An instant classic

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2002)

Die Hard is one of my favorite action movies of all time. The struggle of one man against a heavily armed group of terrorists in an enormous skyscraper is executed very well. You want to be Bruce Willis, you want to be sneaking around, hiding from and taking on terrorists. It's the ultimate hero fantasy, because the story has a sense of realism. These terrorist acts happen in real life and you could be a John McClane if it happens near you. What also works are small details like John's shirt getting slightly dirtier every scene and the running gag of him looking for shoes. It's all these things and more that keep you on the edge of you seat for 2 hours no matter how many times you have seen it. What also helps is that the 2 sequels it spawned where not lesser-copies. They are also truelly original and give the Die Hard trilogy the same status in the Action-genre what the original Star Wars Trilogy is for the Science Fiction genre. Die Hard has been copied many times (Under Siege, Sudden Death, Passenger 57 etc) but never did the copies reach the quality of Die Hard (Although Under Siege is pretty good).