Super Mario Galaxy (Switch)

Back in 2007, Nintendo released Super Mario Galaxy (Galaxy), an early release for their explosively popular Wii system and the third 3D platformer in the Super Mario series. During its lifetime, it sold nearly 13 million copies on its original platform and continues receiving critical praise, even against other modern Mario titles. Although I had heard about the game for nearly two decades, including comparisons made against other games like Sonic Lost World, I got hyped enough for the release of a 2026 film adaptation, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, that I decided I should finally play the game and express my thoughts on it as the first Mario game reviewed on this blog. Fortunately, I can confidently say that it lived up to the hype, though Mario’s journey through the stars wasn’t entirely a smooth one.

Before continuing, I want to firmly establish that this review is based on the Switch version of the game as presented in Super Mario 3D All-Stars (which I played through a physical copy) and played with a Switch Pro Controller (due to suspected JoyCon drift). As such, I will not make any comparisons with the original Wii release or the later Switch compilation re-release with Super Mario Galaxy 2.

The version used for this review.

TMNT (2007)

Although the initial Turtlemania wave died down at the tail end of the 1990s, the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) cartoon proved to be the adrenaline shot that the franchise needed to continue forward. As such, this would eventually lead to a new theatrical film in 2007, simply titled TMNT (TMNT 07), only this time fully animated in CG. While my first viewing was some years after the film initially released, I decided to give it another try after watching the original live-action trilogy, in part because it is meant to serve as a sequel to those films. It did make a lot more sense in this context, but it still had some issues.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)

Back in high school, in the far-off era of the mid-2000s, I couldn’t escape discussion about Call of Duty (CoD) from fellow students, particularly the Modern Warfare trilogy (even one of my teachers played Modern Warfare 2 at the time). Despite this, however, I never really touched the games for one reason or another due to my differing tastes in games at the time. I have since played more FPS games, as you can see on this blog, but even then, I still never touched CoD and hadn’t intended to thanks to the series’ increasingly mixed reception. That would change, however, as I learned that the series had more than just the name going for it and actually left a major impact on FPS games and gaming as a whole. As such, I decided that for the fifteenth anniversary of this blog, I would finally do my due diligence and play the Modern Warfare trilogy, beginning with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4) from 2007, developed by Infinity Ward. I didn’t know exactly what to expect going in, but I walked away finally understanding the game’s appeal and lasting influence.

Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC)

As the Katamari series continued to show success, a new console game was made following the handheld Me & My Katamari. In a departure from previous titles which were on the PlayStation family of systems, this new game, Beautiful Katamari, was released exclusively for the Xbox 360; the intent was to go multiplatform, however only the Xbox 360 version ever got made. After mainly sticking with the PlayStation line for the longest time, since it has most of the games I want to play, Beautiful Katamari was on my radar when I finally branched out to the Xbox systems, and so I played it once I got the chance. At the time, I did not buy the DLC, which I would later check off my shopping list when the Xbox 360 store was shutting down, but I would not revisit the game again until the announcement of the upcoming Once Upon A Katamari.

As of this writing, I have yet to resolve some issues I have been having with my Xbox 360, so it was fortunate that I was able to play this game again, DLC included, on the Xbox Series X as part of the backwards compatibility program, though I will admit to playing with a DualSense through a converter to make it more comfortable for me to play. On my most recent playthrough, I liked it more than I remembered, though my feelings remain mixed.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Note: This review contains spoilers for Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Early 2000s Marvel films have an interesting place in superhero film history. For every cultural phenomenon like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy or the original X-Men film trilogy, we also received middling releases like the original 2005 Fantastic Four, which still proved profitable enough to receive a 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer (Silver Surfer), from the same director, Tim Story. Silver Surfer itself represents an interesting point in the cinematic landscape of the time: It released one year before Iron Man forever changed the approach to superhero films, one month before Transformers revived a dying brand (for better or worse) and four years before Chris Evans joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Captain America. Although Silver Surfer itself did receive slightly better praise than the first film and did make a profit, it still earned less than its predecessor, which led to Fox axing plans for a third film.

Rewatching the film now, it’s not hard to see why the franchise wouldn’t have continued and why it didn’t leave much of a lasting impact. However, I don’t feel quite as negative towards it as I did when I saw it in the theater as a young and impressionable teenager. After all, the 2015 reboot proved that the quality could, indeed, get worse.

Stubs - Waitress

Waitress (2007) starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Eddie Jemison, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith. Directed by Adrienne Shelly. Screenplay by Adrienne Shelly. Produced by Michael Roiff. Run time: 104 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy.

Every holiday seems to have related films, take Groundhog Day, or even a genre of films, Christmas with the holiday film. But some holidays don’t have films that come to mind. For Pi(e) Day, can we recommend Waitress directed by Adrienne Shelly?

Second Look - God of War: Betrayal

In the intervening period between God of War II and God of War III, two other games in the series were released that expanded further on the story, both developed for handheld devices. The first of these was God of War: Betrayal, the only one to be developed for mobile phones, taking place between the events of the first two games. I actually played this game quite a bit in high school, back when I had a compatible phone that could play it, though the game’s canonicity had been debated over the years and has since become unavailable to download legally. Once it was confirmed that the game was canon, via a tweet from Santa Monica Studio animation director Bruno Velasquez, I scrambled to dig out an old phone I held on to that still had the game on it, or else have to resort to emulation just to play an old mobile game. Miraculously, after having to buy a charger, I managed to uncover an old LG Rumor phone that still had the game on it, allowing me to finally play it once again in its original glory.

