NYPD Detective John McClane is back in action after a twelve year hiatus in Live Free or Die Hard - the fourth film in the action packed franchise. How does it measure up to the past installments? Well, it certainly could have been better, but then it certainly could have been worse.

In Live Free or Die Hard, McClane is more of a loner type. Not only are he and Holly divorced, but he can't even seem to connect with his now fully grown daughter Lucy. All McClane does have is his job and for the most part, he's a solitary lawman. He works the street alone.

Late one evening, during 4th of July weekend (Independence Day subs for Christmas this time around), McClane is ordered to escort computer hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long - y'knew he'd get popped for all his smarmy Mac skills) to the station when a bizarre set of explosions begin claiming the lives of other various hackers around the city. Reluctantly, McClane follows orders. When he arrives at the twenty something's grungy apartment, all hell breaks loose. And before you can say "how can the same shit happen to the same guy four times," McClane finds himself imbedded in a cyber space terrorism scheme that threatens to shut down the entire country's infrastructure. Of course, as is usually the case in a Die Hard film, the bad guys have an agenda, and in Live Free or Die Hard, that agenda is in perfect keeping with the franchise tradition.

The original Die Hard is a landmark action film. As far as I'm concerned it set a standard for the genre. This movie is more of an extension of Die Hard With a Vengeance in that it uses the entire city of New York as a playground rather than confining itself to isolated areas (in the first it was a skyscraper, in the second, it was an airport).

While I certainly enjoyed the energy of Live Free or Die Hard, I did have some problems with it. Firstly, the saying is, that a hero is only as exciting as his villain. Bruce Willis is immensely entertaining as John McClane. He has the wisecracking one liners down and he completely sells the tough guy image. Timothy Olyphant by contrast, does not emerge as one of the stronger Die Hard villains. This isn't to say Olyphant is a bad actor. He's terrific on Deadwood, but as Live Free or Die Hard's chief evil doer Thomas Gabriel, there doesn't seem to be any real menace to him.

Secondly, I could give two craps about the supporting characters in this movie. I'm not referring to Justin Long. The mac computer guy and Accepted star actually carries himself quite nicely here, generating terrific chemistry with Willis and zinging some nice one liners of his own (although I could have done without an awful scene in which he and Willis try to hot wire a car). No, I'm referring to pretty much everyone else. The first movie worked like a charm because it had a barrage of colorful characters to compliment the charismatic Willis. Characters like Powell, Argyle, Ellis, FBI Agents Johnson and Johnson, Chief of Police Dwayne T. Robinson, intellectual bad guy Hans Gruber, and vengeful henchman Karl. What's more, all these characters were given real things to do. Live Free or Die Hard is populated by dull supporting players. The terrorists are completely boring and undistinguishable (save for a lively Maggie Q who's virtually wasted in a minuscule role), and even the characters who are on McClane's side (i.e. Cliff Curtis' Inspector Bowman) are given nothing interesting to do. I suppose Kevin Smith has a few bright moments as a skilled computer hacker, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is somewhat appealing as McClane's tough daughter Lucy, but most of these supporting characters are either stock or seemingly unnecessary. What the movie really could have used is Bonnie Bedelia, an actress who brought a lot of class and motivation to the original film as McClane's wife. For whatever reason, director John McTiernan and his screenwriters chose to write her out of the third film, and as a result, she's not in this one either.

Thirdly, the action sequences become increasingly ridiculous as the film moves along. Director Len Wiseman (who met with hostile reaction from many fans when it was announced that he would be taking over the directing reigns) is not to blame. And in fact, Wiseman directs these action sequences with high octane energy, and he does so the old fashioned way. He and his crew do not resort to CGI trickery. They actually blow shit up. The problem is, as real as most of this stuff looks, it's simply far too cartoonish to be taken seriously. In particular, I had to laugh at the big jet sequence in the climax of the picture. It manages to make a similar sequence in True Lies look positively subtle by comparison. During moments like this, John McClane seems more like a super hero than an aging cop. What I always loved about this character is that he isn't Rambo or The Terminator. He's a regular guy.

As for the much talked about PG-13 rating? It's not that big of a deal. Certainly, there are moments when Willis looks as if he desperately wants to drop an F bomb. Even the classic line folks come to expect from McClane is tampered with. As for the violence? It's still in tact, granted there's no blood when a character gets shot. Furthermore, I'm all but convinced that the film obtained the PG-13 because of the blatantly cartoonish nature of the action sequences. At one point, a terrorist jumps from a helicopter a good fifty feet in the air. He lands atop a car, rolls to the concrete, and slowly but surely rises to his feet. He then dusts himself off, and walks away from the ordeal with hardly a scratch.

At the end of the day, folks are going to see Live Free or Die Hard so they can see John McClane kick ass, and hopefully watch a lot of stuff blow up in the process. They don't care about the absurdity of it all nor do they care that this film plays more like a feature version of 24 than a Die Hard movie. The days of everyman John McClane are over. This McClane takes out the enemy because he believes if he doesn't, no one else will. If that ain't Jack Bauer's mantra, then I don't know what is.

As I sat there watching Live Free or Die Hard, I enjoyed myself, but somehow, I felt a nostalgic yearning for the John McClane of yesteryear. A McClane who engaged in death defying acts that seemed possible rather than impossible. Still, this is a pure adrenalin thrill ride, and Willis proves he's still got it after nearly twenty years of taking out the bad guy.