Thrilling action ride

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2019)

Despite being released 30 and a half years ago, I never saw Die Hard until last night. I have zero regrets whatsoever about watching it, and got quite a kick observing how movies like White House Down and Skyscraper borrow from it. I WON'T touch on the stupid argument over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
It's Christmas Eve. NYPD officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives in LA to see his estranged wife and kids. As he waits for the Christmas party at his wife's workplace to finish, a group of terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) quickly take over the building and take the guests as hostages. McClane, however, manages to evade the crims without them realising he exists. The crooks are after the business owner's bonds - worth quite a lot of money - and murder him after he refuses to give them the codes to the vault. McClane must try and alert the authorities and at the same time stay one step ahead of the crooks - and kill/defeat them.
It's a highly fun and exciting action movie. Be warned that it's rather violent with a LOT of swearing (especially the F word) & is NOT suitable for (pre-teen) children. Some might consider the early parts of the movie scary. I love the tension and even the occasional humour in the movie. As mentioned, it was highly amusing spotting where Roland Emmerich and Rawson Marshal Thurber mimicked Die Hard.