 

The tweet confirming its canon status.

While the game was certainly groundbreaking at the time for its ability to translate the series to the mobile space, to where it was considered one of the best mobile games to play in the era before smart phones, its quality is now more hotly contested as a result of its antiquity.

Second Look - God of War II

Following the release and success of the original God of War, Kratos’ story was allowed to continue in a sequel, aptly titled God of War II. Notably, although the PS3 was around the corner during its development, the game was developed exclusively for the PS2, due to the developers having a better understanding of the PS2’s architecture in addition to the system having the bigger player base at the time. This game and the original God of War would also be ported to the PS3 as part of God of War Legacy Collection, which was made to promote God of War III and ended up popularizing, if not pioneering, HD remasters of retro games. As with the first game, I decided to replay the second through this collection after having not played it for a little over 10 years, coming away with a much better understanding of its plot and themes than I did previously.

Stubs - Snowglobe

 

Snowglobe (2007) Starring: Christina Milian, Josh Cooke, Matt Keeslar. Directed by Ron Lagomarsino. Teleplay by Garrett Frawley, Brian Turner. Produced by Jody Brockway, Craig McNeil. Color. Run time: 90 minutes. USA TV Movie, Christmas, Fantasy, Romance

While Hallmark seems to embrace Christmas harder than any other broadcaster/cable channel, they are by no means the only ones making Christmas movies. The Family channel, which has changed names several times, launched its own Christmas programming block in 1996 with “25 Days of Christmas” in 1996. During its incarnation as ABC Family, they released the TV Movie Snowglobe, starring Christina Milian, a singer turned actor.

Ratatouille

 

While Pixar had a sort of “Golden Age”, that being the time between Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 3 (2010), these films didn’t necessarily come without struggle. Such was the case for Ratatouille, the studio’s eight feature, which saw Brad Bird take over as writer and director after the original creator, Jan Pinkava, left Pixar during the film’s early development. After about two years of work, which included story rewrites and extensive research into cooking and Parisian culture, the film saw the light of day in 2007 to critical acclaim, successful box office returns and the Academy Award for Best Animted Feature (beating out Persepolis and Surf’s Up). Today, Ratatouille remains not only a classic animated film, but an enjoyable celebration of the joy of creation, particularly through the power of cooking.

Second Look - Assassin's Creed

Note: This review contains spoilers for Assassin’s Creed.

When I last played the original Assassin’s Creed in 2011, I didn’t think as much of it in comparison to other entries in the series and even wrote a review that, regrettably, didn't go into nearly enough detail. While playing the Sands of Time Trilogy on the PS2, however, I was intrigued by this game’s connection to Prince of Persia. After development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time finished, director Patrice Désilets started work on another entry for seventh-generation hardware. As more information about those systems came to light, he considered an assassin character in an open world setting and called it Prince of Persia: Assassin. During development, however, the story and gameplay took on its own identity, which resulted in 2007’s Assassin’s Creed. With this knowledge, I replayed the game and found it not only better than I remembered, but a real breath of fresh air after the overly bloated direction of modern Assassin’s Creed titles.

Stubs - Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Spider-Man 3: The Editor's Cut (2017)

Spider-Man 3 (2007) Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace. Directed by Sam Raimi. Screenplay by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi. Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Produced by Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, Grant Curtis. Run time: 140 minutes. United States. Color.  Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Superhero.

I don’t know but if you’re like me, when the credits on Spider-Man 2 (2004) rolled and “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional played, I was more than ready for Spider-Man 3. When I did see that film at an employee screening at Sony Pictures three years later, I did not have the same reaction when the credits rolled. I don’t think I knew at the time that Sam Raimi wasn’t going to direct Spider-Man 4 but with the downbeat ending of Spider-Man 3, I can’t say I was surprised to learn that.

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (PS3)

Following the release of Tony Hawk's Project 8 in 2006, another annual installment to the Pro Skater series came in 2007 in the form of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, offering the premise of a more customizable story mode to create a more unique experience. Notably, Proving Ground would also be the final game in the series developed by Neversoft, after which the series would be further developed under new studio Robomodo while Neversoft would exclusively develop the Guitar Hero series until their closure in 2014. Despite the game representing this particular milestone for the Pro Skater series, it didn’t exactly go out with a bang.

Meet the Robinsons - Keep Moving Forward

When I first saw trailers for Meet the Robinsons, I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I was aware it had been based on a William Joyce book I vaguely recalled reading, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, though I didn’t know how well the book could be translated to feature length. I didn’t end up seeing the movie in a theater when it first came out in 2007, though I had been reminded of its existence when taking a handful of college animation courses. I had recently taken a Disney XD airing as a chance to finally watch the movie, to which I found it to be a bit better than I initially expected.

Second Look - Transformers (2007)

Note: This review contains unmarked spoilers relating to the Transformers Live-Action Film Series.

