Film Review - "Live Free And Die Hard"

Oh, man, this one really hit the spot. I've been having a weekend from hell, where I've been called into work BOTH Saturday and Sunday (and with the Canada Day long weekend here, I wouldn't be shocked if I also had to work Monday as well). So myself and some friends head up north to Sharon, Ontario (quite a bit north of Toronto) for an old-fashioned drive-in. Yes, this is the same place I saw "Spider Man 3" at a few months ago.

The difference being that, this time, we were able to camp out in front of our cars (at least until the temperature REALLY started dropping), which made for a much, much cooler experience. Unfortunately, we only got to see about one quarter of the "Fantastic 4" movie that was scheduled to take place after (so I guess it was "Fantastic 1"?), but damned if Die Hard didn't make up for it.

The franchise has aged quite nicely over the years, with John McLain as his usual, wisecracking, bad-ass self. In fact, I can draw a lot of conclusions to the unstoppable McLain and the unstoppable John Cena, but perhaps that's an argument for another day.

This was a total popcorn flick (luckily we had lots of popcorn. Also, beer), and I mean that in the best sense of the world. Were the stunts realistic? Hell no. Were the special effects anything to write home about? Not really. Did I want to strangle McLain's new twenty-something sidekick (the guy from the "I'm a Mac" commercials; I don't recall his name and am too lazy to check IMDB so he'll remain the "Mac Guy" for now)? Definitely

So why did I like about it. The film didn't try to stretch or even stray from the formula that brought it to the dance. This was Bruce Willis killing people, narrowly escaping disaster and cracking one-liners all the way. And it all reminded me how underrated this whole series really is....

If nothing else, it was far better than the first 35 minutes or so of "Fantastic 4".....