403 replies to this topic

[ACE]

NO CAPE
NO MASK
NO PROBLEM

I love these spots. Really stoked to see the return of John McClane!

I've probably said this before, but I think it'll be the DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER of the series.

That good, huh? I think it's shaping up to be the DAD of the series.

[Loomis]

No, I mean it'll literally be DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (well, without Shirley Bassey and a couple of other elements).

By comparison to the lean, mean and relatively gritty first two films in the series, it'll be breezy, campy and overblown.

There will be a couple of brief moments of jarringly nasty violence, but otherwise the action will be silly and played for the sort of playground laughs enjoyed by those for whom seeing a PG-13 movie is a distant wish for the future - where Bond uses a mousetrap on a bad guy(concealed in his pocket, as though agents are prone to having such things tucked away), McClane brings down a chopper with a fire hydrant. To quote Noel Coward, it gives rise to such hilarity and mirth!

For me, Connery isn't really playing Bond in DAF - he's playing a sort of Scottish-American playboy star of a jewel thief caper comedy. It's a kind of Brosnan-as-Thomas-Crown turn - very close to Bond, and could probably pass for Bond under most circumstances, but still a little bit off from the real thing, but then so's the material he has to work with. Likewise, I doubt that the McClane of LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD will be exactly the same guy who's the hero of DIE HARD.

Bond fights Bambi and Thumper in DAF. From the TV spots, it looks as though McClane will have a scrap with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III's Maggie Q in LIVE FREE....

The bad guy in LIVE FREE.... wants to destroy all the technology in America and return the country to the bronze age. In DAF, Blofeld has a much more modest but vaguely similar wheeze involving diamonds, space lasers and nukes.

LIVE FREE.... looks as though it could be great fun, but I'm certainly preparing myself for a film to horrify old school McClane fans and purists (such as myself).

[The Dove]

Well fair enough Loomis and ACE.. I guess I should probably prepare myself incase this film does suck, but so far I'm pretty optimistic.. By the way, all the tv spots say " This film is not yet rated." So it may not be PG-13 after all, something some of us were concerned with..

[ACE]

I'm very optimistic, The Dove. Am really looking forward to it. The TV spots you graciously posted look fabbalus.

[0024]

I still can't wait to see it.

[Professor Dent]

I'm going into this one with a positive feeling given what I've seen but I'm definitely not putting it up on a pedestal as being the next great piece of cinema. I would call this a typical "popcorn movie" - some good entertainment for a few hours while I chow down on the buttery, or greasy, popcorn. I'm still looking forward to seeing McClane mix it up on the big screen again.

[The Dove]

New, or at least extended preview video clips of Live Free or Die Hard are up at the following link.. I must say its great to see Bruce back in the the role of John McClane.. From these short clips it looks to me at least that this is going to be exciting!!

http://movies.yahoo....8403725/trailer


Also I've heard that Willis is up for doing a fifth Die Hard movie (as long as Len Wiseman returns to direct), something Fox has already talking about!! This must say something to how good Live Free or Die Hard is going to be...in fact Bruce Willis has said that this film is just as good, if not better than the original Die Hard!!

[dinovelvet]

New, or at least extended preview video clips of Live Free or Die Hard are up at the following link.. I must say its great to see Bruce back in the the role of John McClane.. From these short clips it looks to me at least that this is going to be exciting!!

http://movies.yahoo....8403725/trailer


Also I've heard that Willis is up for doing a fifth Die Hard movie (as long as Len Wiseman returns to direct), something Fox has already talking about!! This must say something to how good Live Free or Die Hard is going to be...in fact Bruce Willis has said that this film is just as good, if not better than the original Die Hard!!

Ehh, sounds like standard publicity talk to me, e.g. Connery saying DAF was the best script when he was promoting that! Don't they always say the latest Bond film is the biggest and best one yet? The only thing that guarantees Die Hard 5 is $$$

[Harmsway]

I know that Willis really believes in this film, but I don't know whether I should really trust him on that count or not. All the trailers and TV spots I've seen make me less and less excited for the film... so cartoony. I dunno.

I hope LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD delivers. The last thing I want is DIE HARD to go out on a bad note - but nothing in the trailers or those clips convinces me that this film will be very good, and it seems that the film has mostly abandoned the hard, gritty feel of the previous entries.

[Loomis]

New, or at least extended preview video clips of Live Free or Die Hard are up at the following link.. I must say its great to see Bruce back in the the role of John McClane.. From these short clips it looks to me at least that this is going to be exciting!!

http://movies.yahoo....8403725/trailer


Also I've heard that Willis is up for doing a fifth Die Hard movie (as long as Len Wiseman returns to direct), something Fox has already talking about!! This must say something to how good Live Free or Die Hard is going to be...in fact Bruce Willis has said that this film is just as good, if not better than the original Die Hard!!

http://www.thehollyw..._06_3_2246.html

"Fox is already talking about doing another one. I told them I would only do it if Len (Wiseman) was involved. And Maggie Q. Oh, yeah...And Justin of course. We couldn't do it without Justin."

