Live Free or Die Hard

There was a time when "Die Hard" was the ultimate in action filmmaking. But, with the release of third sequel "Live Free or Die Hard" nearly two decades after the original film, how is wisecracking everyday hero John McClane (Bruce Willis, as always) supposed to compete in the age of Jason Bourne, a critically acclaimed James Bond and a swarm of comicbook superheroes whose smooth moves are enhanced by CGI wizardry?

Well, for one, by playing to the franchise strengths and giving audiences mind-blowing, big-budget, over-the-top action sequences that make unbeatable use of expert stunt people and practical effects. On that front the latest "Die Hard" is a smashing success: cars fly through the air, colliding with helicopters; a SUV winds up in an elevator shaft; McClane races a truck across a collapsing freeway bridge. That's all any respectable movie adrenaline junkie can ask for.

Unfortunately, the film has the bang but it doesn't have the brains. There's good reason to hope this isn't the genre pinnacle for 2007. Despite the impressive action, the movie stumbles awkwardly with its storyline and relationships.

Boasting the unusual credit of being "based on an article," "Live Free or Die Hard" centers around a cyber-terrorist scheme to bring down America by paralyzing the country's technological infrastructure, the possibility of which was cautioned against in the 1997 Wired magazine article "A Farewell to Arms."

That's notably different from McClane's past experiences fighting exotic foreign baddies who used more traditional means of attack under tightly contained situations. And the latest conflict simply doesn't generate the same creative sparks—partly due to a palpable lack of menace from the ringleader (Timothy Olyphant, the heroic sheriff on "Deadwood") and partly to an overly transparent attempt to force McClane into the "digital age."

It doesn't help that Willis doesn't have much chemistry with his latest partner (likable Mac ad guy Justin Long, still looking for his true movie star breakthrough). Or that the PG-13 rating has neutered McClane's infamously colorful language (though the final product seems violent enough to have merited a R anyway).

But every time the film threatens to lose its pull, along comes another explosion. And in a summer movie season short on thrills, all is forgiven.

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