in exploiting our post-9/11 fears? Or making off with a huge payday?—but where there’s a threat, there’s McClane. “You’re a Timex watch in a digital age,” Gabriel snarls at Willis. That’s fine. It’s nice to have such an old-school hero as the smirking McClane back in action. Much like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa, a bullet-headed Willis has a blast returning to the role that made him a film star. Still, Willis is saddled with some rather flat one-liners, and while the wisecracking McClane remains as dogged as ever, there’s a sense that he’s gotten dumber and softer in his old age. For example, he allows henchwoman Maggie Q to live after their brawl, only to pay for his mistake a few minutes later. The younger McClane would have shown no mercy. Wiseman, who previously directed the effects-heavy Underworld series, shows a flair for staging breath-taking scenes of mass destruction on a James Bondian level. What’s the most amazing about Live Free or Die Hard is its PG-13 rating. Wiseman doesn’t tone down the violence; it’s not just as bloody. With Live Free or Die Hard, the MPAA seems to be saying that it’s OK to shoot dozens of people, push them off buildings or out of helicopters, and make mincemeat out of them—as long as you don’t show a drop of blood. Any bets that the inevitable unrated DVD version will be drenched in blood? Oh, and a supposedly teen-friendly Die Hard also means that Willis can’t fully utter McClane’s famous catchphrase, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf---ker.” Now that’s just plain embarrassing. Even in its sanitized form, Live Free or Die Hard is no better or no worse than Die Hard With a Vengeance. But after two sequels that have allowed McClane to roam free, it would be nice to see the franchise go back to basics if our favorite New Jersey cop’s ever again finds himself face to face with terrorists.
—Robert Sims

Reviews:
Boca News (3 out of 4 stars)
Hollywood.com (3 out of 4 stars)
Local 10 (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)
The Miami Herald (3 out of 4 stars)
Miami SunPost (3 out of 4 stars)
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
The Palm Beach Post (C+)
The Sun-Sentinel (2 1/2 out of 4 stars)