Die Hard fans who have been waiting 12 years to see the return of Bruce Willis as New York cop John McClane are likely to be relieved to hear that they'll get what they expect from Live Free or Die Hard. The movie, writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post, "seeks to remind viewers of the simple, nostalgic pleasures of watching stuff get blown up and bad guys get smoked." Or as Gene Seymour puts it in Newsday: "As long as you understand that Live Free or Die Hard is nothing more or less than a three-ring festival of intricate stunts and pyrotechnic effects, punctuated with clown routines, you may not mind that it's about a half-hour longer than it needs to be." Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun agrees. "The thrills are still there," he writes. But, as can be expected after 12 years, the star has changed, and so has his character. "McClane is still a New York cop, but he's an old, embittered New York cop," he observes. That's just fine, so far as Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News is concerned. "The fun of Live Free is surprising to me because I found nothing to like in the first three films, least of all Willis' look-at-me-I'm-a-movie-star performances," he writes, "But Willis has aged well and grown on me. He's still saying, 'Look at me, ' but here, he bears the weight and humility of age." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls the movie "solidly crowd-pleasing." Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times refers to it as "two hours of pure adrenaline." To Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, the film's "a goof -- an unexpectedly funny goof, at that, despite everything, including the mayhem and somewhat creepy plot." But Claudia Puig in USA Today says that the movie is "diverting enough" but "as a convincing techno-thriller, it doesn't really work." Similarly Bob Longino in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that while it's "mostly watchable," it's "almost entirely forgettable after its final bang."

A controversial animated film by two Iranian filmmakers that drew complaints from Iranian officials when it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival last month -- but nevertheless went on to win the Jury Prize -- has been removed from the Bangkok Film Festival. The film, Persepolis, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, which tells the story of a nine-year-old girl growing up in Iran under fundamentalist restraints, had been expected to open the festival on July 19. However, Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which is sponsoring the festival, said today (Wednesday) that he was asked to meet with officials at the Iranian embassy about the film "and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown." Chattan did not indicate how Thailand would benefit from the decision to withdraw the film, saying only, "It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here." Kiriangsak Silakong, the festival's chief programmer, appeared upset over the censorship, telling the Bangkok newspaper The Nation, "It's too bad Thai people won't be able to see this film." And Reuters led off its report on the development by commenting, "Thailand has caved in to pressure from Iran...."

Despite boosting budgets and engaging some of the country's top stars, Indian films are struggling at the box office this year -- in sharp contrast to last year when Bollywood produced record results. Reporting from Mumbai (Bombay), Reuters observed today (Wednesday) that during the first half of 2007, the world's biggest film industry has failed to produce a single blockbuster, and in fact, overall ticket sales amount to only a quarter of what they were at this time a year ago. The wire service quoted Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahta as saying, "Where are the good stories? You can't get away with only star appeal and foreign locales. ... If you have a good script, chances are you will have a hit, stars or no stars." Another analyst, Taran Adarsh, told Reuters: "Once again, it has been proved that big names will not guarantee a hit." On the other hand, films from the U.S. have become big hits this year, with Spider-Man 3 outgrossing Titanic to become the highest-grossing Hollywood film ever distributed in India.

Civil libertarians and opponents of TV violence locked horns during testimony before a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday. On the one hand, Caroline Frederickson of the Washington D.C. office of the ACLU insisted that the federal government has no business imposing standards on television violence. Doing so, she said, "would threaten core American values: the right to a free and open media, the right to free speech and the right of parents to control the upbringing of their children." On the other hand, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said that the amount of violence on TV has had the effect of "coarsening our culture and, I fear, weakening our society as a whole." Responding to TV industry claims that parents have the tools, such as the V-chip, to prevent their children from watching inappropriate content, Rockefeller declared, "Parents do not want more tools. They want the content off the air. ... We are left with no choice but to have the government step in." But Fox TV Entertainment President Peter Liguori told the hearing that despite numerous studies, no "causal link" has been established between TV violence and the real-life kind. Without that, he said, "we cannot justify imposing content limits on the media." Liguori and others testifying at the hearing suggested that any attempt to regulate the depiction of violence on TV would likely be overturned as unconstitutional by the courts. Several committee members appeared to agree, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who remarked, "We really don't want to pass something and have it thrown out in court."