Indeed. Imagine a DIE HARD flick without Justin Long! I guess that's why the original is so poor - no Justin Long-type sidekick. I am, of course, being sarcastic.

[Loomis]

I know that Willis really believes in this film, but I don't know whether I should really trust him on that count or not. All the trailers and TV spots I've seen make me less and less excited for the film... so cartoony. I dunno.

I hope LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD delivers. The last thing I want is DIE HARD to go out on a bad note - but nothing in the trailers or those clips convinces me that this film will be very good, and it seems that the film has mostly abandoned the hard, gritty feel of the previous entries.

For me, the main problem is that the action looks both overblown and unremarkable. The DIE HARD series used to lead the way in stylish action - heck, the first one was practically revolutionary in that department (James Cameron mentioned the action in DIE HARD as one of the inspirations for T2).

Now, though, it looks like DIE HARD is merely following. Judging by the trailers, it's ripping off the likes of TRUE LIES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III and 24, and not even doing it well, a la Cameron with T2. Like TERMINATOR 3, I fear that this will be a sequel sorely lacking what it needed most - visual "wow" factor.

Add an apparent overconcern with wisecracks, as well as a seemingly weak-as-water villain in the shape of Timothy Olyphant, the presence of Kevin Smith in a "clever" cameo (still, look on the bright side - I guess Willis could easily have got his buddy Tarantino instead), and the prospect of Justin Long hogging the screen throughout, and it's easy to worry.

[sharpshooter]

The film looks ok, some of the action looked pretty crazy in places. Will see it from my love of the other films. Hope he utters the immortal Yippiay mo- fo line.

[Harmsway]

For me, the main problem is that the action looks both overblown and unremarkable. The DIE HARD series used to lead the way in stylish action - heck, the first one was practically revolutionary in that department (James Cameron mentioned the action in DIE HARD as one of the inspirations for T2).

Now, though, it looks like DIE HARD is merely following. Judging by the trailers, it's ripping off the likes of TRUE LIES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III and 24, and not even doing it well, a la Cameron with T2. Like TERMINATOR 3, I fear that this will be a sequel sorely lacking what it needed most - visual "wow" factor.

I hear ya. The drab visuals of this film do nothing for me, and that's really what leaves me uninterested. Nothing about the action looks compelling... far behind its contemporaries (both M:I:III and CASINO ROYALE appear to run circles around anything in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD).

Add an apparent overconcern with wisecracks, as well as a seemingly weak-as-water villain in the shape of Timothy Olyphant, the presence of Kevin Smith in a "clever" cameo (still, look on the bright side - I guess Willis could easily have got his buddy Tarantino instead), and the prospect of Justin Long hogging the screen throughout, and it's easy to worry.

Agreed.

[dinovelvet]

I know that Willis really believes in this film, but I don't know whether I should really trust him on that count or not. All the trailers and TV spots I've seen make me less and less excited for the film... so cartoony. I dunno.

I hope LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD delivers. The last thing I want is DIE HARD to go out on a bad note - but nothing in the trailers or those clips convinces me that this film will be very good, and it seems that the film has mostly abandoned the hard, gritty feel of the previous entries.

For me, the main problem is that the action looks both overblown and unremarkable. The DIE HARD series used to lead the way in stylish action - heck, the first one was practically revolutionary in that department (James Cameron mentioned the action in DIE HARD as one of the inspirations for T2).

Now, though, it looks like DIE HARD is merely following. Judging by the trailers, it's ripping off the likes of TRUE LIES, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III and 24, and not even doing it well, a la Cameron with T2. Like TERMINATOR 3, I fear that this will be a sequel sorely lacking what it needed most - visual "wow" factor.

Add an apparent overconcern with wisecracks, as well as a seemingly weak-as-water villain in the shape of Timothy Olyphant, the presence of Kevin Smith in a "clever" cameo (still, look on the bright side - I guess Willis could easily have got his buddy Tarantino instead), and the prospect of Justin Long hogging the screen throughout, and it's easy to worry.

I like Olyphant. Have you ever seen him in DEADWOOD? He can definitely 'bring it' to a role like this. I'm thinking he might actually turn out to be the highlight of the movie. BTW is Jeffrey Wright actually in this thing, or not? The only evidence that he is comes from the imdb, unless he's popped up in any of these online clip? And personally I'd take Tarantino over Smith any day, obnoxious as he is. At least he'd deliver a hilariously irrelevant monologue about the Bee Gees or something
Anyway, yes I think the T3 comparison is apt. Like I said earlier in the thread, when you see McClane riding on the back of a fighter jet, and apparently launching a car as a makeshift missile to destroy a helicopter, its pretty clear we're not at the Nakatomi Plaza any more, Toto.

