Even though NYPD Det. John McClane doesn’t always feel like the McClane we know and love, director Len Wiseman does such a wonderful job orchestrating bravado shootouts, fights, and chases that our most basic entertainment needs are met.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 6, 2024

Audiences looking for heartfelt drama and a realistic plot are certainly courting the wrong movie.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 26, 2020

This worthy addition to the Die Hard franchise sticks to a refreshingly old-fashioned (but no less effective) action formula throughout.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2020

But ultimately it's [Bruce] Willis who makes this loopy action movie so endearing...Nobody dies it better.

| Feb 6, 2018

It's an over-the-top spectacle of action violence, and I loved it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 28, 2014

Provided you don't put too much thought into it and just enjoy the ride, you'll have a blast.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Feb 12, 2013

Ultimately, a passable new Die Hard movie is more than anyone of us ever really expected, and that in itself is worth a jolly old Yippee-Ki-Ay.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2012

Brainless? Sure. Entertaining? Yup.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2012

Though it's mostly entertaining (if overlong), there is a sense that the whole thing has become somewhat rote.

| Jun 18, 2012

Len Wiseman handles many of the set-pieces with flair and tension.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Live Free or Die Hard needs a sense of joy, a sense that despite the harrowing nature of the situation, there is something entertaining - even to the participants - about the absurdity of the situation ... it doesn't have that.

| Original Score: 6.5/10 | Mar 29, 2011

Fred Flinstone in the land of the Jetsons

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 17, 2010

Pulled off with just the right spatial élan

| Aug 27, 2009

The Die Hard series was about as animated as Rocky's face until director Len Wiseman restored it to its kinetic essence...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009

It's not remotely plausible, but with Willis' McClane leaping onto the tailfins of passing jet fighters and bringing down helicopters by launching police cars at them, there's enough stuff blowing up that action fans won't mind much.

| Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Live Free or Die Hard is as close as we are going to get to reliving the good old action films of the '80s.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 23, 2008

I was actually nervous with all the gunfire and near misses. But then it kept happening over and over again. So instead of being involved, I studied the action sequences.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 3, 2008

As more and more movies rely on massive CGI enhancement and Hong Kong choreographed wire-rigged fights, Die Hard revels in good, old-fashioned fist fights and real, immaculately executed stunts.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 28, 2008

Its hyperactive 80's chic action crap and I had a blast just the same...

| Jan 27, 2008