The best action movie ever made

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2015)

"I now have a machine gun. Ho ho ho". The iconic taunt by hotshot NYC cop John Mcclane to the terrorists he's evading in a gigantic LA high rise that's under siege. This is the prototype, patient x, the catalyst for an army of homages, imitations, sequels and an entire subculture of action movie mania. It's got few bells or whistles, nothing too extravagant like a lot of the CGI laden PG-13 crap that masquerades as action these days (I'm looking at you Expendables 3), just a good old fashioned, down n' dirty piece of bloody holiday fun with one of the most exciting set ups in any flick of the genre. Bruce Willis has probably never been better as the wise cracking, amusingly self deprecating tough guy who wants nothing to do with the situation, just wants to reconnect with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) on Christmas Eve and take it easy. The extremists have other ideas, though, ruthlessly taking the skyscraper she works in hostage and locking it down like Fort Knox. Mcclane cunningly infiltrates it, and the bone crunching, bullet spraying Yuletide joy takes off, hardly letting up for a minute. Mcclane is both helped and hindered by law enforcement outside the building, including sympathetic beat cop Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) idiotic Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson (Paul Gleason) and interfering FBI Agents Big (Robert Davi) and Little (Grand L. Bush) Johnson. The Christmas wreath for best performance of the film has to go to Alan Rickman though. He so rarely shows up in fun genre stuff like this, and his presence always chromes up whatever the film is to perfection. He plays absolutely evil German psychopath Hans Gruber, leader of the terrorists and bane of Mcclane's existence, just the rotten murdering bastard you hope to see in the villain slot in every film like this. The shining example that all action films should aspire to be, the zenith of slam bang flicks, and a good dose of Christmas cheer too. Yippee ki yay motherfvcker