A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Live Free or Die Hard

Date Viewed: 7/3/07

Details:

Bruce Willis

Timothy Olyphant

Justin Long

Maggie Q

Kevin Smith

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Director: Len Wiseman

Score: +

The Review: With no disrespect to my northern neighbors in New Hampshire, Live Free or Die Hard is a non-stop romp beyond the bleeding edge of cyberspace. Caveat: significant suspension of disbelief needed.

Detective John McClane (Willis) is nearing time to collect his pension with the NYPD. He's divorced, grumpy, living alone, and his daughter (Winstead) is no longer talking to him. Somehow he gets tagged to retrieve and transport a suspect computer hacker (Long) from Camden to DC (somehow, jurisdiction is never questioned). But someone is trying to kill all the skilled hackers, so of course, McClane runs into a few problems along the way. "Problems are us!"

Enter the baddies -- a smarmy Olyphant and really hot Maggie Q. And enter the shadowy world of computer hacking, backdoors, engineered algorithms, security breaches and, it seems, a criminal group set on dropping the US into the dark ages it was never privileged to experience the first time around. Obviously, there's more to it than that, but it takes awhile for primary reasons to bubble to the surface, and while you're waiting, Bruce Willis is doing what he does best -- kicking ass, staying alive, and bringing trouble to the feet of the baddies.

Action-packed, the pace never slackens from the very beginning. You begin to wonder how much damage the human body can take and still live, let alone be ambulatory -- well, this movie gives you a few examples of the (fictional) extremes.

A good entry in the Die Hard genre.

(4-Jul-07)

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