Pioneer hostage movie

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2005)

Review: Die Hard
It was 1989. I was waiting for the bus with my friend Nick on Currie St. We were making chit-chat when he started telling me about this movie he saw last night, "Die Hard". He went on to explain this amazing story about how a cop was in a building, trying to save a bunch of hostages. How he had all these funny lines like "Do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza" and so on. It's now 2005, and the impact of this movie is still felt. I may be wrong, but from what I know this was the first movie like this- a maverick battling against the odds to try to rescue some hostages all by himself. It's spawned a bunch of similar movies ( Air Force One, Passenger 57, Under Siege, The Negotiator etc). The movie still holds up pretty well. Here's some highlights:

This was Bruce's first major role. Previously he'd starred in the decent TV show "Moonlighting". Exceptional transition. Imagine Ray Romano, the guy from Will and Grace or Bob Saget pulling this off. I don't think so.

Bruce's character's name: John McClane. Awesome name. Totally sounds made up, which is the key to a good movie name. Generally you can come up with a good name by combining two different people's names.

The contradictions in the amount of homework the terrorists did to storm the building. It was manned by 1 security guard, yet they had this real elaborate plan of breaking in. On the other hand they didn't know what the director of the corporation looked like. C'mon guys.

Bruce Willis holds and uses a gun more convincingly than any other actor. No competition.

That outfit Bruce ran around in for most of the movie was awesome (white tank top, brown pants, no shoes). Made the character. Wouldn't have looked half as good if he was wearing a tuxedo, skivvy and corduroy pants or jeans with a polo shirt.

This line: "You broke in hear to access our computer?". That is so 1989. (a) That seemed like a revolutionary thought at that time (b) these days you can hack into someone's computer from the comfort of your own home.

Always strikes me in these movies it's lucky the main characters talk to themselves and crack jokes to themselves, otherwise these movies could be really boring, and we would have no idea what's going on.

I'm learning lots from these movies about "cop culture". Here's some of the keys

* You hate when the media rocks up, and generally the reporter * FBI and the local PD don't like each other. This i can understand. Imagine if at your work you're doing your thing and the national manager comes in and stops you and starts doing the job for you. * The head of the local FBI is generally an idiot. Normally the main character, who's a beat cop, can't believe the battle plan that's initiated. (The FBI guy's plan always fails too)