Yippi-Ki-Yay ...

The Reddess and I went to see Live Free or Die Hard last night. Nothing is quite so soothing ss watching things blow up.

The Die Hard movies are cartoons with live actors. Bruce Willis takes a licking, keeps on ticking and defeats impossible odds in unbelievable ways until we reach the pay off - the YKYMF moment. We know it will happen, the fun is in how. It isn't so much that the guy brings down an F-35 with a semi-trailer (presaged in the film by an earlier and comparatively simpler feat), but how someone imagined that might happen while only stretching and not suspending the laws of physics.

People who want to celebrate the "message" of the Die Hard films might say that it honors simple bravery and resolve in the face of souless evil. The everyday shlump - who is nevertheless "that guy" who will do the dirty work - wins in the end over the Homecoming King. (The villains are always these bloodless and cool corporate-like technocrats with gorgeous but equally monstrous girlfriends.) Critics might say that they glorify violence over rationality. John McClain is not much given to dialogue. (Monologue is another matter.) I was just entertained for a few hours.

The Reddess says that Bruce Willis proves a man need not have hair to be sexy. But cast eyes right and see who she is married to. She's got to keep telling herself that.