Live Free or Die

Scenic New Hampshire serves as the novel setting for "Live Free or Die" (not to be confused with the later Bruce Willis film, "Live Free or Die HARD"), an entertaining indie comedy that takes its title from the state's time-honored motto of in-your-face defiance.

John Rudgate - who goes by the nickname "Rugged" - is an inept wannabe tough guy who fancies himself a notorious outlaw. He spends most of his days riding around in a dilapidated van trying to convince others - as well as himself - that he is, indeed, the most feared lawbreaker in the county. In reality, the "stolen" merchandise he is moving is actually his own stuff, and the gun he keeps in a drawer in the kitchen is nothing more than a water pistol. The folks in town shrug him off as little more than an irritating pest with delusions of criminal grandeur. Like any villain worth his salt, Rudgate needs to find himself a sycophantic henchman who will do a substantial amount of his dirty work for him. He alights on Lagrand, a simpleminded, but sweet-natured acquaintance who co-owns a storage facility with his sister, a clear-eyed pragmatist who, unlike her brother, knows a BS-ing con artist when she sees one.

Although the movie can't entirely shake free of the "oddball quirkiness" factor that seems to afflict so much of regional film-making these days, movie makers Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin evince a genuine affection for their characters and a sly way with storytelling that go a long way towards mitigating that weakness. They are aided immeasurably by wonderfully self-effacing performances by Paul Schneider, Michael Rapaport, Zooey Deschanel, and, above all, Aaron Stanford, who, as Rudgate, turns a potentially one-note caricature into an endearingly original and surprisingly memorable comic figure. And, besides, the colorful New England setting is alone worth the price of a rental.

This movie has two great characters and a cool little story. However- those two characters and their story is enough to take up 20 minutes of film- after we breeze through that we still have an 1:40+ that is unaccounted for in the planning of this movie...

I like these characters A lot but what the hell was this idiot thinking stretching their material so thin?? They are only two guys- and not THAT interesting- they would make very cool supporting characters in a REAL movie, but this is more like a pilot for these characters than anything else- the actual movie totally, and utterly sucks from start to finish.

This is one of those, I'll keep watching this because it has to get better and it never does kind of movies... It never ever gets better- it's stuck in a rut of idiocy.

There are some good scenes so if you don't mind wasting your life and pissing yourself off- watch this, it's almost worth it to watch the 17 and a half minutes of good footage.

PLOT: a lowlife criminal in a small town is looking for street cred, he concocts a plan to impress a friend that owns a storage facility in the hopes of landing a security job with them, -that he is one bad mo fo that doesn't take any crap from anyone- but the plan kind of goes everywhere but where it's supposed to...

I had the pleasure of watching this film in Austin at the SouthbySouth West Film Festival and it was hilarious. It was simple in humor yet that was the funny thing about it. Their wasn't a dry seat in the house. And no they weren't crying out of laughter but for pissing their pants while laughing. Especially with the lines from Paul Schnieder's character Lagrand. I do remember one of the questions that a lot of people wanted to know and that was where could they get a copy of the film. Hopefully they will bring it soon if not release for theaters nationwide. It would totally be a hit. After the film we must of clapped for like a few minutes unfortunately we couldn't ask the director or the cast that many questions because the schedule was very tight and we wanted to go catch another film. Aaron Standford also brings great desperation to his character Rugged who desperately wants to be a notorious gansta. And thankfully not in the ways of a Wigga. Any fans of slacker humor would definitely love this film. "Yep, They Stole My Porn And That was Vintage S"#@ Man"

This film is about a dumb criminal trying to get a job done with another even dumber criminal partner.

I watched this film because of the number of big name actors in the film. I regretted making this decision though. The initial 1 hour of the movie was a pain to watch. I know the film could have been funny, as there were many mischiefs that were momentarily funny. However, the highly annoying characters were so dumb that they are almost unbelievable! Of course, this also signified that the two criminals were portrayed so successfully and realistically that makes me hate them. Anyway, the film picked up a lot more humour in the last 15 minutes, and became a lot more funny.

I didn't like this movie much. It is not a total disaster, but a comedy that didn't make me laugh once, probably doesn't work. Its looks good, but the dialog is so poor. The actors are pretty wooden and mediocre, the only exception is Paul Schneider who's part requires him to be wooden and mediocre and he does it well.

Basically this is the story of somebody who wants to be someone, namely a gangster, but although he thinks he tries so hard he can't fool anyone in small town with people who just don't buy it.

Don't want to reveal more from the story, but wouldn't recommend you to find out for your self - you can safely skip it

4/10

peace