Iâm just going to be quick here-DIE HARD IS FREAKING AWESOME! Sorry to shout there, but I think I needed to make my point clear. Yeah, Iâm probably the one thousandth person to say that, but doesnât that tell you something? Directed by John McTiernan who also did Predator, this is the best action film Iâve seen. Itâs just a hard, no frills action film with terrific acting, excellent explosions and some tense moments. Okay, so you may have to turn off your brain, but who cares?
John McClane is a New York City detective, who is visiting LA so he can spend his Christmas with his wife Holly and two kids, who moved away from John as Holly got a big job there at Nakatomi Plaza, a 40 story office building. But when terrorists, led by Hans Gruber, take everyone who is on the 30th floor hostage and then try to steal $640,000,000 in negotiable bearer bonds from the buildings safe, now itâs up to McClane to save the hostages and kill the terrorists any way he can.
The plot in Die Hard is simple, but not brain dead like most action films similar to this. Itâs pretty formulaic, but it has been so well executed that I didnât really notice it. The ending wasnât that predictable, with this kind of film I didnât know what the heck was going to happen. It meant that I was at the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen in the end. I only knew that the lead would live as there were sequels to follow after. It isnât completely believable at times, but itâs not god crazy or impossible. There are some nice twists and surprises to keep you guessing and these arenât dumb either.
The lead character is John McClane, who was played by none other than Bruce Willis in his best performance Iâve seen. He is the perfect cast as the tough as nails, humorous NY cop. Heâs got some of the coolest lines in the film, including the famous âYippie-ki-yay, mother f***er!â and the moment when a supervisor says âAttention, whoever you are. This channel is reserved for emergency calls only...â and McClane replies âNo f***ing s*** lady, do I sound like Iâm ordering a pizza?â Obviously, McClane drops the F bomb and uses other swear words a lot, but this is an 18+ so what do you expect? Anyways, you really like McClane with his cool lines, witty remarks and excellent use of guns. McClane is an excellent mix of cocky and mouthy, as well as heroic and cool. And Willis does an excellent performance here.
McClaneâs wife is played by Bonnie Bedelia, who you may know from Fat Man and Little Boy. Another good choice in casting, the wife is a person who is obviously dedicated to her job as she moved away from her husband to do her job, though John could have gone with her. Bedelia is good at acting panicked as you did feel a sense of fear from her, with her facial expressions and actions. She also screamed a bit. Overall, she did an excellent performance.
The bad guys are played by Alan Rickman, Dennis Hayden and Clarence Gilyard Jr. Alan Rickman is the main villain, Hans Gruber. Anyone could have played the villain, so Rickman needed to prove heâs the best for the job, and he certainly did that. This villain also could have been a Bond knockoff, but itâs nothing like it. This villain is one evil son of a b****, I mean he was cold, manipulative and very dark. He is smart as well, so he doesnât just act like a smartass, and is actually a dumbass. He puts up some very good word battles against McClane, which is a treat to watch.
Dennis Hayden is great too as Eddie, who gets a grudge against McClane for reasons I wonât spoil. He is the guy who gets the AK47 and blows up anything against him. He has a short fuse and little tolerance for pests (a.k.a McClane). Hayden is a great cast for the psycho. But the best villain is Theo, played by Clarence Gilyard Jr. who is god evil. He plays the computer geek, who needs to hack into the vault with the money. A really memorable line from him was 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the four **** coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation.â It made me laugh a bit.
One character that was memorable for me was a cop that was talking to McClane throughout nearly the whole film on the Radio was Sgt. Al Powell, played by Reginald VelJohnson. He was a class act throughout, as the supportive cop who doesnât give a damn what the other cops think, he wants to stick with McClane. He did a brilliant job of acting and was a great cast as the generic cop. He also has a bit of history behind him as heâs gone from cop to office worker.
One thing that surprised me is that for a nearly 20 year old film, the effects looked brilliant. They looked real and werenât cheap looking. There were some fantastic explosions to be had in the film, like when Willis throws down a stick of C4 down an elevator shaft, which exploded and damaged the whole floor it dropped down to, and a huge ball of flames exploded up the shaft, which was spectacular.
Also, the gun fights were excellent as well. There were pistols, AK47s and rocket launchers involved, and they all looked and sounded spectacular. The gunfire was loud, and the bullets looked great. And when they fired the Rocket Launcher at the tank, I thought I had died and had gone to heaven. It was so beautifulâ¦
Thereâs some great music accompanying the film as well. The film takes place on Christmas Eve, so there was lots of Christmas themed music playing in the background, which suited the film. But when there were some tense moments, the music was really tense so it made it more exciting. And there was some relaxing music at moments too, which was a little weird at times. I was lucky to invest in the Die Hard Trilogy: Special Edition boxset, which included the three Die Hard films with extras special features. Thereâs some nice extras on the second disc of this version. Youâll get the generic audio commentaries (as well as text commentaries) and thereâs also scene specific commentary when the visual effects producer and production designer Jackson DeGovia. On disc two there was quite a lot of neat extras to play around with. The main feature was âFrom the Vaultâ which contained three things. First, there were outtakes, which included The Vault, which was a feature with lots of outtakes and bloopers. Then there was turning off the power, which is a deleted scene. Basically this was a scene where turning off the power of the Nakatomi Plaza was more âcomplicatedâ itâs understandable why the scene was cut, as it would just waste more time on the film. Then there was âThe Newscastsâ which basically show cut bits from the newscasts in the film. It was good to watch as it was interesting to see what was cut. And finally there were the magazine articles, which were basically making you read newspaper articles about the film. BORING!
Next is the Cutting Room, which lets you choose shots from different scenes of the film and create new scenes. It was good fun, as you could compare them to the film itself. Next thereâs the Multi-Camera Shooting, which lets you watch two sequences from the film at different camera angles. Following is Audio Mixing, which lets you choose how high you want the music, dialogue or effects to be. Shame they only give you one scene. After thereâs a feature which explains what is Letterbox and why use Letterbox. The next main feature is an interactive slideshow, which is exactly what it sounds like. This shows you pictures of Die Hard, which you can skip, rewind, pause and skip back through. Itâs not much, but youâll like it if youâre a bit bored. After is the AD campaign, which is where youâll find your trailers and a featurette which has interviews from the cast and crew. Itâs a nice feature and great to watch. Finally is The Script, which is the script for the film. It shows all the direction and dialogue, so you can now literally speak along with the film if youâre that sad. Overall, the extras are really nice and add to a brilliant film.
Die Hard is my favourite film. Itâs definitely one of the best, if not the best, action film ever made. Willis is brilliant, the rest if the cast is great as well, the effects are brilliant, the action is great and the film is just very enjoyable. If you love action and havenât seen this yet then go buy it now!
