Die Hard - Movie Review

 Die Hard (1988)

Welcome to the first of my Christmas reviews! This is the first of 4 Christmas movies I have planned to review for the week of Christmas, and there's no better way to kick it off than Die Hard! Yes, Die Hard is a fucking Christmas movie, stop with the fucking debates! Seriously, whoever says Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie obviously hasn't fucking watched it! Released in 1988, the film initially received mixed reviews, but overtime has been widely considered to be one of the best action films of all time, and was a major box office success, becoming a franchise with 4 sequels, one of which was the disaster I reviewed earlier this year, called A Good Day to Die Hard.

THE GOOD

Die Hard is one of my favorite films of all time. It has everything, action, suspense, humor, twists and turns, romance, you name it, it has it! This movie is exciting, it has top notch action, it's violent, the tension is relentless! Bruce Willis does an amazing job as John McClane, part of what makes the movie so exciting is that he is vulnerable, he shows fear, he faces near certain death many times, and you always hope he survives! John McClane is very likable as a character, he's pretty much a lovable asshole, and he provides much of the film's humor with quotable lines and awesome one liners! Alan Rickman is an absolute scene stealer in this movie playing as the villain, Hans Gruber. He is one of the greatest action movie villains of all time! You understand his motive, he is intimidating, immediately when he's introduced you know he means fucking business! It's especially impressive knowing that this was Alan Rickman's first role! The editing is fantastic, the movie moves at a rapid fire pace. The film never drags on, there's never a dull moment to be found. The writing is amazing, there's so much great dialogue, and the story is engaging. Like I mentioned before, the action sequences are phenomenal. The gun battles are exciting, the stunt work is out of this world, the blood effects and explosions are cool, the hand to hand combat is brutal, and all that is thanks to the amazing direction by John McTiernan, who directed many other great action and thriller movies like Predator, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard With a Vengeance and the underrated Last Action Hero. One thing I really gotta praise is the sound mixing! If you watch this movie, you absolutely must watch the film with the loudest sound system you can! The gun shots and explosions sound so cool, same with the punches, kicks, neck snaps and whenever heads get smashed towards hard objects, it all sounds like it really hurts!

THE BAD

Nothing is bad in Die Hard!

CONCLUSION

Die Hard is a fucking classic! It's both a great Christmas movie and a fantastic action movie! Featuring amazing action, tension and fantastic performances by its cast, Die Hard is a must watch for every Christmas, or even all throughout the year, it's that good!

10/10

FILM INFO

Rating:  R (N/A)

Run time:  132 min

Release date:  July 20th, 1988

Studio:  Twentieth Century Fox