Today David and I walked over to Union Station for a little old-fashioned summer movie fun. On the agenda: Live Free or Die Hard. Unlike our previous attempt to see a fun summer flick, this one was an unbridled success. First of all, Bruce Willis is like my favorite movie star ever. He embodies all things that are cool, like God took cool and made it into human form. He sweats cool. In this movie he bleeds cool. If I were somewhere in peril, he would absolutely be the action hero I'd want to come rescue me and save the day making jokes all along the way.
The movie itself is just one tongue-in-cheek joke away from "Charlie's Angels" territory, but from me that is a compliment. This is a movie where the hero runs over a fire hydrant so that the spray of water shoots up and knocks a would-be assassin with a machine gun out of the pursuing helicopter. Seriously. They go there. Reality is nowhere to be seen, but you are having so much fun in the process you don't care. I was laughing out loud at some of the stunts, but I was totally laughing with them, not at them. The rest of the audience, again unlike my previous experience with the Silver Surfer movie, was also laughing and hooting along. But it was all participatory, which is the best crowd to see a movie like this.
So thank you Bruce Willis, and your producers who understand how to make a fun movie. One suggestion, Kevin "Silent Bob" Smith plays a small part as a computer-geek with skills. With a movie this silly, just try and convince me that it wouldn't have been the ultimate of awesomeness had they cast John Hodgman instead.
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Of course, I don't want to tell the WHOLE movie, but what about when he jumps out of the semi-truck onto the freeway ramp that is being destroyed by the F-35 before the plane goes down? And the whole attitude of the pilot - like...."ummmm.....I might be in trouble for this???"
ReplyDeleteGotta love it.
Robb, you know it's Grandpa's fault we love these movies, don't you?
It's always a good thing when you can claim genetic predestiny for the occasional quirk.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't willing to try another summer sequel after being disappointed in Spiderman and then Pirates 3.
We opted for Michael Moore's "Sicko" this weekend, which I was very happy with. Typical Moore film in setup and delivery.
I love the melodramatic moments where he brings ordinary people into the ludicrous situation and then they stand, faces solemn, awaiting some miraculous epiphany in goverment or big business. Like taking a boatful of ailing 911 rescue workers without adequate health care coverage over to the detention center at Guatanemo Bay and calling out over the bullhorn, "I have 911 rescue workers here. They just want the same health care that Al Qaeda is getting."
I don't think there's a lot of new info in this movie for the average person who works in health care. But many of the folks in the movie were well spoken, and it's a great film to see, if you happen like Moore's delivery, which I have always been entertained by.