Live Free or Die Hard (2007, Len Wiseman)

Never quite feels like a DIE HARD movie- even McClane himself doesn't feel the same- but it's highly entertaining for a Hollywood action programmer. Much like the original DIE HARD, LIVE FREE is a fish-out-of-water story, only whereas the original film saw his New York sensibility in a high-stakes white-collar milieu, this one shows the McClane taking on the "digital world." Consider his two major fight scenes, the first with Asian stunner Maggie Q- and her stunt double- as he counters her martial arts skills with old-school brawling, and the second being totally confounded by a henchman's parkour skills, prevailing only by smartly evading his athletically superior opponent. Honestly, that's always been McClane's trump card- his street smarts and ability to improvise under extreme pressure. The rest of the movie is a serviceable cyber-terrorism story writ large- dig the way the villain uses a YouTube-style montage of Presidential speeches as a televised threat- but it's fun and the action scenes are sweet and surprisingly well-sustained. This being a DIE HARD movie, the plot details don't so much strain credibility as leave it with giant stretch marks, but honestly- what do you want from this? Rating: 6 out of 10.