About as good as action movies get outside James Cameron

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2018)

The movie which truly launched Bruce Willis' movie career and made him serious, Die Hard is quite simply a perfect slice of 80s Hollywood action, cheese, humour and bang for the buck.
Willis, as if you didn't know, is John McClane, arguably the most famous fictional cop of all time, up against maybe the most defining villain in Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber we've ever seen.
McClane is quite simply wrong man wrong place wrong time and yet right man right place right time and right result - a truly epic David v Goliath face-off where McClane, with his walkie talkie and Al at the other side, sees the viewer rooting for the little guys while the big bad guys appear untouchable.
Terrorists have taken over the Nakatomi Plaza in California, see, where McClane has gone to be with his wife following her move there from New York - and it doesn't take long before John is outwitting them wherever he can, aided by one of the most underrated performances in Hollywood history.
Willis manages to portray a good honest flawed man in a fine display of actual acting, while keeping himself going by sheer will and a touch of help from Al - and just keeps staying one step ahead of the terrorists.
But if we're praising Willis, Rickman's Gruber is just sensational - pure villainy, with great humour, incredible charisma and this movie launched Rickman as much as it did Willis. All the supports are great too, and the cheesy fun never outstays its welcome - the movie teases us a little with its intro, but the body out of the window onto Al's car might be one of the best ignition sequences in the history of movies. It's dynamite.
As is the rest of the movie.
A few tiny plot holes, sure, but who cares. It's as good as action gets without Cameron being involved - you will have an amazing blast with this superb yarn.