What's the Better Title: 'Live Free or Die Hard' Or 'Die Hard 4.0?'
Filed under: Action, Remakes and Sequels
Live Free or Die Hard, coming to a multiplex near you on June 29th, is being released overseas as Die Hard 4.0. It seems the people at 20th Century Fox don't think countries other than America will be able to grasp the concept of "freedom." Truth be told, neither title fills me with excitement. Live Free or Die Hard sounds like a Toby Keith song, and the 4.0 seems better suited for a direct-to-DVD sequel to a movie that sucked to begin with. I'm too blinded by love, were Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Die Hard: With A Vengeance dumb titles, too? They both seemed pretty awesome then, and still work for me now. I dig the first three Die Hard movies with a fiery passion, but each piece of news that comes out about this new one, from title to choice of director to pairing John McClane with a sure-to-be-wisecracking Justin Long, makes me very uneasy. The casting of Long also has me horrified -- the thought that they're going to release this as a PG-13. If I have to hear "Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Jerkface!" I'm going to go insane. The only move that seems smart so far is the casting of Timothy Olyphant as the villain. He was wonderfully slimy in Go and The Girl Next Door, and I'm eager to see him get his Gruber on. (Read Ryan's interview with Olyphant here.) What do you guys prefer? Live Free or 4.0? Or do you have some suggestions of your own? Personally, I think they should scrap them both and go with my title: Die? Hardly!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-15-2007 @ 6:31AM
rogue_pigeon said...
I much prefer Live Free or Die Hard, and actually i don't think it's that bad of a name.
But like you, i fear Die Hard 4: Disappointment Galore may be more appropriate.
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3-13-2007 @ 3:18PM
RP said...
test
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3-13-2007 @ 3:38PM
Ryan Sullivan said...
Die Hard: Die the most hardest
Die Hard: Die mo harder
Die Hard: Die hardest
Die Hard: The bigger they are the harder they die
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3-13-2007 @ 3:58PM
Nathan said...
In Germany, it's being called "The Hard"
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3-13-2007 @ 4:38PM
David Cornelius said...
I was under the impression that the name change was simply because foreign audiences wouldn't get the play on "Live Free or Die." (A Die Hard movie set in New Hampshire, perhaps?)
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3-13-2007 @ 5:15PM
misterpink said...
David,
I'm sure 95% of AMERICANS don't know New Hampshire's motto either.
I agree with pigeon, though. Die Harder and DHWAV were just as stupid as LFODH, and if there had been the blogosphere when they came out, people would have been ranting about them, too.
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3-14-2007 @ 11:00AM
Hans Gruber said...
This movie is going to be PG-13-I have inside knowledge of this fact. Sucks, but it is true. Maybe we'll get an unrated DVD or something.
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3-13-2007 @ 6:42PM
Flick said...
When did "whatever-point-oh" become a convention for anything except for software? Are they trying to tell us the next Die Hard will be as edgy as, say, MSDOS 2.0?
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3-14-2007 @ 11:03AM
Benjamin said...
Well... I think 'Die Hard 4.0' is the better title. And just 'Die Hard 4' would be even better than that. I don't know who these guys think they're kidding when they come up with wordy titles for sequels; they WILL be referred to amongst friends/cinema-goers as, for e.g. Matrix 2, Matrix 3, Pirates 2, Pirates 3 (not even getting away with 'of the Caribbean' there). I like the slight step towards honesty that is 'Die Hard 4.0'.
There used to be a trend to try and get people/press to use the shortest possible name for your movie, e.g. T2; whatever happened to that practice?
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3-14-2007 @ 11:04AM
Andy said...
'Live Free or Die Hard' sounds like a sequel to that 50 Cent film 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
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3-14-2007 @ 11:03AM
RP said...
Flick, the 'point' in the title is meant to refer to the computer hackery involved in the film.
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3-14-2007 @ 10:30PM
hookham said...
PG-13 allows for one expletive so John Mclaine can still say his famous catch phrase, at least once.
on a side note
I don't remember 3 having it in the movie at all, correct me if I'm wrong.
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3-17-2007 @ 2:14PM
Patrick Walsh said...
He does say it in "Vengeance," when he blows up the helicopter. Anyone see the TV-edited version of "Die Harder?" When he blows up the plane, he says "Yippee-ki-yay...Mr. Falcon." No one in the movie named Mr. Falcon. Hilarious.
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