While the Transformers brand had not been dormant since the 1980s, its popularity did stagger a bit, to where it managed to run continuously in some form for about 20 years without really hitting mainstream popularity. In 2007, the first ever live-action movie based on the brand, simply titled Transformers, was released to mixed reception, however it did manage to bring more attention and renewed interest to Transformers as a whole, which eventually lead to a tetralogy of films before shifting more towards the direction of a Cinematic Universe. In honor of the 10^th anniversary of this film, we present a second look at Transformers (2007).

Years ago, war was waged on the planet Cybertron over the Allspark, a special cube that is the source of Transformers life. To prevent the Decepticons from using the Allspark for their own gain, the Allspark was launched into space, only for Cybertron to begin slowly dying, resulting in a mission to retrieve the cube from planet Earth, where it eventually landed. On a US military base on Qatar, the Decepticon Blackout stages an attack to steal important data by disguising himself as a downed military copter, with William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and a group of other military men to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is buying a used car, one which turns out to be more than meets the eye.

The story is pretty easy to follow and, by comparison to other movies in the Live-Action Film Series, is pretty light on overt references to preceding Transformers lore. Regardless, while it is written pretty decently, it is not without its flaws. In particular, there are some scenes involving toilet humor that could have been removed to make a stronger narrative, a particularly infamous scene being Bumblebee (voiced by various audio clips early on, Mark Ryan at the end) taking a piss on Agent Seymour Simmons (John Turturro). One other scene that could definitely have been shortened significantly is a scene where the Autobots wait outside Sam’s room as he searches for his grandfather’s glasses. When his parents enter the room, his mom (Julie White) comes to the conclusion he had been pleasuring himself; it’s safe to say that the length and awkwardness of this entire scene are not the only reasons it received an edit for some television broadcasts.

In spite of this, the movie is actually really funny in places, especially in scenes involving actors Bernie Mac (as used car salesman Bobby Bolivia) and Anthony Anderson (as computer expert Glenn Whitman). There is also plenty of action in the movie, although it’s usually more interesting to watch whenever it involves the military, to the point where one can wonder why William Lennox is not the main character in place of Sam Witwicky, if only because Sam’s side of the story seems to have been written a bit more awkwardly than Lennox’s side. In scenes not involving the military, however, two standout action sequences are the fight between Autobot Bumblebee and Decepticon Barricade (Jess Harnell), and the intense highway battle as the Autobots and Decepticons travel to Mission City for the final battle; a highlight in the latter is Decepticon Bonecrusher (Jimmie Wood) making use of his vehicle mode tires as though they were roller skates.

Optimus Prime (right) and Bonecrusher (left) battling on the highway.

There are still some small plot holes in the movie, although most, if not all, of these gaps have since been filled in by tie-in media, mostly in the numerous comic books for the first three movies released by IDW Publishing (to be more fully resolved by writer/editor John Barber’s material for the Dark of the Moon tie-ins). This includes one particular hole in that Barricade, in spite of being featured in the highway battle, does not appear in the battle in Mission City; the Reign of Starscream sequel comic answers this by showing that Barricade crashed somewhere on the highway.

While it is a flawed story, it is still fairly enjoyable in spite of this. However, what makes the film particularly noteworthy is its impact on later installments in the Transformers franchise. The Allspark is a concept introduced in this film, which would go on to be featured as a major plot device in the 2008 Transformers Animated cartoon, which also took inspiration from this film for the initial Cybertronian design for Megatron. Another impact on Animated was the decision to change the character of Hot Shot in the planning stages to Bumblebee, explaining his personality shift from previous incarnations, although Hot Shot would later appear in the series via a minor cameo in Season 3. This movie’s depiction of Bumblebee also notably had an impact on the later Transformers: Prime cartoon, in that Bumblebee speaks through various sounds before regaining the ability to speak at the end; he would continue to be voiced in the (as of this writing) currently-running 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon, a sequel series to Prime. This is to say nothing of Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) featuring a mouth in this movie to allow for wider range of expression, which has since been adopted into other media for this reason.

Optimus Prime as seen in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon, also voiced
by Peter Cullen.

The robot characters themselves are animated spectacularly well, with the animations managing to hold up after 10 years. Due to the way they are designed, it can be really interesting to see all the moving parts on the robots, including while idle, acting as a good display of skill on the part of the animators at Industrial Light and Magic. That being said, the robot designs have since been simplified starting from Age of Extinction, adding more solid parts and brighter colors to make them easier to keep track of for some audiences. If you’re an observant viewer, however, it is still possible to tell the characters apart on screen in part due to their varying silhouettes, though the smaller robot cast in this movie compared to later installments certainly helps when watching the climactic battle in Mission City.

The acting of the robot characters is good, most especially Peter Cullen notably returning to voice Optimus Prime beginning from this movie after having not voiced the character since the original 1984 cartoon. Peter Cullen has since become more of a staple in most Transformers media, proving his sheer passion for the character in the quality of his acting. Megatron, however is not voiced by Frank Welker in this movie, rather he is voiced by Hugo Weaving, who does an interesting take on the character as he does a good effort in emulating Welker. Welker himself would not actually voice the character again until The Last Knight, though he did have a presence in the movies beginning from Revenge of the Fallen, among them voicing Galvatron in Age of Extinction. Charlie Adler does an interesting take on Decepticon Starscream, although he would continue to improve with the character’s increased screentime in the following two movies (before Starscream’s death in Dark of the Moon).