[Loomis]

Well, a fair chunk of the film's opening is online, and this really does look pretty bad.... at least, compared to the other DIE HARDs - it's still quite possible that it'll manage to provide enough silly fun to justify the price of admission. Then again, it may well just be a loud, grating, overblown bore. In any case, on the strength of this footage, it'd be wise to ditch any high expectations of this flick.

The good: seems Willis will be fun to watch, although if the man truly believes that this is the best DIE HARD outing one suspects the early onset of Alzheimer's. Also - and this is good insofar as it sends a chill of sorts down the spine for fans of the series - it appears that Marco Beltrami's score carries very strong echoes of Michael Kamen's work.

And the bad: well, pretty much everything else. It's all downhill after the moderately clever sight gag with the Fox logo right at the start! (Although I must give a few points for avoiding one of my pet hates when it comes to modern movies, which is what I'd call "logo fatigue". You know, when you have to sit through four or five distributor and production company logos, most of which seem to be absolutely interminable and Spinal Tap-esque in their pomposity.)

Garden variety exposition, production design and action, all glued together by unfunny quips. It's reasonably competent, yes, although there's certainly no suggestion that anyone was exactly shooting for the stars, but equally there's no evident class at all. Looks like the biggest bomb concerning this DIE HARD could be the movie itself, and that Jack Bauer has comprehensively beaten his Fox colleague McClane at his own game.

http://www.cinemable...-Hard-5453.html

[dinovelvet]

The good: seems Willis will be fun to watch, although if the man truly believes that this is the best DIE HARD outing one suspects the early onset of Alzheimer's.

I don't think you can take a comment like that seriously. Isn't it pretty much standard publicity blurb when out promoting your sequel that you say "This one is the biggest and best Die Hard/Bond/Harry Potter/Batman" yet! I don't believe for a second that Bruce thinks its the best die hard evarrrr...
If we want to get ultra-cynical about this whole project for a moment, I suspect it came about purely because Willis has appeared in a string of flops lately, and (perhaps bolstered by recent Sly and Ahnuld comebacks) agreed to one last Die Hard for the paycheck and to keep his waning box office clout above water. I don't think you sign on to do a Len Wiseman movie with Justin Long and Kevin Smith for the artistic credibility, exactly.
BTW Jeffrey Wright's name has now vanished from the imdb listing for this movie, and I can find no mention of him connected with the project at all. Though curiously, I do see an "Agent Johnson" in the cast. Are they busting out the 'No relation' gag again?
ANYHOO I will check out this opening footage over the weekend and see if its up to par!

[Loomis]

Oh, I'm sure that Willis is just dutifully doing a bit of promotional campaigning when he rattles on about LIVE FREE.... being the best of the series. But what I find hard to understand is why Fox has put this incredibly underwhelming, indeed clich

[Harmsway]

Unless I'm dragged to the theatre by some friends, this movie is definitely a rental. If that. It looks worse and worse all the time, and after SPIDEY 3 and PIRATES 3, I have no interest in yet another crappy sequel.

[Loomis]

Unless I'm dragged to the theatre by some friends, this movie is definitely a rental. If that.

I'm with you, and I'm - I was - a hardcore DIE HARD fan. For many years, DIE HARD 4, RAMBO 4 and ROCKY 6 were the sequels I most wanted to see put into production (and there were certainly enough rumours about all of them over the years). It always seemed obvious that DIE HARD 4 was the most likely to get made, and that it would also be of incomparably better quality than any attempt to revive Rambo or Rocky.

Staggeringly, though, it seems DIE HARD 4 is the one that's actually of RAMBO III/ROCKY V quality, while Stallone is on the sort of cracking form that not even his most ardent fans ever thought possible.

I predict that LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD will be shilled to an embarrassing extent by the boys at AICN (recently home to a Willis Q&A), with Harry Knowles calling it something like "the greatest American action movie of the century" and basically praising it to the skies in the same way as he went beserk over MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (which looks like CASINO ROYALE compared to LIVE FREE....). Otherwise, it will be absolutely mauled by critics, and rightly so.

And that's enough from me on a picture I'm supposedly not even interested in.

[Tarl_Cabot]

The Bourne Ultimatum is all that matters to me this summer. August can't get here fast enough.

[Mike00spy]

Hey, maybe the film can end on a black screen! This way we can ponder who gets killed- the villain or McClane!

