You can’t keep a good franchise down. And while the quality of the “Die Hard” films has varied, I am really quite delighted to report that “Live Free or Die Hard” is a worthy entry in the series.

I was kinda dreading it, to be honest. The twelve-year gap since “Die Hard with a Vengeance”, the fact that “Die Hard 2” is really pretty awful, the appointment of “Underworld” director Len Wiseman to the center seat … and beyond all that, if one believes that 9/11 changed everything, can you honestly get away with another movie where John McClane fights “terrorists”?

Well, that’s the neat thing about the series: It’s barely connected to the real world at all, except through Bruce Willis’ marvelous everyman quality. The “Die Hard” series speaks to the dream of every teenager who’s sat through an outsized action movie and wondered how he would perform in a similar situation.

He’s better written than most of us, but John McClane is a regular guy … a regular guy with remarkable stamina and a high pain tolerance, but still.

And in this post-9/11 era, I think it’s worth pointing out that the Evil Terrorists once again turn out to be staging their attack in order to divert attention from their true capitalist aims; the orchestrated assaults in the “Die Hard” films are never political, always mercenary.

Interesting, innit?

Plus, shit blows up. A lot. I guess that’s why they hired Wiseman.