The music by Steve Jablonsky, while good, is unfortunately not particularly memorable, though the score has since been released on CD for those who are curious. The licensed music, on the other hand, stands out from the other background music, in particular the song “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park, which has an association with the movie perhaps on par with the association Stan Bush’s “The Touch” has with the 1986 movie. Also noteworthy is the song “This Moment” by Disturbed, which makes an appearance during the ending credits.

While the movie isn’t exactly being celebrated to the same extent as the 1986 animated feature, there is still some effort to pay homage to the movie’s 10^th anniversary. As part of the Japanese release of the The Last Knight toyline (over there called Transformers: The Last Knight King), Takara Tomy has a special subline called Transformers Movie The Best, featuring repaints of previously-released Movie toys to make their paint schemes more accurate to their on-screen counterparts. Ironically, however, none of the toys featured are actually from the original Movie toyline, though their heart is definitely in the right place.

This, for example, is based on a toy from the Revenge of the Fallen toyline.

As part of the movie’s continuing legacy, as mentioned previously, the Live-Action Film Series has since evolved into a Cinematic Universe, beginning with The Last Knight. There are, however, some rather noticeable retcons that more observant viewers can spot between the 2007 movie and The Last Knight. For instance, while The Last Knight makes a big deal about Bumblebee being able to speak again, including through some dialogue making overt reference to when Bumblebee was last heard speaking, the moment loses some of its intended impact when one remembers that Bumblebee was, in fact, able to speak at the end of this movie, only to be immediately forgotten in the sequels and related media taking place after the 2007 film. Then there’s the nature of the Allspark, which gets forgotten about by the end of Age of Extinction and for the entirety of The Last Knight, in favor of introducing the character Quintessa as their creator in reference to the Quintessons from the Generation 1 continuity. The Last Knight also seems to stretch the truth a little in regards to how long the Transformers have been on Earth, even factoring in other tie-in media, in a similar fashion to how the Marvel Cinematic Universe started to contradict what was presented in Iron Man regarding how long the organization S.H.I.E.L.D. has been around.

Though things have definitely changed about the Live-Action Film Series since its initial release, Transformers (2007) is still enjoyable to watch after 10 years, though it does have some rough edges that would eventually be improved upon in later installments. While divisive, the movie can still be credited for bringing the Transformers franchise back into the public eye and creating renewed interest in the brand after nearly 20 years. As a bonus, this movie also saw the return of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, and later Frank Welker as Megatron, in subsequent media. It’s not a movie for everyone, however I would still recommend giving it a fair shot if you are at all curious about it, especially since the movie itself has had its own impact on Transformers media.

Stubs – Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated)

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Jonathan Sadowski, Maggie Q.  Directed by Len Wiseman. Screenplay by Mark Bomback. Based on the Wired article A Farewell to Arms by John Carlin and certain characters by Roderick Thorp in the novel Nothing Lasts Forever. Produced by Michael Fottrell. Run Time: 129 minutes. U.S.  Color.  Action. Thriller.

The Die Hard franchise is unique in that every film, after Die Hard 2, pretty much starts anew. Since the salad days of the original Die Hard, we’ve lost everyone connected to the original, with the exception of Bruce Willis as John McClane and thinly veiled based on for the original novel author, Roderick Thorp. Usually, there is a least a person with a vision (George Lucas with Star Wars 1-6) or at least the same company involved (Eon Productions with Bond) to give a film series some sense of continuity, But that’s not the case with Die Hard and maybe that’s a good thing. While other franchises Bond, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, etc. have gone through periods where the series seems to be sleepwalking, Die Hard has stayed somewhat fresh as a new team seems to tackle the franchise and brings its own aesthetics to the enterprise, though the plots, and we’ll get to this later, are surprisingly similar (think terrorists and heists).

The only constant between Die Hards 1,2,3 and 4 is Bruce Willis. Alas, his hair opted out.

As you’re no doubt aware, whenever a movie from a long-running franchise is about to open, every other film in that franchise becomes available on cable and pay-per-view and home video. With  A Day to Die Hard coming out in theaters, the first four, including Live Free or Die Hard are being shown pretty much non-stop somewhere. As a DirecTV subscriber, I’m even aware that if you pay to watch one old film, Fox will pony up a ticket to the new one. And while reviewing the original theatrical version of the film, the PG-13 version, would be the easiest thing to do, Trophy Unlocked has one-upped that. We’re going to be reviewing the Unrated version.

Our last film, Die Hard With a Vengeance, was released 12 years prior to this one. I don’t think anyone was really anticipating this film (wasn’t Bruce Willis too old?), so it came as a bit of a surprise, especially considering how well it did at the box office. (Okay, I’m sure Fox anticipated the box office return or else they wouldn’t have made the film in the first place.) The PG-13 rating made this a film that you could take your teenager to, rather than a mom and pop only film date.

