Loud, wham-bam action thriller, oh and yeah it's pretty good too

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2010)

There can't be many people in the world who haven't seen this or at least heard how it influenced not only action films, but the whole way of making movies today.
Before this, action films usually featured a kind of überhuman, who usually were out of step with everybody else. For the most time, Willis is portrayed as the common man who is put in extraordinary circumstances.
Think back to Dirty Harry. Do you really think he would have a rapport with a guy named Al and have a jokey conversation about Twinkies? No way.
What Bruce Willis did was outstanding. He brought this cocky, slightly egocentric character into a world of ghastly situations and through an enormous amount of struggle come out victorious - and still you believe that he would rather lay on the couch with a beer in his hand and the game on.
As for villains, this has got to be one of the greatest ever put on screen. Alan Rickman, who was a complete unknown at the time, did a masterful job of playing this cool and ruthless sociopath. He doesn't have any redeemable qualities and still we kind of wish that he succeeds.
I have not read the source material upon which this movie is based, but I doubt that it could have been 1/10 as funny, scary and exceptional as this was when it was first seen.
Willis doesn't play this kind of character anymore. Even the recent Live Free and Die Hard had a much more tame McClane than the first three, but he has to be grateful that Die Hard happened to him. It made his career. Thank goodness or otherwise we might still see him playing an ugly wife beater like he did in one of his earliest appearances on Miami Vice.