"Welcome to the party, pal!!"

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2000)

"Die Hard" has to be the mother of all terrorist thrillers. Here, you've got one mean cop armed with only a beretta against a group of Euro-trash terrorists, which the battleground is a really tall skyscraper in Los Angeles. What follows is a rip-roaring roller coaster ride with no limits and no mercy.
Bruce Willis plays his arguably most popular trademark character ever as John McClane, a New York cop vacationing in L.A. for the Christmas season to see his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who is attending a party in her office in a skyscraper. John and Holly bicker a little bit, fighting over their decaying marital status, until when a group of terrorists led by a nasty German named Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his right-hand man Karl (the scary Alex Godunov) crash the party and demand the code to a hidden vault in the building that contains a huge fortune. So, in true Hollywood fashion, McClane takes on the baddies by upsetting every move they make. Not only does McClane have to worry about the killers, but the LAPD and the feds are also on his case. This leads to one harrowing showdown between cop and criminals.
This film leads a whole line of wannabes that try to imitate the original, and which some were successful. Willis is outstanding because he portrays an action hero who is more human than most characters, and he's more chattier, too. Bedelia also sheds a spark of humanity, as does future "Family Matters" star Reg VelJohnson as honest LAPD cop Al Powell. Alan Rickman is ultra sleazy and nasty as the main heavy, a scuzzball with no remorse,