While the first three Die Hards were rated R in the days before an official rating reason, it’s easy to point to the violence and the langauge. McClaine’s catchphrase is after all “Yippee Ki-Yay, Motherfucker”, which was probably enough in those days to warrant the R. But when you’re a little worried about the appeal of your movie and you want to bring in as many people as you can, you do things like delete the objectional words from the catchphrase and cut back here and there on the violence. We will make an effort to point out the differences between the PG-13 and the Unrated versions.

Unrated in and of itself does not mean anything more than the version you’re watching was not rated by the Motion Pictures Association of America, MPAA. Any film released theatrically in the U.S., with a handful of exceptions, is rated by the MPAA. Once rated, any changes to the film would require the film to be re-rated. The MPAA rating only applies to the theatrical release, even though you’ll see it on home entertainment releases as well. There it’s used as a guide for parents renting, purchasing or downloading the film.  Add a new song to say Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and that new version is Unrated until that new version is rated by the MPAA.

In Live Free or Die Hard, McClane gets involved when the FBI responds to a computer outage at their Cyber-Security Division, Deputy Director Miguel Bowman (Cliff Curtis) orders that computer hackers be brought in. But agents find several of them have already been killed by bombs planted that have been planted are going off. The bureau reaches out to John McClane, who happens to be in Camden, New Jersey, spying on his daughter, Lucy Gennero (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to bring in one of the hackers, Matthew “Matt” Farrell (Justin Long) into protective custody. A bomb in his computer had not been triggered.

McClane arrives just in time to thwart five assassins working for Mai Linh (Maggie Q) from killing Farrell. Linh is working for her lover Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), a software writer and master hacker. Gabriel uses a semi-trailer to house all of his computers and crew, thus giving him a mobile center of operations.

John takes Farrell down to D.C., but Gabriel orders his crew of hackers to take down the transportation grid and the stock market, while simultaneously broadcasting a threat against the U.S.

Farrell recognizes what’s going on as a fire sale, a cyber attack designed to target the nation’s reliance on computers so that everything must go. McClane and Farrell are taken to FBI headquarters by a police escort, but Linh, using transportation grids, reroutes the envoy into the path of an attack helicopter

.

But McClane proves to be more than a match for a helicopter, launching a police car into it. (This is one of the better action sequences in the film. But every fight scene in the film is pretty awesome.) Gabriel then broadcasts a simulated attack on the U.S. Capitol that sends everyone into a panic, until they can see the building is still standing.

Can you say "Awesome"?

Farrell tells McClane that the next step in a fire sale would be to take over the power grid, so the two head off to West Virginia to the Eastern Power Hub. Unfortunately, Linh and her crew have arrived ahead of them and have taken over the station’s controls. Farrell sets out to reverse what she’s done, but Linh comes back and stops him. 

McClane gets into a somewhat impossible car wreck, running over Linh with an SUV in the control room. The two fight hand to hand while suspended over a shaft. McClane manages to dislodge the SUV, sending Mai to a fiery death. When Gabriel finds out, he tries to kill McClane and Farrell by redirecting all the natural gas in the pipeline to the station.

McClane and Farrell escape the explosion by hiding in a van (don’t try this at home) and while the Eastern seaboard loses electricity, they manage to take the helicopter Linh had and fly away, bruised but very much alive. Farrell directs McClane to a fellow hacker, Frederick “Warlock” Kaludis (Kevin Smith) in Baltimore. 

Warlock has stayed up and online by running the computer systems in his lair using generators. Warlock recognizes the code that Farrell had written for Gabriel as a means of accessing the Social Security Administration building in Woodlawn, Maryland. The building has been set up as a front for the U.S. National Security Agency, designed by Gabriel to be the repository for all personal and financial information in the event of a cyber-security emergency such as the one Gabriel has generated.

Warlock is able to reveal Gabriel’s motivation. The talented hacker was once a top expert for the U.S. Defense Department but was fired and his reputation tarnished, when he tried in vain to sound the alarm about the U.S.’s vulnerability to cyber-terrorism. The all-seeing all-knowing Gabriel is able to detect Warlock’s hack and opens up a dialogue with him, Farrell and McClane., While McClane is forced to watch, Gabriel kidnaps McClane's daughter Lucy from an elevator she’s trapped in. (His minions are apparently everywhere and unencumbered by the transportation grid being knocked out.)

McClane and Farrell race to the Woodlawn facility where Lucy is taken and held hostage. McClane is the muscle and deals with Gabriel’s men, naturally knocking them off one at a time (just like he does in every Die Hard movie). Farrell is the brains and discovers that Gabriel is downloading all the information into a portable storage unit (can you say a bazillion megabytes?) and he is able to encrypt the data after it is downloaded. But 

Farrell is found out and Gabriel, in order to get access to the data, has to take Farrell along when they escape the facility. Gabriel and his main hacker Trey (Jonathan Sadowski), along with Farrell and Lucy, lead the way in a Hazmat van. The mobile computer center follows behind in the semi.

McClane intercepts and hijacks the semi, killing the driver. McClane contacts Warlock to patch him through to Bowman. Even though Warlock is reluctant to do so, he relents when he’s told the terrorists have Lucy. Bowman and his agents are on their way to Woodlawn. McClane tells him the Gabriel has already left Woodlawn in a Hazmat vehicle. He tells them to use LoJack tracking to find the van and gives them the license plate number. 

