185 of 200 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The unrated version is fantastic! Spoilers Ahead!, November 8, 2007
Like many other people nervously anticipating Len Wiseman's debut as DH4 director, I could only hope that he could live up to, at the least, Die Hard 2. But he has done a fantastic job with McClane, that lives up to the previous trilogy. In fact, I'd rank LFoDH just behind the first Die Hard movie. No one can top Alan Rickman! The small touches, e.g. Gennero/McClane, Agent Johnson, helicopter flying, are subtle, but add greatly to the movie.
There were a few things missing from the theatrical release, of course. Most noticeably, the lack of swearing, McClane's trademark yippee-kai-yay being truncated. The violence was all there, but it just wasn't intense enough. Fear not fans! The unrated version fixes all of that! It's fantastic, McClane is back in all of his mf-in' glory!
**Spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.**
--------------------------------------------
I was hoping for some more dialogue from Timothy Olyphant in the unrated version, but unfortunately, he is still a bit one-dimensional. Run-times of the unrated vs. the theatrical are about the same, surprising considering that the unrated does add extra scenes.
What the unrated version includes:
Many more f-words and MF-ers.
- Extra dialogue between McClane and his captain, Clevino.
- Longer opening intro scene to Matt Long typing to the warlock,
listening to rock music.
- Extra banter when McClane and Matt first meet.
- More intro shots at the FBI command center.
- Shot of the National Transportation Center losing control of their
traffic grid.
- More shots of false anthrax alarm evacuation.
- Thomas Gabriel's hodgepodge of video of Nixon/Bush/Clinton speaking is
longer.
- Blood spurts!!! More gore, though not significantly more.
- More McClane-isms. When John is driving the police car in the tunnel
towards the helicopter, Rand shoots the engine, which lights on fire.
McClane quips, "Well the car's on fire, that can't be good."
- When Matt runs to his side after McClane destroys the helicopter,
McClane adds, "100,000 people are killed every year by cars. What's
another 4?"
- Quick shot of dead guards in power plant.
- When Mai dies in the elevator explosion, McClane screams a profanity
laced tirade at her.
- McClane flying (and landing!) helicopter scene much longer.
- The guy getting crushed in the giant blades scene doesn't have much
more blood.
- Yippee-kay-yay mf-er is said in full!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Live Free Or Die Hard Reminds Us Why We Love John McClane And Why Sometimes Going Back To The Basics Is Sometimes A Good Thing, July 3, 2007
Die Hard is considered by many film buffs as the greatest action movie ever made. There is just something about the character of John McClane that attracts movie goers. Is it his spunky attitude or is it the fact that he is known for having really bad days? It's both. There have been action franchises that have run out of steam in the past, but all three Die Hard films were great fun. Usually I'm not a fan of dipping into the well one too many times, but if Batman Begins and Casino Royale were able to re-spark the magic then why not give Die Hard another go?
Live Free Or Die Hard takes an old fashioned cop and throws him out of his element, which leaves room for a supporting character. Justin Long steps in as McClane's frazzled and tech wizard sidekick. Timothy Olyphant plays a cyber terrorist who decides to shutdown the entire nation in order to systematically collect hundreds of millions of bank account numbers in order to show the government that the system can in fact be broken. Now it's up to John McClane and his sidekick Matthew Farrell to save the day.
What follows is high octane action that one expects from a Die Hard movie. An important thing to point out is how director Len Wiseman stayed true to the Die Hard style and kept CGI to a minimum. Die Hard movies were great because they did action using real stunts and real explosions. The one thing I was afraid of was that this new Die Hard would go with the trend and use CGI as a crutch when in fact it used it as a tool. There are plenty of stunts that are real sets and real explosions. A few scenes fallback on CGI, but only because doing them for real just wouldn't work. Bruce Willis also keeps the spunk that is John McClane. You'll laugh at the one-liners and the witty remarks that Willis adds in the tensest situations and of course Justin Long is just great with sarcasm. They make a great on-screen duo. I also think that the humor in the Die Hard series is what makes it such a great action series. It's the fact that the filmmakers realize they are making an action movie; a movie in which nothing could ever happen in real life. Lots of action movies take themselves too seriously and they become laughably bad, but Live Free Or Die Hard keeps that spunk that makes it laughably enjoyable. Don't get me wrong though; there are some amazing action scenes that will make you tense up. This is by no means a comedy. The elevator shaft scene was one that stood out and reminded me of the trailer hanging off the cliff in Spielberg's The Lost World.
Moving onto the score this brings up Marco Beltrami. I can state here that I am not a Marco Beltrami fan. The only score of his that I liked was his score to The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. I always feel like he never does anything thematic at all and which is why I was worried when he was selected to fill Michael Kamen's shoes. Michael Kamen was the composer of the first three Die Hard films, but sadly he passed away in 2003. He was a greatly respected composer and his work on the first three Die Hards were iconic. Thankfully Marco Beltrami rose to the occasion and did a wonderful tribute with his score to Live Free Or Die Hard. He touches on some themes that Kamen wrote and gives it that Die Hard feel and atmosphere.
Overall this movie was great. I had a great time watching it and felt like it was better than most of the high budget stuff I've seen this summer so far. Sometimes we need to go back to the basics to remind us why we love what we love. The reason why we love action movies is because of Die Hard and it was great fun seeing McClane back in action.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Product review, November 20, 2007
The three stars is for the PG-13 version thats on this blu ray.Live free or Die Hard I think is the best one yet.As for the PG-13 version first its more than just a couple curse words Its more like 25 curse words.Second if your a fan of Die Hard you know that profanity is part of what John McClane is,I think the movie loses a little bit of that raw edge without it,come on this is DIE HARD.I first bought the blu ray version at midnight at wal-mart,I thought oh well so its not the unrated version.I thought the unrated version was probly just a curse word or two maybe some extra violence.After watching the blu ray two things hit me the first was that the blu ray does look really good and sounds great but I also thought it may have lost a little bit of that rawness from the previous films becouse of the PG-13.So today I bought the unrated DVD version
and yes it makes a big diffrence on the movie it has the crazy,raw John McClane like we are use to.Just get the unated version now they'll release an unrated blu ray soon enough.I guess the studio thought they would lose some money if teenagers with Playstation 3 couldn't buy this so they left the blu ray PG-13.Thats to bad
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
