The best of its kind

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2004)

Most of us action-film fans have seen movies that follow this basic idea; hostages trapped in a building, police can't gain access and the only hope is one man, who's inside at that exact time, by pure coincidence. However, this one, I suspect, is one of the first of this kind, if not the first. It's also by far the best of this kind. This one set the bar for action films to come, and most of the cliches from films of this kind actually originated in this one. It has the perfect mix of humor, action and thriller. Bruce Willis is perfect as the wisecracking action-hero, and Reginald VelJohnson is great as the cop, and Alan Rickman is excellent as the terrorist leader. The plot is great, probably the best I've seen in this type of action film. It keeps a fairly good pace throughout the film, except for just a few scenes which lack intensity, but maybe that's just because I've seen it so many times, and know what happens. The acting is almost flawless. The humor is great, Bruce Willis redefines wisecracking with his funny remarks throughout the film. The action is intense, on a great scale and well-filmed, which is what you'd expect when the director is John McTiernan, who is quite experienced in making great action films. All in all, a great action film, definitely the best of its kind, and should be enjoyable to just about anyone who just mildly enjoys action films. I recommend it to fans of action films in general, but specifically for fans of this particular sub-genre. 8/10