Die Hard 4.0 / Live Free Or Die Hard
2007
**½
Director: Len Wiseman
Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Jonathan Sadowski, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kevin Smith, Cliff Curtis
This action film series follows the “more is less” principle with diminishing result. It’s 19 years since the first Die Hard, and by now its hero played by Bruce Willis has become virtually unbreakable. Each consecutive sequel has moved the franchise further away from anything resembling realism. Ironically, this befits the plot of the intermittently enjoyable fourth instalment, because it doesn’t have one believable moment in it. Cyberterrorists bring the country to a grinding halt, but they forgot to factor one thing, the old school cop John McClane, who has to save the country "because there's nobody else to do it". If the original was built around physical stunts, this one relies on digital effects, which make the action scenes look like computer animation. The series concludes in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).
