Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:47 am Posts: 27904 Location: Philadelphia Gender: Male
Die Hard (1988): Directed by John McTiernan
I don’t recall ever seeing one, but I’m sure there are plenty of lists that rank the best action movies ever made. And I’d have to call bullshit on any list that doesn’t rank Die Hard as one of the best of the genre, if not the best.
John McClane (Bruce Willis, in the breakout role that made him a superstar) is New York City cop who flies to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve to see his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) and their children. From the airport he takes a limo to the Nakatomi building, a skyscraper full of office buildings, one of which belonging to Holly. The idea is for John to shower and freshen up while Holly says her goodbyes at the office Christmas party (the people at the party being the only ones left in the building besides John), and then they’ll head to the McClane residence. Things don’t quite turn out that way.
A heavily armed group of world criminals, led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), hijack the party in an attempt to steal millions of dollars worth of negotiable bonds from the building’s extremely sophisticated vault. After owner Joseph Takagi refuses to give the code, he’s murdered and some of the group’s members go to work on breaking into the vault and stealing the bonds while the rest are in charge of holding Molly and her co-workers hostage. But John McClane, 3000 miles out of his police jurisdiction, isn’t going to walk into the party room with his hands up. This is an action movie, and McClane is going to stop these fuckers from ruining Christmas.
Die Hard works so well for a multitude of reasons: the claustrophobia of an action film taking place in one setting; superbly done action sequences, that while aren’t exactly believable, will keep you on the edge of your seat; and, most importantly, the two lead characters. Willis is perfect as the wise-cracking, clever cop, who makes the role his own. It’s hard to believe that Schwarzenegger, Richard Gere, Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds all turned down the role (this is a great script for an action movie, especially compared to the scripts of some of those other late 80’s action movies the aforementioned stars made), but none of them could have come close to turning in the performance that Willis did. And Rickman, perfectly cast, makes Hans Gruber one of the best film villains ever. The scenes with Willis and Gruber together are superb—these 2 feed off of each other, creating an undeniable chemistry that drives the second half of the film.
The character of McClane is so appealing because he’s a good guy with attitude, but is never too busy to crack a one-liner when he sees fit. You can’t not root for McClane, and I challenge anyone to offer up one valid reason as to how you could. He’s a wonderfully crafted character in a movie that blends action, comedy and suspense exquisitely. To hell with being one of the best action movies—this is simply one of the best movies to come out of the ‘80’s, period. So if anyone sees the third sequel of the franchise in theaters this summer and leave disappointed, go back and watch the original and rekindle your love for this crackerjack classic.
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
this movie is a proud member of Team Stip in the movie tournament
5 stars. One of the best action stars of all time, but I've always been a fan of characters in the Indiana jones mold who really get the living shit beat out of them by people more talented than tey are and still manage to win in the end
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:03 pm Posts: 26481 Location: virginia Gender: Male
for me this is the perfect kind of action movie, it has good action, pretty good drama, great comedy moments, i dont know if there is anyhitng i could say bad about it, i dont know much about imagery and things like that in a movie, but i judge them all on how well i am entertained, and this one keeps me entertained from start to finnish every time i watch it.
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Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 1:31 pm Posts: 10340 Location: Norway Gender: Male
I gave this two stars. I'm not a big action fan, and this bored me senseless. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, and I probably never will see it again unless it's on a flight or something.
How's that for balancing out all the positiveness
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Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:47 am Posts: 27904 Location: Philadelphia Gender: Male
Garden of Stone wrote:
I gave this two stars. I'm not a big action fan, and this bored me senseless. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, and I probably never will see it again unless it's on a flight or something.
How's that for balancing out all the positiveness
Don't ever post outside of Other Bands again.
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Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:06 am Posts: 3146 Location: Orange County, California
One of the coolest movies ever made. I'm a fan of any movie that uses Carl Winslow as a main character.
_________________ I waited all day
you waited all day
but you left before sunset
and I just wanted to tell you
that the moment was beautiful
just wanted to dance to bad music
drive bad cars
watch bad tv
should have stayed for the sunset
if not for me
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
Garden of Stone wrote:
I gave this two stars. I'm not a big action fan, and this bored me senseless. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, and I probably never will see it again unless it's on a flight or something.
How's that for balancing out all the positiveness
You're just mad because the bad guys talk like you.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
I gave this two stars. I'm not a big action fan, and this bored me senseless. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, and I probably never will see it again unless it's on a flight or something.
How's that for balancing out all the positiveness
You're just mad because the bad guys talk like you.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:02 pm Posts: 10690 Location: Lost in Twilight's Blue
Yeah this movie pretty much kicks ass.
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Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:53 pm Posts: 21098 Location: where do you think?
conoalias wrote:
punkdavid wrote:
Garden of Stone wrote:
I gave this two stars. I'm not a big action fan, and this bored me senseless. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, and I probably never will see it again unless it's on a flight or something.
How's that for balancing out all the positiveness
You're just mad because the bad guys talk like you.
i'm with GoS though. i liked 2 and 3 better
you liked 3 better than 1?
_________________ it's saturday night... i have no date, a 2 liter bottle of shasta, and my all-rush mix tape. let's rock.
srs? i think it suffered from having a superfluous final act, but still a very, very solid film.
the only complaint i'll level at the first film is that it became dated very quickly. I think that's more a product of the "action film" genre than anything else, though.
_________________ i was dreaming through the howzlife yawning car black when she told me "mad and meaningless as ever" and a song came on my radio like a cemetery rhyme for a million crying corpses in their tragedy of respectable existence
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 11:29 pm Posts: 3103 Location: Golden, MA Gender: Male
I love the first die hard movie. I was 11 when it came out, and I saw it in the theater 3 times. At 11 I loved the fact that the hero was a guy that looked like my dad, or your dad. Not arnold or sly.
It was full of language and violence for that age, but I was introduced to these type of movies young (by my mother who sat me down to the deerhundt at age 10.)
I think Die Hard changed the action genre for better and worse. It spawend the "die hard on a..." sub-genre, and also made it ok for normal guys to be the super hero, and bruce is the best "every guy" hero.
DH let passanger 57, and Speed 2 (bad) but also lead to Segal's best movie with Under Siege.
I just hope 4 lives up to the trilogy.
As far as the sequals go I love them both. DH2 was cool with the twist, and the way they incorperated the best parts on the first one on a bigger scale.
DH3 is the shit cuz of the bruce / sammy team.
Did you guys know DH3 was written as a Lethal Weapon sequal, and then rewritten in NY instead of LA and the added sam as "murtaugh"
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