[dinovelvet]

And the bad: well, pretty much everything else. It's all downhill after the moderately clever sight gag with the Fox logo right at the start! (Although I must give a few points for avoiding one of my pet hates when it comes to modern movies, which is what I'd call "logo fatigue". You know, when you have to sit through four or five distributor and production company logos, most of which seem to be absolutely interminable and Spinal Tap-esque in their pomposity.)
http://www.cinemable...-Hard-5453.html

Hmm I just watched the clip on there but I don't know if I got all of it for some reason. It starts off with Bruce knocking on Justin Long's door and then there's a conversation followed by a rather bland shootout and that's it. Nothing with any logos in it. Did some of it get taken down or summat? Anyway what I saw wasn't very good. A fire extinguisher that when shot, goes off like a bomb? This ain't a videogame!

[Double-Oh-Zero]

I was excited about this film when I first heard about it, but my anticipation level has gone mostly downhill since the first photographs were released during production. The second trailer was nice, but I realized how campy the film actually looks after watching it a few times.

And since it's been revealed that DH4 will be PG-13...pah.



...Bourne Ultimatum comes out in August, doesn't it?

[dinovelvet]

Oh, I'm sure that Willis is just dutifully doing a bit of promotional campaigning when he rattles on about LIVE FREE.... being the best of the series.

And speaking of lame publicity whoring, Entertainment Weekly has its list of the Best 25 Action Movies Evarrrr, and Die Hard is at No.1 on the list. The same week they have an interview with Bruce Willis promoting Live Free or Die Hard. Cough. Bond registers at a lowly 18 I think it was, with Goldfinger. One of the Bourne movies was ahead of it, 12 or so. Weak!

[stamper]

Yeah, especially as the n

[Harmsway]

This ain't a videogame!

Coulda fooled me.

...Bourne Ultimatum comes out in August, doesn't it?

Thankfully.

[Loomis]

Hmm I just watched the clip on there but I don't know if I got all of it for some reason. It starts off with Bruce knocking on Justin Long's door and then there's a conversation followed by a rather bland shootout and that's it. Nothing with any logos in it. Did some of it get taken down or summat?

Yes, it seems to have gone. I watched it on the lowest-quality option, since it kept freezing otherwise, and it was a little tough to tell what was happening at some points, but the opening of the film, at least as presented in this clip, concerns

Spoiler

Justin Long tapping away at a keyboard, having a conversation and exchanging information with fellow hacker Maggie Q, whom he's obviously just "met". He makes a clumsy attempt to chat her up at the same time, and here's the start of all the wisecracking that doubtless infests this movie. We see computer screens suggesting hacks into the FBI and the like, a la GOLDENEYE. Long then gets worried and asks Q whether she's sure what they're doing is legal. Cut to a house in the suburbs. A man is accusing someone present of messing with his computer. And then the house blows up. Can't remember whether the next bit is in the following clip, which you've seen, but we're then at some sort of FBI computer command centre, where a blowhard Fed (obviously modelled on Dennis Franz's blowhard cop in DIE HARD 2) is ranting on at his staff about how someone's hacked them but won't get away with it, no sir, and will everyone please start putting in some effort to nail the SOB. Someone mentions it's a holiday weekend, which turns a difficult task into a practically impossible one.

Even though it's drenched in Michael Kamen-esque "something's about to happen" music, it's hardly an exciting opening, suggesting a teen comedy meeting 24, or at least something that's more WARGAMES or SNEAKERS than DIE HARD. Not that this picture necessarily has to have an explosive, instantly grabbing start (like DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE), but it's not something particularly worth putting on the net. Which is presumably why it's been taken down!

[dinovelvet]

I see, I guess I didn't miss much. From what I did see, I wasn't really impressed. The Justin Long character seemed to be nothing but quips and wisecracks, none of which I laughed at. I can already tell this would be one of those movies that, if I saw it in the theatre, there'd be people around me laughing at every line he says, where I'd just be sitting there wondering what the hell is so funny. That whole "Bruce breaks the action figure" bit was particularly awful, yet I know it'll still get big laughs. I'd like to see a clip of "McClane talking to the villain by walkie talkie/cellphone" to see if the film gets that kind of banter right.
I dunno, the best shot this film has got of me actually going to see it is if it hits 100 degrees that weekend and I go out of desperation for two hours of sweet air conditioned relief. And even then I'd probably choose Fantastic Four

[Loomis]

Okay, the apparent opening sequence is back, and in much better quality:

http://www.movieweb....ws/93/20493.php

[HildebrandRarity]

I saw the trailer this past week ahead of OCEAN'S THIRTEEN and THE FANTASTIC 4 - RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER. It looked kinda funny in a "knowing" sort of way with the whole trailer revolving around McLane's daughter.

The outdoor action set pieces with the flying cars looked totally CGI which is very worrying.

BTW, who is this Justin Long everyone on this page keeps going on about? Am I the only one here who has no idea who this person is?

Edited by HildebrandRarity, 17 June 2007 - 02:06 PM.