It has been a while since we last saw Bruce Willis play John McClane. Over a decade actually. So does McClane have what it takes to thrill movie goers still, or is Willis too old to pull off what he first started when he was in his thirties? Willis proves that, yes, he still has what it takes and demonstrates the fact convincely in the action packed ‘Live Free Or Die Hard’.

The movie starts with a phenomenal action sequence as Matt Farrell (Justin Long who is famous for his portrayal as the Mac Guy in the PC vs Mac adverts) is wanted by the FBI for questioning for hacking into the FBI’s computer system. It seems that Farrell is also a marked man by a group of terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). McClane arrives in the nick of time to thwart the plot and both McClane and Farrell head to Washington DC to find out what to make of the attempted murder.

It becomes clearer that there is much more to the story than the a group wanting one computer hacker dead, as the terrorists have taken over all of the governments access to their computer grid. McClane, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time once more, proves again to be a one man wrecking ball and begins to completely dismantle the terrorists plot and find his daughter who they have kidnapped.

While Gabriel is a capable villain in the film, he does not match that of Alan Rickman who portrayed the terrorist Hans Gruber in the first ‘Die Hard’. ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ took the template from the first one in a number of ways and that is why the film works. It didn’t get too cute and try to be something that the series wasn’t like ‘Die Hard: With a Vengeance’ which is the poorest offering from the successful series. The only gripe I had with the film was the casting of Justin Long who wears on the nerves a bit, but the film is too good for him to ruin it completely.

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