All the ingredients of a prime 80s actioner

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2007)

It's easy to forget those sparkling days of Hollywood when the likes of Arnie and Sylvester ruled the screen, machete in one hand and machine gun in the other. In this age of vampire slayers and plucky tomb raiders, the action hero has become something of a box office shadow. Let's look back in time, then, back to 1988 when a little film called Die Hard was released. Expectations were low for a film loaded with explosives and expletives. But then the cash began to flow.
If anybody is to be credited for Die Hard's success, it's Bruce Willis. In him we find the perfect action hero; fuelled by emotion, captivating and sharp-tongued, rippling with muscle. He is the everyman, and he is all man, bleeding, sweating, cursing. He is the epitome of cool, with his pithy one-liners ("Yippee Kai-Yay motherf*cker!") and his finger on the trigger. Alan Rickman, Willis' polar opposite, brings a cold, calculating superiority to his villain. His lines are whispered with menace, just enough humour injected to escape hammy over-dramatics. Who cares if he set the precedent for growling English villains in Hollywood fare when he does it this well? This is a balls-to-the-walls crowd-pleaser, and every character has their moment. Bloody, outrageously extravagant action sequences are delivered with the same deadpan humour of Willis' performance, playfully underlined by Michael Kaman's seasonal score. Effects are tight, tension palpable, and when there's blood smeared everywhere you can count on Willis to deliver a sly line or two.