Prepare for watered-down language compared to DVD

Bruce Willis is back as the wise-cracking Everyman hero Detective John McCLane in high-definition Blu-ray. It’s campy action at its best even if it’s a bit sanitized for a PG-13 rating. 

“You’re a Timex watch in a digital age.” S o says the villain, a domestic terrorist, in the latest of the Die Hard franchise.
McClane’s age and stubbornness is the recurring theme of this film that revisits a past genre – the adult violent action film. Historically, these films were rated R but not this time. 

The theatrical release of Live Free or Die Hard gets a PG-13 rating to appease the most sought-after demographic of mainstream cinema today, the 15-year-old boy. It’s been said this demographic decides the fate of box-office tallies.

The DVD release of Live Free or Die Hard gets back the R rating in a director’s cut. But the version I reviewed is the Blu-ray release which remains true to the theatrical release, watered down with much of McClane’s foul language sitting on the cutting room floor.  

The most notable casualty of the PG-13 rating is the obscuring of McClane’s signature one-liner by gunfire. Instead of the R-rated expletive that made Willis a star, the theatrical release and this Blu-ray disc gives us something like this:

Yippee-ki-yay, Muth…Bang-Bang-Bang!

Overall, the movie is good entertainment and I didn’t count myself among those disappointed by the sanitation of the movie for a PG-13 rating. I felt it worked as a campy action movie and nobody does it better than Bruce Willis. He still has the charm, wit and charisma to carry the film as the Everyman action star.
 
This one delves a little too deeply into super-heroism as McClane pulls off stunts better suited to Spiderman and survives beatings that would rattle the X-Men’s Wolverine.

One of the bright spots of the film is Justin Long who co-stars as the villain’s target who McClane is sent to save. Heshows a sarcastic wit as a computer hacker who, of course, uses a Mac. Perhaps you’ve seen Justin Long as the Mac-booster in the Apple commercials featuring Mac vs PC. 

Audio
The Blu-ray release has one of the most amazing DTS-HD soundtracks you’ll hear. Your home theater system’s subwoofer will get a workout it won’t soon forget as everything in this film is accompanied by exaggerated low-frequency tones.

Video
It’s no award-winning standard for the Blu-ray format. But it features a crisp high-resolution picture at 1080P. It appeared to have the color temperature set a little low, giving prominence to shades of blue and muddying the shadowy scenes in the film.

Overall ,the movie is worthrenting on Blu-ray if you’re even a casual fan of Bruce Willis or the action genre. I’d reserve ownership of the Blu-ray disc to only the Die Hard of this franchise.  

With all the extra space on the 50 GB dual density Blu-ray disc - why didn’t they provide the option of watching either version of the film?  I personally blame Sony!

See a complete Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray review.

Tags: Internet, iPhone

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.