Amazon.com Essentials:
This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and
established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a
(blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with
them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced
Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's
visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much
to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a
modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences
and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia
plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries
negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a
believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a
busybody reporter. Exceptionally well directed by John
McTiernan. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com Essentials:
This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and
established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a
(blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with
them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced
Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's
visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much
to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a
modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences
and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia
plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries
negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a
believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a
busybody reporter. Exceptionally well directed by John
McTiernan. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
Christmas is not a good time of year in the McClane family. Especially
for
John McClane, who
always happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if it
weren't for the heroics of this rugged, resourceful cop, many lives would be
lost and
megalomaniacal terrorists with various European accents would be having
their evil way. In 1988, director
John McTiernan and the phenomenal hit Die Hard introduced the world
to maverick Sgt. John McClane (Bruce Willis) of the New York Police
Department, and in the course of this film and two blockbuster sequels McClane was
frantically saving lives, buildings, airports, schools, cities, and even his
marriage from the threat of international terrorists, psychopaths, and
cagey mercenaries.
Now you can watch antihero McClane blast his way through all three movies.
Witness his
transition from a happy-go-lucky, slightly cranky cop to extremely
burnt-out, partially alcoholic
cop with a propensity to attract extreme violence and catastrophe. Yet the
one thing that
always overshadows his character flaws is his uncanny ability to spoil the
schemes of stylish villains with slick names such as Hans Gruber (the nasty
terrorist from the first film, played to perfection by Alan Rickman). Sit
down, pop some corn, grab a bottle of Coca-Cola, and
get ready to watch (in any order you please) the Die Hard Trilogy--a
must for any action buff
or fan of Bruce Willis, who owes his film career to the enduring appeal of
these global box-office hits. --Jeremy Storey
