A masterpiece in the action genre

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2011)

In Los Angeles, a well-organized group of criminals crash a corporate Christmas party taking place in a high rise building and take everyone hostage, except for one down-on-his luck New-York cop. A bloody cat and mouse game between NYPD officer John McClane and the so-called terrorists ensues.
It's been over two decades since Die Hard was released and having just watched it again, I am amazed at how well it has stood the test of time as a fun action flick. Die Hard created new standards in the action genre that have rarely been achieved this well since then. It all starts with the protagonist John McClane. The character being portrayed as a flawed cop with his own set of problems makes it easy for the audience to relate to his struggles. Director John McTiernan wisely decided to cast Bruce Willis, who was up to that point mostly considered a comedy actor on TV, rather than a big established action star. Willis grabbed this opportunity and turned John McClane into an iconic character in the genre thanks to mixing humor and toughness while still showing the character as fallible. The audience suffers with McClane as the character accumulate bruises and bumps and has to deal not only with the criminals but also with the incompetent authorities.
Another element that explains the movie's success is the vast number of secondary characters who are surprisingly well fleshed out considering the very limited screen time most of them get. Of course, Alan Rickman as the evil mastermind Hans Gruber is perfect. But it is really in the small details given to other characters that we find many great lines.
Die Hard's biggest achievement is probably in how it successfully mixes gritty action while injecting humor at just the right moments. After establishing the scenery in the first 15 minutes, Die Hard begins to gain more and more momentum, seemingly never letting the foot off the gas pedal. But despite that, McTiernan never takes the movie too seriously and we get several memorable lines and humorous moments.
Setting the whole movie inside of a building creates a great sense of claustrophobia for the viewers. The action scenes are brilliant, we wonder how McClane will prevail against a bunch criminals armed with automatic weapons and worse. We share McClane's frustration when the police proves to be clueless, we laugh at the jokes. Technically, the movie is well shot, with few frills and the special effects take a backseat to good old action scenes.
All in all, Die Hard is a brilliant genre movie which will appeal to all action fans but is brilliant enough to entertain viewers who do not usually enjoy this type of film.
A classic.