My girlfriend dragged to the theater yesterday evening to see the fourth iteration of the Die Hard series, Live Free or Die Hard (the twist on New Hampshire's state motto is a bit awkward). I know what you're probably thinking, "But RE, why would an IT-savvy defense wonk like yourself go to see an action flick about some preposterous cyber-terrorism plot?" Well I have two good reasons:
First, my girlfriend loves Bruce Willis. To give you sense of the scope of her affection, she actually enjoyed Willis's "The Return of Bruno" album and the Spinal Tap-style mockumentary that accompanied it.
Second, I was dying to see how the director managed to fit a F-35C into the storyline. Given that the U.S. government has been so tight-fisted about the F-35's software code we almost came to blows with the UK back in 2005, I wanted to see how the director justified pitting one against America's everyman hero, John McClane. Hacking a JSF was going to be too big a leap for me. To my surprise, the sequence was fairly logical, if not completely ironic in the face U.S. military tactics since 2002.
Ultimately, the movie was worth the 20 bucks. My (fan)girlfriend aside, John McClane can still deliver the pain... And driving a police car into a helicopter is pretty awesome.
2 comments:
I went into the film expecting nothing and found myself pleasantly entertained.
I sort of surprised when, about half an hour into the film, I realized that John McClane was fighting a 5th generation warfare enemy.
Thomas Gabriel was no Blofeld. I mean come on, the best he could do is a bad guy semi truck? And forget a ninja army...a nerd army? But I suppose both are part and parcel of 5gw.
I do hope that Apple comes up with a new user interface that looks exciting on the big screen. Typing on computers in movies is just not compelling.
I went and saw the movie this afternoon, and I gotta tell ya -- two thumbs up from me.
i really enjoyed it.
"Fire sale: Everything must go." :-)
- ferg
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