Frank Masi/20th Century FoxI saw Live Free or Die Hard with Coach Bob and some other fly folks last night. The action scenes hit hard, and Bruce Willis is so, so good as John McClane. The plot gets more interesting as the film goes on, and the forced comic relief is not as awful as it could have been. (Kevin Smith nails his small part.) But something was just a little off to me.
I wasn't really feeling the choices of Timothy Olyphant and Maggie Q to play the villains. Both of them have done it so much in their respective careers, sure, but they don't live up to their legacies here. Die Hard films have always had classic villains—Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons, especially—and this time they just fell short.
Also, despite some ridiculous car wrecks, shoot-outs and a scene with a fighter jet that is the illest thing ever, the sets and locations just feel...fake. The building from the first one is still a Los Angeles landmark, and I went to high school six blocks from where they filmed the third one. But the factories, abandoned warehouses and D.C. side streets in Live Free just feel like movie sets.
But it is what it is, and I do hope they bring us Die Hard 5. As an '80s baby, there will always be a place in my heart for ass-kicking action. Comic-book adaptations are cool and all, but machine guns, bombs and car chases still rock. Yippee-ki-yay!