It was the worst of weeks for the television networks last week as they produced some of their lowest numbers since the modern ratings system began some 20 years ago. Surprisingly, the top-rated show of the week was NBC's Monday-night edition of Dateline, the magazine show that has become mostly a place-keeper for shows that have been canceled. But Monday night's show in which Matt Lauer interviewed British princes William and Harry attracted 12.2 million viewers -- the largest number of viewers to tune in since an interview with Amber Frey, the girlfriend of convicted killer Scott Peterson, aired more than two years ago. NBC also scored with its Deal or No Deal game show, which pulled in 12.1 million viewers. Nevertheless, CBS once again led in the ratings with an overall 4.8 average and a 9 share. Fox placed second with a 4.2/8. NBC came in third with a 3.5/6, while ABC trailed with a 2.7/5.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. Dateline (Monday), NBC, 8.4/14; 2. America's Got Talent, NBC, 8.0/14; 3. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 7.8/14; 4. NCIS, CBS, 6.4/11; 5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 6.3/11; 5. Law and Order: SVU, NBC, 6.3/11; 7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 6.2/10; 8. 60 Minutes, CBS, 5.9/12; 8. So You Think Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 5.9/10; 8. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 5.9/10.

It appeared that viewers who abandoned the broadcast networks last week were high-tailing it to cable. TNT's The Closer drew 8.81 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable-TV show of the week. The TimeWarner-owned network also scored strongly with its NASCAR racing coverage on Sunday, drawing 6.52 million viewers. Overall, however, Disney Channel averaged the most total viewers for the week in primetime -- 3.13 million. A new episode of its hit Hannah Montana recorded 7.38 million viewers and placed second on Nielsen's list of top-rated cable programs. USA Network, which ordinarily dominates in the cable ratings, came in second for the week with 2.66 million viewers, edging out TNT, which ranked third with 2.51 million.

A Spanish-language television station in New York handily beat all of its English-language rivals in the ratings Monday night. Univision outlet WXTV, which airs on UHF channel 41, averaged 598,000 viewers for a three-hour marathon of the Colombian-produced La Fea Mas Bella, the program that inspired ABC's Ugly Betty. WCBS, the usual Monday-night winner, was well behind with 445,000. The Univision station often tops its rivals during the late-night news period as well and did so again on Monday as Noticias Univision 41 drew 478,000 viewers, to top WABC's Eyewitness News with 458,000 viewers.

Rupert Murdoch has apparently cleared the final major hurdle in his effort to buy Dow Jones, the company that publishes The Wall Street Journal, from its owners, the Bancroft family. According to published reports, Murdoch has reached a deal in principle with the board of directors of Dow Jones on a plan aimed at preserving the newspaper's editorial independence. Some newspaper accounts, however, said that certain members of the Bancroft family were still balking at the deal and holding out for a higher offer from the media mogul. Nevertheless, on a visit to Warsaw, Murdoch told Reuters that he had no plans to raise his $5-billion bid. "Everything is done," he said. "We are just waiting for a final approval of the Bancroft family ... in the next two, three week's time, or not at all."

While the median age of the average U.S. household is 37, the median age of viewers watching the major broadcast networks is 48, according to a report by ad buyer Magna Global that appeared Tuesday on the Advertising Age website. The report indicated that for the fifth straight year, the median age of the average network viewer increased. It was 47 last year. CBS's 60 Minutes drew the oldest audience with a median age of 60. However, the network has always been quick to point out, the figure merely means that half the show's audience is over 60 and half is under 60 and since the show generally ranks in the top 20 among overall households, it may draw more younger viewers than shows that record a younger median age but a smaller audience. For example, the CW's One Tree Hill has a median age of 26, the youngest of any network program, but generally ranks around 100 on the Nielsen list.

Legendary British television interviewer Michael Parkinson announced today (Wednesday) that he plans to step down after next season. "After 25 years of doing my talk show I have decided that this forthcoming series will be my last," he said in a statement on Tuesday. Paul Jackson, director of entertainment and comedy for ITV, where Parkinson's show has aired for the past three years (it was previously carried by the BBC), said that Parkinson "has defined the talk show in British television and no one has come near to equaling his record. His name is synonymous throughout the English-speaking world as a benchmark for integrity and quality in the talk show genre."