''Live Free or Die'' is an American 2006

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film starring

Aaron Stanford Aaron Stanford (born December 27, 1976) is an American actor best known for his roles as Pyro in '' X2'' and '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', and Doug in the 2006 remake of '' The Hills Have Eyes''. From 2010 to 2013, he starred as Birkhoff in '' N ...

, Paul Schneider,

Zooey Deschanel Zooey Claire Deschanel (; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She made her film debut in '' Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known for he ...

Michael Rapaport Michael David Rapaport (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. Beginning his career in the early 1990s, he has made over 100 appearances in film and television. His film roles include ''True Romance'' (1993), ''Higher Learning' ...

Judah Friedlander Judah Friedlander (born March 16, 1969) is an American actor and comedian, known for playing the role of writer Frank Rossitano on the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock''. Friedlander is also known for his role as Toby Radloff in the film ''American Splendor' ...

Kevin Dunn Kevin Dunn (born August 24, 1956) is an American actor who has appeared in supporting roles in a number of films and television series since the 1980s. Dunn's roles include White House Communications Director Alan Reed in the political comedy '' ...

, and

Ebon Moss-Bachrach Ebon Moss-Bachrach (born March 19, 1977) is an American actor best known for playing the role of David Lieberman in ''The Punisher'' and Desi Harperin in ''Girls''. Since 2022, Moss-Bachrach has played Richard "Richie" Jerimovich in the drama s ...

. It was written and directed by former ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

'' writers

Gregg Kavet Gregg Kavet is a writer and director who worked on NBC's ''Seinfeld'' for several seasons with collaborator Andy Robin. The team wrote episodes including "The Jimmy", "The Hot Tub", "The Caddy", " The Bottle Deposit", "The Fatigues", " The Comebac ...

and

Andy Robin Andy Robin is a writer who worked on NBC's ''Seinfeld'', alone and with collaborator Gregg Kavet. Their episode "The Fatigues" won the 1997 Writers Guild of America Award. Robin and Kavet wrote and directed the feature film ''Live Free or Die'' ...

. The film was shot in 2004.

Plot

A clueless, aspiring criminal named John "Rugged" Rudgate spends his days forging rebate coupons and selling speakers out the back of his van. One day, Rugged runs into an old acquaintance, the dim-witted Jeff Lagrand, who recently returned home to help his cynical sister run the storage facility that they inherited from their father. When Rugged tries to force his way into the Lagrand family business, things go terribly wrong—and the situation gets even more complicated when an emotionally unstable cop begins investigating.

Filming & Production

Most of the film was shot in 2004.

Reception

The film-review aggregate

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a 40% approval rating. Film critic

Frank Lovece Frank Lovece () is an American journalist and author, and a comic book writer primarily for Marvel Comics, where he and artist Mike Okamoto created the miniseries ''Atomic Age''. His longest affiliation has been with the New York metropolitan ar ...

of ''

Film Journal International ''Film Journal International'' was a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It was a sister publication of ''Adweek'', '' Billboard'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', and other periodicals. H ...

'' praised Aaron Stanford as "the young

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi ( ,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself, some may insist that his pronunciation of his own name is "wrong" because it does not match the original Italian pronunciation as well. It is not uncommon for people to pronou ...

" and wrote that despite the film's "lack of visual click, ''Live Free or Die'' manages to be poignant without even being maudlin" and that "none of the movie's flaws negate its many remarkable little performances and casually insightful script.'

References

External links

* 2006 films American comedy films Films set in New Hampshire Films shot in New Hampshire 2006 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-comedy-film-stub

Plot

Filming & Production

Reception

See also

References

External links