Monday, July 16, 2012

Die Hard

Die Hard (1988)

Directed by John McTiernan

Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza

Based on the novel, "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp

Currently #105 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, James Shigeta, William Atherton and Paul Gleason

All right people, do not hate me. This is the first time that I saw Die Hard. I know! I know. Bad film geek. I will give myself 100 lashings. I have only seen Live Free or Die Hard, which is an okay but I thought that villain of the film was lame. Anyway, back to the film. Everybody has been praising this film for being fucking awesome. Well, guess what? IT'S FUCKING AWESOME!

It's Christmas time when New York City cop John McClane (Willis) arrives to LA to be with his kids for the holiday. Coming from the airport he is whisked off in a limo to the Nakatomi Plaza building. His wife, Holly (Bedelia) is there having a Christmas party with her boss, Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi (Shigeta) and coworkers. John tries to get back in the good graces with Holly when Hans Gruber (Rickman) and his thugs burst into the building wanting to get into vault.

The thing about this movie is that McClane gets a whole bunch of shit thrown at him at once and manages to survive it all. It's not a spoiler. There have been three films after this. McClane is resourceful character that doesn't go guns blazing to the German terrorists. That's one thing that was refreshing. The bad guys were not Russian, French, Mexican; they were German. Nice touch. There is something about McClane that is an everyman that audiences can get behind and root to victory. McClane delivers his lines that have been etched in the movie lexicon and I was happy.

Alan Rickman's villain character,  Hans Gruber is not the typical terrorist. He is very methodical and never lost his cool. I thought it was hilarious the way the crew was assembled like they came from Sprockets. They were like some came from loafing on the couch all day and some were like they came from Nerds R Us.

The one aspect of this film I did not like was the FBI agents Johnson and Johnson (Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush). I thought they were deplorable human beings that got their comeuppance.

My Rating




2 comments:

  1. haha... I like to hear people's reaction to a classic years after-the-fact. I will admit that I have not seen The Dark Knight yet... and with that being said, there's obviously no way I can watch The Dark Knight Rises until I watch that one.

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  2. You should see The Dark Knight to be prepared for the tone of The Dark Knight Rises has.

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