Bruce Willis said a few weeks back in a Q&A session that Live Free or Die Hard was the best of the Die Hard movies.

Was he lying?

Yes. Live Free or Die Hard is decidedly not the best of the Die Hard movies; that title still rightfully belongs to the first and original film. The latest John McClane offering is far from terrible and amounts to a decent summer action movie. But Bruce Willis was lying.

As with all the predecessor films, Live Free or Die Hard has a central storyline involving terrorists that create a crisis situation that only John McClane can resolve. This time, it’s cyberterrorism, with a gang of technologically advanced ne’er-do-wells (led by Timothy Olyphant, glaring as menacingly as he can) hijacking virtually all government computers on the Eastern seaboard. At stake: money, of course. This film does a great job prolonging the setup of the terrorists’ methods and makes them far more dynamic in terms of carrying out their plans than in the prior films. It might be a stretch to say that this film has the smartest terrorists of all the Die Hard films, but the buildup is certainly enjoyable. By the end you’ll end up with a headache if you try to figure out exactly how their plan was ever supposed to work — but fortunately most viewers won’t ask that question during the movie itself.

Bruce Willis doesn’t act so much as be acted upon. While he delivers the patented John McClane lines with brio and throws (and takes) many manly punches, there’s no dramatic stretching going on or even an attempt to introduce new facets to the character. Willis isn’t phoning this in; arguably he’s just giving the crowd what they want and expect from John McClane — but somehow that’s not quite enough.

Justin Long from the Mac commercials is on hand as the witty sidekick, and he actually performs his role quite well. His turn as a hacker who holds the key to stopping the terrorists seems natural and at home, and Long is far more confident as a sidekick than, say, Samuel L. Jackson was in Die Hard with a Vengeance. The whole sidekick and hero setup is a little wooden and predictable, but Live Free or Die Hard is not about innovation — it’s about giving fans one more Die Hard movie. When viewed from this perspective, it delivers.

Cameos and supporting cast are used well. Maggie Q plays…. Maggie Q, I guess, and she’s good at it. Kevin Smith has a fairly hilarious cameo as a nerd god. Cliff Curtis plays the head of the FBI cyberterrorism unit, and while his acting is very solid, it’s unclear what his character actually accomplishes. Meanwhile, Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a great turn as Lucy McClane, playing her exactly as fans would have imagined her to have grown up — innocent and sweet but ready to kill bad guys.

The film has some good action from beginning to end, but the adrenaline rush comes at a critical cost, as scenarios become more and more unbelievable. Commercials for the film show McClane steering a car into a helicopter — let’s just say that comes near the beginning of the film and represents one of the more realistic setups. Suspension of disbelief has always been critical for viewers of these movies, but Live Free or Die Hard pushes the limits of the audience in new ways. CGI isn’t abused to any horrible extreme — in fact, most of the action sequences have a nice realistic patina, at least until near the end (check your mind at the door when the jet fighter comes on the scene).

The verdict: Live Free or Die Hard is one more Die Hard movie, and probably the last — so leave your worries behind, go in to be entertained and at least momentarily immersed in the world of John McClane, and you’ll probably be happy.

Rated PG-13 for lots of painful deaths. Opens Wednesday, June 27.