New hero is born

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2013)

The world has a new hero. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is a NYPD officer who's come to LA to reconcile with his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). They're at her employer's Christmas party when the building is taken over by German terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).
John McClane isn't your regular 80s muscle bound superhuman hero. He's the everyman. He bleeds. He suffers. He wisecracks. He can talk in full sentences. He uses his brain as much as his muscles. He's just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The action is big and grandiose. It takes the adage that bigger is better to its limits. Unlike Schwarzenegger and Stallone, the action seems bigger and crazier. Explosions roll off the backs of those muscle heads, but John McClane really suffers. That's the trick.