Like a bottle of wine, this movie just gets better with age

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2011)

Die Hard is a classic movie that has spawned four sequels and numerous copycat films such as Project Shadowchaser and the Jet Lee movie High Risk (and as of 2014, two version set in the White House). Die Hard is a movie that delivers. It has brilliant special effects (for which it was nominated an award) and some superb action scenes. It is also one of those movies with some fierce machine gun fights.
John McClaine (Bruce Willis) is a New York cop who has come to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his estranged wife and hopefully make amends with their marriage. He is brought to her work place at the Nakatomi plaza where he waits in her office while she delivers a speech. Suddenly terrorists take control of the building and McClaine manages to escape into the upper floors which are under construction. McClaine now becomes the unexpected hiccup as the terrorists (or should I say thieves) begin their process of stealing six hundred million dollars worth of negotiable bearer bonds.
The characters in this movie are typical of Hollywood with McClaine being the cop that has very few rules and is constantly indicted for ignoring them. Then there is a chubby police officer who has a desk job, and it was only his vicinity to the building that brought him into the situation. The dialogue between Willis and this other cop builds character in both of them and works well to release the tense moments in the film. It also provides a very human side to McClaine as we can see that he is in a situation that is way beyond his control. There is the Lieutenant who is constantly attacking McClaine's attitude and actions and is said to serve little point in the movie. Personally I just hated the character and was hoping somebody would punch him in the face. Unfortunately the sleazy journalist that put the life of John and his wife Holly at risk by barging into Holly's home and talking to her kids received the punch in the face award.
Alan Rickman plays a brilliant bad guy, as he has done also in Quigley Down Under and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. He is the smart and sophisticated leader of the group. He is a cunning man who is quick to realise that when his life is on the line it is good to play the scared employee. This works because he spends much of the movie among the hostages which McClaine does not see, and he only catches a glimpse of him when he shoot Takagi. Rickman's character is not a wimp either. When he says he is going to kill somebody he does. He is no typical humane terrorist who cannot handle killing an innocent person. If somebody gets in his way, he will shoot him.
This brings up an interesting character, Ellis (Hart Boucher), who is described as a snivelling executive. He is the one that thinks he has everything right and hates McClaine, not because he is trying to save them, but because he is competition for Holly. It is interesting to see how this sleazy salesman comes to the terrorists to try and negotiate with them only to find that they are just not interested. He is somebody who believes that he is right only to make a mistake that costs him his life.
Die Hard is a great little (or long) movie and delivers a lot of action. As it is twenty-five years old now, one should find it on the cheap weekly movie section of their video store. Well worth watching.