Willis vs Rickman !!!!

Rating: 5/10 (27 October 2014)

This is the first film of the hugely popular action film franchise. The story involves a New York cop named John Mcclane(Bruce Willis) who is coming to California to meet his estranged wife on Christmas Eve at her office. Mcclane comes off as a rugged American cop from the 20th century who can't tolerate the life and the youth of California nor is he very well versed in high culture and art.He is a down to earth fellow who is not pretentious and says what he thinks without much complication. As luck would have it, on that very day i.e. on the Christmas Eve,a gang of German terrorists decide to break into the building and take hostages led by the infamous Hans Gruber played by Alan Rickman. Gruber is suave,sharp and well educated, so pretty much like the opposite of Mcclane. Mcclane gives the terrorists the slip and thus begins one man's fight to outsmart a whole gang of terrorists and save the day.
I know this is not the popular opinion, but I found this film very dull. It uses the clichéd story arc of a main character who has marriage problems and then by using unbelievable bravery in larger than life situations helps save the lives of people and again get into the good books of his wife. There are so many scenes which look unrealistic and cheesy. So many characters in this movie are downright idiots like the Deputy Police Commissioner, the FBI officials, Mcclane's Limo driver,etc. Some of the lines spoken by the Deputy Commissioner are almost laughably silly. I know action film scripts are supposed to have conveniences, but this film takes the benefit of too many of those. The ultimate encounter at the climax of the film ends with another silly set piece that only points to bad writing.
However having said that the film has a few things going for it. Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman are extremely good in their roles. Willis completely commits himself to the role physically and successfully sells the desperation of Mcclane's character. Rickman marvelously plays an intelligent and intimidating villain who has the ability to match the wits of our hero at every step. Lastly among the positives it has to be admitted that some of the action scenes and effects were very well executed considering it was the eighties.
But overall I found this to be an average action film and had it not been for Willis and Rickman, my rating would have been lower than 5/10. Some people will say that since I have watched so many films that have come after Die Hard which have used the plots and techniques used originally by Die Hard,I might not be able to appreciate the movie as much as I should, but I completely dismiss that thought. Seinfeld is a sitcom whose material has been used and reused in so many other sitcoms later, but when I still watch Seinfeld it looks and feels as witty and as sharp as ever. But unfortunately Die Hard doesn't pass that test. If this is the best out of all the films in the franchise, then sadly I have to bid farewell to John Mcclane as I am not interested in checking out the sequels anymore. Our paths won't converge again in the future.