I fiiinally made it out to see Live Free or Die Hard, and I must say I had a blast! However, I think the key to my enjoyment was that I heard so much in the 2 weeks since its release that it was not worthy of being called a “Die Hard” movie, but that it was only a fun Bruce Willis action movie, that I prepared myself mentally and got what I expected.

First, I gotta say that Bruce is still hot! He’s tough and definitely not too old for this s&*#. Willis stepping back into the his trademark character John McClane – in a PG-13-ified version with no swearing and no wife-beater – was enjoyable to watch. Actually, the movie as a whole didn’t take itself too seriously and it was self aware of its oftentimes ridiculous action scenes (the truck scene was so silly!), which in turn made the ridiculous scenes forgiveable.

Justin Long was adorable in it, and not as annoying as I anticipated him to be. All the other characters were pretty cool in my book…from Maggie Q as an ass-kicking villain to the well-cast Mary Elizabeth Winstead who channeled Holly Gennero McClane’s energy (played by Bonnie Bedelia in Die Hard & Die Hard 2). I did feel like Kevin Smith could have had better lines – couldn’t they have let him write some of his own lines? (or did they?)

I’m guessing that 20th Century Fox hired Len Wiseman (“Underworld”) to direct Die Hard 4 instead of John McTiernan – or someone of his experience level – since the movie was designed for Justin Long’s generation, not Bruce Willis.’ (Let’s just say I gasped loudly when Long’s character dissed CCR, even though the film was pro-Creedence) So that was a shame, but hey, I’m not complaining. I had a great time in the theater.

Basically, the movie was really cute. “Cute” is a word that wouldn’t be used to describe any “Die Hard” movie, so in summation, Live Free was a really great Bruce Willis summer action flick that goes great with a big greasy tub of popcorn after clicking your brain to the comfortable “off” position, ready to ingest empty calories.

Check out Moviehole for a pretty balanced review by a Die Hard (pun intended) fan of the original trilogy. His review is less positive than mine, but he hits the nail on the head.