Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray

Live Free or Die Hard

 (2007)

Action | Adventure | Crime | Thriller

On the July 4th holiday, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every modern angle — but he never figured on an old-analog fly, John McClane, in the digital ointment. It's the beginning of the holiday, but New York City detective McClane isn't celebrating. He's had yet another argument with his college-age daughter Lucy, and received a crushingly routine assignment to bring in a young hacker, Matt Farrell, for questioning by the FBI. But for McClane, the ordinary has a habit of exploding into the extraordinary — abruptly hurtling him into the wrong place at the wrong time. With Farrell's help, McClane slowly begins to understand the increasing chaos surrounding him. An attack is underway on the vulnerable United States infrastructure, shutting down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme, Thomas Gabriel, stays several moves ahead of McClane as he implements his incredible plans, known to uber-geeks like Farrell as a "fire sale" (as in, everything must go!).

For more details about Live Free or Die Hard on Blu-ray, see the Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray Review

Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Cliff Curtis, Maggie Q
Director: Len Wiseman

Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Live Free or Die Hard is presented in 1080p and encoded in MPEG4 AVC. Another day and date home run for Fox, the image is terrific. Colors are well saturated, grain is natural, and the picture is free of noise and artifacts. The film has that HD depth and detail we’ve come to expect from the Blu-ray format. As a movie, it looks VERY different from the ones that preceded it. Besides being made 10-15 years after the others, Wiseman shot in Super35 (rather than anamorphic Panavision), and the film was immediately transferred to digital format and color graded/corrected via computer. Wiseman admits to being a fan of the Terminator films (he says so in the commentary) and it shares the same gray-blue highlights of those movies in the majority of the night and interior scenes. This BD reproduces the look exactly as intended by the director.

A good example is right near the beginning when McClane goes to pick up Farrell from his apartment in Camden. Even in the low light you can make out a wealth of detail in the room on various toys, action figures, and the ratty furniture. The scratches and unpainted walls, even the names of the icons on Farrell’s computer monitor (apparently Farrell was able to build his own custom Macintosh), are easy to spot. Of course there’s Bruce Willis’ weathered visage as well. Every wrinkle, cut, and bit of stubble is there to see. As Indiana Jones might say: it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.

Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

The film is encoded in Fox’s usual 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Before I could not take advantage of the lossless track, but recent upgrades have rendered this moot. What an introduction! Wiseman loves surround sound : his Underworld films have the reputation of being some of the most active and powerful soundtracks out there and this movie is no different. Even toned down for the PG-13 rating, it’s still a hard hitting and dynamic soundtrack. From the quiet whirr of hard drives to the slam of an exploding helicopter, this will give the hardiest of surround systems a workout.

A prime demo sequence is the scene where McClane and Farrell attempt to escape a helicopter firing at their police squad car. It starts off quietly with McClane and Gabriel trading insults via radio. When they reach an intersection all hell breaks loose. Bullets rip through all the speakers as both the car and aircraft swerve from channel to channel. Every hit, glass break, and metal crunch sounds absolutely real. Five out of five.

The film is also encoded in English, Spanish, and French Dolby Digital (DD) 5.1 @ 448 kbps. Once again, I appreciate Fox including the 5.1 DD track, this is not a soundtrack can listen to at night full range without waking the neighborhood. DD allows for dynamic range control and relatively decent playback on lower-end systems.

Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Fox Specs Die Hard and Fantastic Four - August 30, 2007

Live Free or Die Hard Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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