Vote for your favorite Die Hard movies

[Lonemagpie]

All of them.

But I'd rank them as

1) Die Hard
2) Live Free Or Die Hard
3) Die Hard 2
4) Die Hard With A Vengeance

Probably because I expected 4 to suck but was pleasantly surprised, while Vengeance's ending appears to have been pasted in from a different movie

But then I think Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is the best Indy sequel as well...

[tomalak301]

Well, the first one is the best so in the interest of discussion, I'll just rank them:

Die Hard
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Live Free or Die Hard
Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Yeah, I consider Live Free or Die Hard a little underrated, while the second one lefted some to be desired. I did like all of them though and will go see Die Hard 5 eventually.

[Caligula]

The first is (30+ stories) well above the rest. Oddly, the only other one I care anything for is the second film.

Once you move the films out of a centralized location (an L.A. skyscraper, a D.C. airport), then you lose a lot of what Die Hard is for me. From the third movie on, we've gone from running around NYC (with a tacked-on climax somewhere in Canada), to running around the United States, to now fighting bad guys in Russia.

I miss the claustrophobia of the first film, and NOBODY has topped Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber as an antagonist for John McClane.

[Agent Richard07]

^ That's how I feel. The first two feel like Die Hard movies. They're the only ones I bought. The others feel like generic action movies with Bruce Willis.

StalwartUK wrote:

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They should've left it as a trilogy.

If Speed had been the third Die Hard movie, that would have been a great trilogy.

tighr wrote:

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If they make a Die Hard 6, it needs to be called "Old Habits Die Hard", and I'm guaranteed in the theater!

Good one. I love it.

[Mr Light]

3 > 1 > 2 > 4

I think the first three are all quite excellent. Even 2, the weakest, is still damn thrilling, and I like the airport setting. I remember watching 3 over and over again as a kid. It's just such a huge scale compared to the claustrophobic first one.

The fourth one isn't BAD, but it's not as good as the originals.

[Shanndee]

I voted for the original only. I really liked it a lot, and it has good re-watch value. The next 2 felt like generic action movies to me, easily mixed up with any other movie in the genre. I did not like the 4th one at all. But the first one...awesome!

[Aragorn]

1, 2, 3, 4 in that order. I guess not very many people love 2 that much, although Gene Siskel had it in his 10 best of the year list (and later on he'd put Under Siege in his top 10 too).

3 was a lot of fun, but it did seem like they had a bunch of action sequences they already came up with and needed a story to link them together.

4 was a decent action movie, but it didn't feel like a Die Hard movie. The PG-13 neutering probably had a lot to do with that.

Tom Rothman gave us a Brett Ratner X-Men and a PG-13 Die Hard -- but at least he didn't give us a Brett Ratner Die Hard.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

EmoBorg wrote:

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i don't understand why so many folks disliked Die Hard 4. I considered it a damn good movie. Die Hard 4 was an updated story. Bruce Willis's character fighting a modern cyber terrorist

The cyber terrorist who hacks into traffic control and power generation, despite the fact that YOU CAN'T DO THAT?

[EmoBorg]

Die Hard : John McClane saves the people in the building.

Die Harder : John McClane saves the people in the airport and aircrafts.

Die Hard with a Vengeance : John McClane saves the people of New York.

Live Free or Die Hard : John McClane saves the people in the USA.

[Captain Craig]

As a few said, lets just agree the first film is the BEST(cause it's killing the poll) and banter about the rankings for the others.

I voted for 1 & 3 cause we could. Since those are linked via the brotherly connection Vengeance works great as a sequel to the first film. SLJ is a great "in tow" sidekick that Officer Al only wishes he could've been. So those kinda tie for first imo.

My very tight second place goes to Live Free or Die Hard. I wholly agree with the others that it's overly bashed on the internet(like IJ:KOTCS). People I know offline who aren't on any msg brds never say crap about it. Great cast, fun to watch and this film really illustrates how even though this has come to him again he's going to do what needs to be done. He tells Matt Farrell he "hasn't done this kinda thing in a while" that "if there were anyone else available to do it, he'd let them, but there isn't, so we're doing it". It's McClane accepting what needs to be done, just like the first film. Reluctant honor bound cop.

I don't dislike DH2 but something has to be last. The night custodian Marvin makes for a great comedic "in tow" character here. William Sadler makes for a great bad guy to really hate. With John Amos as the turn coat for hire helping him from within. When I finally saw this on VHS for the first time circa '92 all I knew him from was Mr.McDowell from Coming to America so it was fun to see him play "McClane's kinda asshole".

So my ranking:
Die Hard
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Live Free or Die Hard
Die Hard2: Die Harder


I'm attending the Regal Theater all day Die Hard Marathon tomorrow starting at 12 noon culminating in the 10pm-ish debut of A Good Day to Die Hard. Ending I guess in time to start showing the "official" midnight shows.

tighr wrote:

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If they make a Die Hard 6, it needs to be called "Old Habits Die Hard", and I'm guaranteed in the theater!

That's a great title, you should purchase the URL now just in case.

[tighr]

Captain Craig wrote:

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That's a great title, you should purchase the URL now just in case.

It's a freebie, I don't mind. I'd just like to see the film. As long as it's not in outer space, I'm fine. Maybe at a football game or something. Bruce Willis has all but confirmed that they will make it, and it will be his last.

For the record, I would still like to see John Carpenter (or his successor) make Escape from Chicago. The fourth movie should be Escape from Houston. Both cities have coastal areas, and they are successively the next largest population centers on the MSA list. Escape from Phoenix would be an interesting movie, too.