Gabriel hacks into the military’s computers and scrambles an F-35B and directs the pilot to stop the terrorist in the semi, McClane. Again, a fighter jet is no match for McClane. Even though the F-35B destroys the trailer and even the bridge it’s on, McClane manages to jump onto the fuselage of the plane just before debris from the bridge falls into the jet’s intake, causing it to spin out of control and crash. (Don’t worry, we see the pilot is able to parachute to safety).

McClane in Semi v. Pilot in Fighter Jet. You have to like McClaine's odds.
(I think that's the  Port of Los Angeles' Thomas Vincent Bridge in the background)

McClane has seen Gabriel’s van heading off into the warehouses by the port of Baltimore (with a little Los Angeles harbor thrown in). McClane again dispatches most of Gabriel’s men, including Trey, but the last henchman, Emerson (Edoardo Costa), gets the jump and wounds McClane in the shoulder. Gabriel, who has been holding Lucy as a shield, hands her to Emerson. Lucy struggles, managing to shoot Emerson in his foot using his own holstered gun. She tries to help McClane, but the machine gun she slides across the floor to him gets intercepted by Gabriel. Gabriel tries to draw out the torture, promising to kill McClaine’s daughter and Farrell as soon as Farrell is done decrypting the data. Gabriel is going to make McClane watch. With Gabriel holding the suddenly acting incapacitated McClaine upright, McClane makes Gabriel shoot his gun through McClaine’s already wounded shoulder. The bullet hits and kills Gabriel. (I’m not sure, but I think this is the real magic bullet.)

Doesn't look good, but we're only minutes away from our hero's catchphrase.

Emerson turns his gun on McClane, but Farrell, who has suddenly grown a pair, picks up McClaine’s pistol that’s fallen to the floor earlier in the confrontation and kills Emerson. Just then Bowman and his agents arrive, but all the heavy lifting has already been done. While being patched up, McClane notices Farrell and his daughter, who now calls herself Lucy McClaine-Gennero, are making googly eyes at each other.

So, once again, the Die Hard film is about John McClane stopping a heist. In the original it was stopping Hans Gruber from stealing $640 billion in U.S. Bonds, in Vengeance it was stopping Simon Gruber from stealing $14 billion in gold and in Live Free, the stakes have been raised to something like the accumulated wealth of the U.S. With each of these films, not only have the stakes been raised, but so have the villains and their sophistication. Hans was the most straightforward of the bunch. He merely took over a building. In Die Hard 2, the only one not about a heist, Colonel Stuart commandeers an airport. Simon Gruber takes over an entire city and in Live Free, Gabriel takes over the entire country.

While Holly Gennero is nowhere to be found, we are treated to a grown-up Lucy. While Winstead is a good actress, there really isn’t a lot for her to do besides try to alternatively act vulnerable and tough. We get a more complete picture of what Winstead has to offer when she starred as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010). For the most part, she is tied up by Gabriel. The idea of making it personal for McClane is a good one, though the first two also explored this with Holly being the one in danger. Only in Die Hard with a Vengeance was there no other member of the McClane household in mortal danger.

  Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy Gennero-McClaine.

Justin Long, best known as Drew Barrymore’s onetime boyfriend and for being the personification of Apple Mac cool in some commercials, is actually pretty good in this film. He plays smart nerdy Farrell, who I don’t believe uses a Mac to do his hacking. But his presence signals that Live Free or Die Hard was trying to get younger and draw a younger (PG-13) audience. I had seen Long previously on the Ed TV series (2000-2004) and think he has a likable persona, but apparently, it takes a stronger presence (Willis) to get the most out of him on film. His character will occasionally explain to the audience what's going on.

Justin Long's Matthew Farrell makes this Die Hard another buddy film, plus he provides exposition for the audience.

Maggie Q deserves mention as Mai, the computer/assassin co-conspirator and love interest of antagonist, Gabriel. The Hawaiian-born Polish-Irish-Vietnamese makes for a powerful adversary for McClane and while she had to be killed eventually, it’s too bad it was so soon in the movie. She was definitely good in her part.

Maggie Q (r) as Mai Linh intimidates Matthew Farrell (l).

Kevin Smith had a decidedly smaller role but was still good as Frederick Kaludis aka Warlock, sort of a king of computer hackers complete with his own basement command center. Smith who has acted in his own comedies, does bring humor, which this franchise is known for having, to what otherwise might be a very tense moment.

Kevin Smith as Warlock in his basement lair.

And finally, Timothy Olyphant is a really good villain, managing to go insult to insult with McClane and still remain pretty cool under the pressure. But his cocksureness wears a little thin and by the end of the film, you’re happy to see him get his just desserts. Olyphant is a fine actor. Again, a fresh face brings new life to the franchise.

In the end, the only one Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) really shoots is himself.

Like all the Die Hard films there are plot holes, some big enough to drive a semi with a computer lab through. Perhaps the biggest is that since the government knows that Gabriel had set it up that under certain circumstances all the financial information would dump to one location; and that circumstance happened, why didn’t they figure out what Gabriel was up to before McClane did? But hey, writing a perfect film is not the point here. The action sequences are and all of them are really over the top exciting.

