Can Willis still get 'Hard'?

Man, oh man, Baby Boomers are certainly scared of accepting that AARP membership.
To wit, James Bond, a staple in the Boomers' cinematic diet, returned last year reinvigorated and as nimble and ferocious as ever. Sylvester Stallone, 61, proved he could still pummel a young buck to the floor in last year's “Rocky Balboa.” And now Bruce Willis is attempting to prove that sexagenarians can still “Die Hard.”
Better than it has any right being, “Live Free or Die Hard,” the latest installment in the franchise, is reminiscent of the nostalgia-fueled fun of “Balboa” in its dusty charms. Even though it deals with computer hacking geeks as its main villains, it's still decidedly old school when it comes to much of the action.
By the time this review is published, the box office will be topped with rats and robots that represent the latest in computer-generated wizardry.
But New York cop John McClane (played by Willis) is a rotary phone in a cellular age – clunky, a little slow to connect, but built solidly and dependably. Willis knows this, and while he still manages to squirrel his way through a maze of peril, he puts to work his acting skills honed from his years of non-action roles.
It all should not perform as well as it does. Every ingredient on paper adds to a recipe for disaster – a relatively unknown director (Les Wiseman, of the two crappy “Underworld” flicks”), a wise-cracking young sidekick (played by Justin Long), and, perhaps worst of all, a PG-13 rating.
The latter means when it comes time to yell out his catch phrase, McClane instead mumbles a neutered “Yippy-kay-yay, motherfu(BOOM)!” Yes, it's a cop out, especially for a film featuring a man who once sprinted barefoot across broken glass. And several scenes look like a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie, in which the actors' words clearly don't match their lips, suggesting an “R” rating was the original intent before Fox studios smelled more money in the former rating.
But just as sure as McClane will somehow unwit the techno-terrorists, you can rest assured that there is many a thrill to be had. “Live Free or Die Hard” is the equivalent to chancing your luck on one of those old wooden roller coasters – it has weathered with time and you get this sense that it may jump the tracks at any given moment, but somehow you remain sturdily on course.
Though Willis must share credit for this one. Long, the ubiquitous Mac ad poster boy, is a comfortable tagalong as Matt Farrell, bringing a 21st century commentary to our belligerently 20th century hero.
While chief criminal Thomas Gabriel (played by Timothy Olyphant) is suitably smarmy, he's certainly no Hans Grueber, the immortal rogue embodied by Alan Rickman in the first film. Fortunately, his first-in-command is Mai Lihn (played by Maggie Q), who is glamorously lethal (or perhaps lethally glamorous) and provides perhaps the film's best fight scene. Her sultry style of fighting gives new meaning to the term “Die Hard.”
Like it's title, the film goes on for a little longer than it should – tossing out the tired, unfunny Kevin Smith cameo and the action centerpiece between an 18-wheeler and a fighter jet should be the first to go.
Yet seeing Willis wheeze his way through another improbable, life-threatening mission elicits the same giddy, guilty pleasures as seeing Stallone drag his brittle-but-Bowflex-sculpted carcass to the canvas one last time.
Willis' easygoing demeanor is pivotal to “Live Free or Die Hard's” enjoyment, making it one fu(BOOM!) good time at the summer box office.