Live Free or Die Hard

After completely ruining his daughter's hot date, "McClane" (Bruce Willis) is sent to pick up a young hacker in response to what the FBI think might be a city wide cyber-attack. The youngster "Farrell" (Justin Long) is a cocky geek who is ill-prepared for what now ensues as "McClane" arrives just in time to save him from a barrage of gunfire that turns his apartment into a war zone. They now have to try to get the kid to safety but his pursuers are not giving up. What has this lad done? What has he got? Well swiftly we learn amidst the growing chaos that the not so angelic "Gabriel" (Timothy Olyphant) and his pal "Mai" (Maggie Q) are pulling the strings and will stop at nothing to see both of them go the way of the dodo before they cause mayhem across these United States. Can this unlikely pairing thwart his devious plan? To be fair to both Bruce and Long, they do manage a bit of quite engaging camaraderie as they lurch from one death-defying scenario to another but there's no getting away from it. The story is weak and far too thin to stretch across two hours of action that becomes increasingly far-fetched and repetitive. The cop character's disdainful attitude is also starting to wear out a bit as what limited jeopardy there ever was with these films becomes just a little too much like an exhibition of the stunt arrangers creative pyrotechnics and the lively production design. It's not terrible, Willis still oozes charisma, but maybe "McClane" needs to be put out to pasture now before he does himself a mischief - or bothers to read another lacklustre script.