Need to recharge life's batteries? Watch Die Hard!

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2012)

Die Hard is a Christmas movie directed by John McTiernan that's not traditional at all, but still watched each year during the holidays. Die Hard serves as an alternated holiday movie. Die Hard opens up with off duty New York Police Officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) attend a Christmas Party at Nakatomi Skyscrapper with his wife in downtown LA. Out of nowhere the plot kicks in the door as German terrorist and thieves take the people in the building hostage and start to make demands to the police. The group is led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) a brutal man whom able to have casual persona and an an intimidating one in a few seconds. Hans also had a casual attitude to killing even willing to kill his own men. Alan Rickman is able to show that Han has a curt attitude to people whom he did not know and jokey nature with those he knew. Alan Rickman is able to make him out to be somewhat of a suit. He flaunted his knowledge and boast of his education to anybody, but McClane manage to slip from his grip. The film follows his exploits as he slowly engages the German terrorists one by one barefoot to retake the tower while dealing in depth of personal pain. The broken glass on his barefoot can be seen as his Achilles's heel. McClane lacks heroic virtues and qualities like Achilles. He can be explains to be a Byronic hero or Anti-Hero by having similar traits to those who like being arrogant and cynical. He is also cunning and able to adapt. He has a dis-tasted for social institutions and norms when he was at the party. John McClane works better alone than in a crowd. Die Hard gives their hero, a cutting edge from cookie cut heroes. What Die Hard does well is keeping a small scale budget while exporting a big blockbuster result. Most of the movie takes taking place entirely within a few floors of the Nakatomi Plaza. It was one of the first of the limited-space, small cast action films. This formula of putting characters in limited area spawn great sequels in their own right, but also an entirely new sub-division of the action genre. The movie is condensed in a few scenes and areas that get so well know. It simplified in such a way that lets the characters and the action really develop and shine through. While having a few explosion-filled sequences, the movie allows the audience to care for the characters and not feel like disconnected from the story-arch or the depth of the characters portray. The movie takes light-hearted approach to the genre, incorporating many less-than-serious elements and one-liners keeps the movie fun and enjoyable no matter how many times watched through, but it comes with a cost. Sub-characters in the film seem corny, low-intelligent or bad written. The scenes with the LA police for example drag the movie down and slow it down. The film brings in Reginald Vel Johnson playing a role as a cop which doomed the actor to playing cops for the rest of his life. He continues to be type cast to this day. Reginald Vel Johnson's character has a trouble past where he accidentally shot a kid and now wouldn't be able to shot. While they did give some back-story to Reginald Vel Johnson character, most of his lines were bad and his actions in the movie are nearly useless. All the main characters in this film are fairly complex and well written compared to most of the dumb action hero movies of the 1980s. Still the police chief doesn't serve any purpose except for delaying police intervention which would have wrapped the story up faster. Matters would have been more easily solved had the chief acquired an average intelligence. Since the sub-characters took a backseat, the character of McClane and Gruber makes the movie watchable. The sarcastic nature of McClane's character against the whimsical Gruber makes this hero and villain pairing one of the finest in film history. The movie even makes a famous quote out of its hero's swearing mouth that can be still heard today. The language can be harsh and the violence too much but it's a good movie. The plot might seem rudimentary and unoriginal today, but it still one of the first movie with many of the things action movie need to be a success. It's the blueprint to any action movie today.