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RTTP: Live Free or Die Hard (2007) is a damn fine action movie.

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Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I enjoy Die Hard and With a Vengeance (never cared too much for Die Harder), but they're not my favorite movies of all time by any means. I like Bruce Willis' character a lot, and the action is solid, and humor on point... but I'm not a purist.

I remember really enjoying Die Hard 4 in theaters, and was surprised at how great it ended up being. But, it's been several years since I've seen it; and I dusted off the Blu Ray this evening to show it to my girlfriend.

This is pretty damn solid.

Sure, the "hacker" shit with Justin Long is pretty much NCIS/CSI levels of SMH, and the story is a bit by the numbers. But the actual action set pieces are pretty damn decent.

The shootout at the start. The car chase. The tunnel chase with the lights out and cars flipping. A car hitting a helicopter. The elevator fight. And of course, that jet fighter vs a diesel.

It's over the top... but Die Hard always has been. The special effects still hold up, the cinematography is on point, and the set pieces themselves are damn inventive.
 
Yeah the hacking stuff was eye-rolling for sure. But the action was damn fun.

Reminds me that I never finished the fifth movie. Watched maybe 20 minutes and got bored.
 

kunonabi

Member
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Its not as good as the first or the first 2 acts of the third but certainly better than 2 and the last one. Why they got rid of Winstead for that piece of driftwood I'll never understand.
 
Totally agree, would just add that I really dug Timothy Olyphant in this as well.

Shame the 5th one is an out and out piece of junk, John Moore and Skip Woods + a totally checked out Bruce Willis made for one of the worst movies last year.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I liked it but it helped that I went in with low expectations. The fifth one was unbelievably bad though.
I didn't know that there was an unrated version of 4.
 
The pacing is off and it takes place in too many locations. Die Hard works best in a confined area over the course of like, a day. Not over a couple days and several states.
 

Darren870

Member
I liked this movie a lot. Haven't watched any of the other Die Hard movies though.

You are missing out on so much....

Die Hard 4 is a good action movie, to me it just isn't a die hard movie. It would have gotten better reviews if it wasn't part of the die hard series.
 

Zodzilla

Member
I thought it was really enjoyable and fun (which is something that can't be said about the fifth one).

That being said, Die Hard 4 is a lesser version of Die Hard 3 as Die Hard 2 is a lesser version of Die Hard 1.


I can only hope that when Die Hard 6 rolls around it breaks the pattern or becomes a time travel movie where John McClane goes back in time and destroys Skip Woods and John Moore.
 
Agree with most others, here, movie was pretty darn good and surprisingly funny with Justin Long. Worthy of a Die Hard title.

Anyone here who hasn't seen the 5th movie, keep it that way. That shit is grade A, 100% crap. Stay away.
 

Percy

Banned
Yep. Solid movie in unrated form for sure.

I thought it was hilarious that it originally started life as a Die Hard/24 crossover movie, which I only heard about fairly recently. Timmy Elephant's bad guy definitely felt like more of a 24 bad guy in hindsight now.

Can't get my head around why Die Hard 5 was such a massive piece of shit in comparison.
 

Nerdkiller

Membeur
I don't know...it had decent action, but for me, it seemed to be the first time I noticed just how distant the Die Hard franchise seemed to be getting from the original roots (the protag being in the wrong place in the wrong time and has to use whatever he can in order to win) with said action becoming more and more increasingly over the top, e.g.: McClaine launching a cop car into a chopper and dangling from the back of an F-35 fighter jet. He no longer seems to be the anti-superhero that the original movies subverted back in the day. I've yet to see it, but I hear A Good Day is even worse in this regard.
 

Carbonox

Member
Die Hard 4 is awesome. The latest one is fucking awful though. Jai Courtney shits up everything he's in and it baffles me he keeps getting jobs.
 

Laieon

Member
It was the first Die Hard movie I saw, I really liked it. Great action movie.
I just saw the first Die Hard a few weeks ago and I didn't think it was anything to write home about. I'm sure it's because a lot of action movies have adapted and improved what it did since then though.
 
This was the first thing I saw Timothy Olyphant in that wasn't Deadwood. I was like "who the fuck is this guy?" I think my mom said it's Timothy Olyphant and I was in disbelief. He looks completely different without all that Deadwood dirt on him. Fun movie too.
 

Tugatrix

Member
My rating, but yeah it's a farly good action movie and at least a decent Die Hard

1>3>>>4>>>>>>>>2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>5
 

ugoo18

Member
4 was the one that actually got me to see the other 3 Die Hards because of how surprisingly good i found it to be, i'm definitely glad i did. I feel like watching the tetralogy again now.

If i had seen 5 first...... i might never have watched the earlier entries at all.
 
I refused to see it in theaters when I learned that it was cut to gain a PG-13 rating, and I hate it when they do that to R-rated franchises. But after watching the unrated cut, it's probably the 3rd best in the series behind the original and Die Hard With A Vengeance.
 
I liked Olyphant as the villain a lot, he was very self-assured and confident in his sheer intelligence advantage over McClane. If they made him to be this nerdy would-be conqueror who collapsed in the face of a real threat it would have ruined it.

This was also my first exposure to Cyril Raffaelli (the French parkour guy) - check out District 13 and District 13:U if you haven't seen them, they should both be on streaming services.

And yes, Die Hard 5 was garbage and Jai Courtney is death to all films.
 

Sephzilla

Member
The movie definitely suffers from "movie hacking" but otherwise I thought it was a really fun movie.

I think I liked it more than Die Hard 3, but I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't really care for DH3
 
It wasn't perfect, but I thought it was still worthy of the franchise.

The fifth one however, that film was a trainwreck from the opening. (Also, the shaky cam in the fifth one was ridiculous. I remember a simple scene of John sitting in a cab and the camera would be shaking like the camera guy had been drinking all morning...
 
217521921_7GXmh-1050x10000.jpg
 
Gracious, that movie was terrible. There was nothing remotely redeemable about it, and the action sequences in particular were too ridiculous to support any notion of suspension of disbelief.

Bad bad bad bad bad movie.

Very bad.
 
It was a pretty decent action film that was Die Hard in name only. It is definitely the weakest of the first four. I still have not brought myself to see the last one.


And I feel I am the weirdo that actually likes Die Hard 2.
 

Sephzilla

Member
It was a pretty decent action film that was Die Hard in name only. It is definitely the weakest of the first four. I still have not brought myself to see the last one.


And I feel I am the weirdo that actually likes Die Hard 2.

You're not alone, I think DH2 is fun.

DH1 > DH2 > DH4 > DH3 > DH5
 
And I feel I am the weirdo that actually likes Die Hard 2.

I really like it too. It feels like a Die Hard film and is a damn fine action film in itself. Whatever else people say about Renny Harlin, the man can direct good action.

I saw DH4 once. Felt it was a bit meh and have never felt like rewatching it, even if I catch it on TV.
 
I can hardly remember anything about it other than that I didn't like it, and that the pilot was the real action hero doing all kinds of insane shit.
 
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