What a great classic action movie. Die Hard just works as a movie. Die Hard signified a change in how action movies are made - no more Arnold Schwarznegger, no more Jean Claude Van Damme. None of that. This is just Bruce Willis at his finest. He's not turned in to Robocop or the Terminator. No. Just Police Officer John McClane.
And that's what makes this film great. The lack of having bloody Robocop or Judge Dredd coming around dealing with their brand of law and order. With the character of McClane, he is having to work with the constricts of being human. Whether that be the downfall of having to worry about wife and kids - in Die Hard it ranks as having emotion, and feelings. Not just some robotic killing machine wiping out the bad guys Schwarznegger style.
With Die Hard, every minute has something to watch for. The wide opening shots, at the airport, when being driven to the office, all those wide shots just make you think 'ordinary'. Ordinary in that McClane isn't anything special. Very little characterisation goes on, and only minimal touches of dry humour.
Another thing that Die Hard is resplendent in is that the 'American Way' of dealing with situations like terrorism is completely messed up. As in the hardass, macho, "kick their ass" way doesn't work. McClane represents the intelligent, thinking mans solution. Which in the run up to Dubya Bush and Puppy Blair's next war, ought to be looked at a bit more critically. Can you Yanks never learn that 'sending the boys in' guns-ablazing RARELY works! Bush - watch this movie. Now!
The action genre is often plagued by the 'bigger and better' cliche. Every movie has to have a bigger and better action scene. This becomes a Hollywood metaphorical dick size contest. And that's rather boring at times. With the 'dick size' films, they are good, they are great and all. But when it comes to being rememberable, you need to combine action with emotion. And films like Die Hard, which may not be much by today's standards that action laden movies, will outlive any of them just due to the way that the characters are portrayed.
Willis is excellent as McClane, and Alan Rickmans performance is absolutely fantastic as Hans Gruber, the educated 'businessman' terrorist. He breaks the stereotype of terrorist 'bad guys' brilliantly with his performance as Gruber.
Also add to that mixture McClane's witty comments (how many times have I repeated the phrase "Yippe Ki Yay - m'f-er!"? I hestate to think about it), and you have a seriously kick ass film. It may be a 'guy film', but with the amount of bloody romantic comedies featuring Tom Hanks or Hugh Grant, we need a few action films to save us!
It even has it's subtle moments. You know, the bits where Hollywood usually flunks and fails to impress. It's not all just guns, death and explosions. There are subtle moments to this film.
I'd reccomend this film to anyone who likes action movies. Hell! It's one of my favourite movies!
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High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages, ... more
and declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection...an off-duty cop. He's alone...tired...and the only chance anyone has.Bruce Willis stars as New York ...
High above the city of LA a team of terrorists has seized a building taken hostages and ... more
declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection.. An off-duty cop. He's alone..tired..and the only chance anyone has. Bruce Willis stars as New York Ci...
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![Die Hard (Special Edition) [DVD] [1988]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/76770162.jpg "Die Hard (Special Edition) [DVD] [1988]")
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