Not only the best Xmas movie but for my money the best action movie EVER. Every single thing about this movie is fantastic - the central premise, the script, the plot, the dialogue, the hero, the villain, the direction, the stunts, the action, the cast ... I can't think of one thing I dislike about it.
Exactly. Everything in this movie works. Every other action movie wishes it was this movie.
Completely agree, the best action film ever beyond a shadow of a doubt, and what makes it really great is that while some of it stretches credulity, on the whole McClane doesn't do anything that is that completely impossible (apart from maybe grabbing hold when he falls down the air shaft) Compare that to 4.0 where he's standing on a frickin' plane!
I still remember seeing it at the cinema and being on the edge of my seat. When Hans tells Karl to shoot the glass and I remember sitting there going "eh?" then the camera pans along to Bruce Willis' bare feet...ouch!
Great plot, great acting Willis and Rickman make fantastic opponents. It's funny, exciting...to be honest the only slight problem I have with it is the fact that, though the stunt work is brilliant, Bruce's stunt double doesn't look remotely like him!
How do people rank the Die Hards anyway? For me...
1. Die Hard (by a distance)
2. Die Hard with a Vengence (badly edited and the ending sucks but Simon is a great bad guy and Willis/Jackson make a good team)
3. 4.0. More consistant than 3, and Justin Long is great as the sidekick, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead convincing as little Lucy McClane. Let down by over the top stunts, killing off Maggie Q too early, and Timothy Olaphant is a really dull villain.
4. Die Hard 2; Die Harder. It tries, but whereas 4.0 in particular overdoes things, 2 seems to under do them. Interesting plot twist (which I saw coming when the soldiers swapped mags) but really the limpest of the quartet. Amazing that a film where the badguys include Luthar Slone and a T1000 yet still come across bland...plus points for horribly murdering Chief O'Brien though