Now to the differences between the PG-13 and Unrated versions. To be honest, they are not that severe. There is more cursing, a little more bloodshed and some changes in scenes and dialogue. McClane comes across as more foul-mouthed, but still heroic. While the changes don’t amount to much, there are a couple of things to note. Some of the different dialogue doesn’t quite synch with the actor’s mouths and that can be a little jarring. 

But hearing the unaltered catchphrase far outweighs any of the other flaws the unrated version might have.

Of the four Die Hard films we’ve reviewed on the blog, I would have to put this one on top. This is a fast-paced wild ride. Like Die Hard With a Vengeance, this is a bit of a buddy film, but Live Free has a generation gap twist. The film is also helped by 9/11, and exploits our worst fears, but shows that one determined first responder can save us all. If you have to see only one of the four films, I would recommend this one as it is perhaps the most accessible.

So now that John McClane has saved the U.S. from financial annihilation where can he go?  How about Russia? On to A Good Day to Die Hard, currently in theaters.

Stubs - 300

300 (2007) Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headley, David Wenham and Dominic West. Directed by Zack Snyder. Produced by Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Jeffrey Silver. Screenplay by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon. Based on the comic series 300 by Frank Miller. Run Time: 117 minutes. U.S.  Color. Action

Some directors excel at certain genres or types of movies. Zack Snyder appears to be one that likes to do adaptations of comic books: 300, Watchmen and Man of Steel, three of the six films he’s directed have been based on these forms of literature. (For those of you who don’t know, Man of Steel is the new reboot of the Superman franchise, due later in 2013).

Adapting a comic book or a graphic novel to the big screen has its own challenges. Unlike the standard book, comics and graphic novels are already visual mediums, oftentimes with rabid fan followings. There are certain expectations that have to be met since we all have seen what Superman or Batman looks like, you can’t toy with the visuals too much or stray too far from the storyline without garnering the ire of those who have followed the storyline, sometimes for years. (It will be interesting to see how high a supposed dark take on the Superman myth will really fly.)

Source Material: 300 Comic Book

But there are sometimes elements that work or don’t work in, say a graphic novel, that won’t fly on the silver screen. In this instance, I’m thinking of the giant octopus at the end of the Watchmen comic. Frankly, I’m not really sure it worked all that well in the comic book, but I’m really sure it wouldn’t have worked at all in the movie version. One has to view and appreciate source materials and films made for them as separate artworks, each with their own guidelines, languages, what have you’s, etc. (Don’t mean to get technical there on you.)

So when reviewing a movie, it is best to look at the movie itself and not worry too much about the source from which it came, except to note the differences as what they are. In this case, while I am aware of the 300 comic series by Frank Miller, I have not read it. Miller’s Sin City franchise has also been turned into a film, but in that case, he co-directed the film adaptation. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit (2008).

The original comic and the movie can be classified as historical fiction since the settings and the main events really did happen. Sparta was a real place, a Greek city-state, which concentrated on military training and excellence. In order to be a citizen with full rights, a man had to be trained in the military from the age of seven to the age of 30, or the age of full citizenship. This was apparently not a nation for wussies. Even the women were expected to be physically fit since Spartans believed strong and healthy parents produce strong and healthy children.

Leonidas, the Spartan king, really lived and ruled the city-state from 490 B.C. at the age of 50, to 480 B.C. when he died at the Battle of Thermopylae, depicted in the film. Leonidas did lead his band of 300 Spartiates (soldiers) into battle against the invading Persian army lead by Xerxes I, they were actually part of a larger Greek force that numbered somewhere between 5,000 to 11,000 troops. The Greeks tried and failed to defend the pass at Thermopylae against the Persian force of between 70,000 to 300,000. While the Persians lost approximately 20,000 in the fight, it is still a numbers game and they would win the day, though the battle took three days to complete.

Gerard Butler as King Leonidas

But this is not supposed to be a history lesson, rather a review of a movie. Our version is narrated by Dilios (David Wenham), a soldier and wounded member of the 300. He relates the story of Leonidas from his boyhood to becoming the King of Sparta, which the movie portrays as being tied to his killing of a wolf while out on a survival test. Fast forward to the king, portrayed as a man of about 40, when a messenger from Xerxes (Peter Mensah) arrives to demand surrender. But that’s not going to happen and the messenger and his entourage are pushed down a convenient and extra large, bottomless pit.

David Wenham as Dilios in better days.

Even though there is an invading army on the way, Leonidas cannot act without first approaching the Ephros, a leprosy-ridden group of old men whose blessing he needs. To get there, Leonidas is required to scale a mountain face, which seems life-threatening at best. The Ephros, in turn, have to consult the Oracle Pythia (Kelly Craig), who is a drugged out Spartan woman, whom we’re led to believe is sexually ravaged from time to time by the Ephros. She whispers to one of the Ephros, who tells Leonidas that the Spartans cannot go to war during the religious festival Carnea, a Spartan ritual held in honor of Apollo Carneous. After Leonidas leaves, we see that there are two other men in the temple, one of them is Theron (Dominic West), a Spartan politician and the other is an emissary of Xerxes, who has bribed the Ephros with money. So much I guess for trusting an Oracle.

