Die Hard DVD > Reviews > the one liner man-a dvd opinion

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
Soundtrack	Good

Advantages:	great after all these years, excellent villain
Disadvantages:	poor extras

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I would say that the majority of movie lovers would be familiar with Die Hard. It's the movie that really out Bruce Willis in the big hollywood league and still remains a movie quite a lot of others try to imitate.

For those not familiar with the story let me explain. In a sky rise LA office building a team of terrorists have taken over and claimed hostages all with the goal of finanacial gain. Leading this gang of euro-baddies is one Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Many consider Rickman to be one of the best villains on screen in many years and with his laid back sleazy attitude it's deserved. All thw hile one detective John McClane has come to visit his estranged wife at her work place whihc happens to be the building where all hell is breaking loose. Unknown to the terrorists John McClane sets about saving the day single handed with only a white vest and gun and the help of an overweight cop on the outside.

It's a great action film with an everyday hero who has a stack of one-liners. They say that a hero is only as good as his villain so Rickman is more than up to the job. It remains one of the most exciting and kick ass films to this day.

The R2 dvd has been available for over a year now and it's a decent effort if not great.

The film is in widescreen at 2.35:1. The picture is anamorphic for widescreen tv's. This isn't the best transfer by a mile, it's soft in places with a bit of dirt and grain but it's still quite watchable and by no means terrible.

Sound wise the film is naturally presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. With most films that were before the digital age the soundtrack sounds a bit hollow and lacks a certain clarity and punch. Still as you'd expect there's a good use of the rears whenever the action kicks in.

On the extras front it's pretty basic but a least something is better than nothing. First up is a brief featurette whihc has terrible picture quality. It's one of these standard promtional things that merely sells the film to an audience.

Next is the trailer which again isn't great quality but for an action film trailer it's interesting to see that it isn't all quick cuts to music.

Lastly there are some brief cast and crew biographies that are really standard stuff.
All this is presented in some simple animated menus which serve the purpose well.

At present this is the best way to own these films on dvd. The R1 versions are actually inferior to our versions for a change. However it's worth mentioning that the trilogy is getting a makeover in the USA with a rumoured 2 dvd set for this film with loads of extras and a DTS soundtrack so it may be worth waiting for. The sequals are also rumoured to be getting a bit of a re-vamp.