The mother of all action movies

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 1998)

The modern action genre begins here with two words that will always be associated with action, Die Hard. Probably the best movie ever stars Bruce Willis and will soon have spurned 3 sequels. A group of twelve terrorists including Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and Karl (Alexander Godunov) hold 30 executives hostage in an office building. What do they want? $640,000,000. They are armed with missiles and rockets which they fire at an unfortunate LAPD. The only man free roaming the building with only his service revolver is NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) who came to LA to visit his wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) for Christmas. The LAPD, led by Deputy Chief of Police Dwayne Robinson (Paul Gleason) are disbelieving and the only one on John's side is Sgt. Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). Explosions are great, but it is slow at times. Overall, Die Hard is a thrilling ride through 40 stories of sheer adventure.