Dominic West as Theron

Since Spartan law prohibits Leonidas from starting a war without the blessings of the Ephros, he has to fake it. Instead of gathering his entire army, he gathers only 300, all men who have male children to carry on their bloodlines. Even Captain Artemis (Vincent Regan) includes his eldest male son Astinos (Tom Wisdom) in the group because he has other male sons to carry on the family name. Rather than starting a war, Leonidas is going out for a long walk with 300 bodyguards. There to see him off is his wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headley) and their son Pleistarchus (Giovanni Cimmino). Gorgo tells Leonidas to either come back with his shield or on top of it.

Lena Headley as Queen Gorgo

Leonidas’ plan is to force the Persian army through a narrow passage called Thermopylae or the Hot Gates. That way the size in force advantage won’t help Xerxes. On the way, the Spartans are joined by the Arcadians, led by Daxos (Andrew Pleavin). Unlike the Spartan, the Arcadians are amateur soldiers and even though there are more of them, Leonidas discounts their contribution, though he willingly accepts their help.

One more person gets introduced. Originally seen as a shadowy figure trailing the 300, Ephiates (Andrew Tierman) is a deformed Spartan, whose parents had left Sparta in order to spare his life. (Deformed infants are killed right away in Sparta.) His father had been a Spartan soldier and Ephiates is wearing what he can of the uniform. Ephiates warns Leonidas of a goat path that the Persians could use to outflank the Spartans and asks to join in the fight. But Leonidas tells him to stand down. Because of his deformity, Ephiates cannot hold up his shield and thus couldn’t be a part of the Spartan’s phalanx formation.

The Persian’s attack, but the phalanx formation repels them and the Spartans are able to repulse the first wave of invaders. When Xerxes sends another messenger, the Spartan’s maim him. He warns them of an arrow attack that will darken the sky, but the Spartan’s laugh and are able to survive that attack pretty much unscathed.

Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) even meets one on one with Leonidas. He promises the same thing all of his messengers have before, that Leonidas can rule Greece, he just has to bow down to him. Leonidas refuses and the battle enjoins. Xerxes sends the immortals, his elite shock troops. But the Spartans withstand them. Next Xerxes sends more exotic weapons and even armed animals, but the Spartans are still standing. During one of the battles, Astinos is killed in front of his father, who goes into deep mourning.

Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes

Meanwhile, back in Sparta, Gorgo tries to rally support for her husband. She meets with a loyal Spartan politician, who arranges for her to speak to the Council in two days. But he recommends that she use the time before her appearance to try and win over Theron. When she meets with him, she bargains a sexual encounter for the promise of support. But when she does appear, he betrays her and accuses her of being an adulterer and for bargaining sex for support. Outraged, Gorgo kills Theron, stabbing him with a sword. When he falls to the floor, gold coins with Xerxes’ image on them spill out and Theron’s betrayal is revealed.

Refused by Leonidas, Ephiates goes over to the other side. Xerxes makes promises including a uniform, and Ephiates leads Persian immortals to the goat path. Outflanked and outmanned, the Spartans make one more stand before they are all killed. But not before Leonidas sends Dilios back to Sparta to spread the word. And it is Dilios who continues his narration as a way of rallying the new Greek army that is on their way to fight Xerxes.

This is not a family feel good sort of movie. In fact, this is not a family movie at all. The film earns its R rating and it is a hard R. There is nudity, bare female breasts and male buttocks, but it is the violence that earns the rating. People are maimed, stabbed and beheaded over and over again, with spattering blood and spinning heads and a lot of it in slow motion, which Snyder seems to love. As much of the sex is gratuitous the violence is more so. 

While I’m not against violence in movies, I don’t love it and after a while, it stops being enjoyable and frankly, one gouging looks pretty much like every other one. But this is not the extent of the film’s nightmare fuel. The deformed Ephiates is easy on the eyes compared to the Uber immortal (Robert Maillet) and the saw handed Executioner (Leon Laderach) who, what else, beheads Persians who have displeased Xerxes.

300 is a testament to testosterone. Not only are all the Spartans buff to a fault, but they also live and die based on a code of ethics that actually rewards death in battle over strategic thinking. Leonidas does not have to die, but he’s too proud to retreat and regroup. You can’t fault the film for being somewhat faithful to the events as they actually happened.

Testament to Testosterone

The most intriguing thing about 300 is the visuals. The coloring is pushed so that it looks unreal and like a comic book. And there is the use of slow-motion action sequences that only highlight the blood and violence. This film has a style to it, and one that you see over again in Snyder’s work. (Watchmen has the same love of blood and slow motion action as 300.)

The question now that I’ve seen this movie twice would be would I want to see it again or recommend it to someone? Honestly, I can say I’d rather not on both counts. This is one of those films men are supposed to see, though the six packs are really meant for the ladies. The film did make a star out of Gerard Butler, whom I imagine is better known for his physique than his acting chops.

If you’re a big fan of Frank Miller’s work, then it might be interesting to see in order to see the changes between comic book and film. Otherwise, you might want to save yourself and not see 300. If you feel you have to see Zack Snyder adapt a comic book, I’d definitely recommend Watchmen over this film.