Action comedy masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2016)

It's very rare for the first three films in a movie franchise to be consistently excellent, but that's the case with the DIE HARD series. The first one was an action movie masterpiece and hugely influential to this day. The second one is disliked by some, but I think it's very nearly the equal of the first, doing a tricky job of being the same but different at the same time. And the third is just a delight, an action comedy masterpiece that wreaks havoc throughout New York.
Having the action move out of a single location and into an entire city was a genius idea. Director John McTiernan is at the top of his game here, filling his movie with an incredible sense of drive and momentum so that there's not a single moment where it's not funny, thrilling, or suspenseful. Bruce Willis has never been better and his repartee with Samuel L. Jackson (who also gives one of the best turns of his career) works incredibly well. Jeremy Irons has a ball as the bad guy and the whole 'Simon Says' game is very well staged. Plus you get all of the violence, fights, car chases, shoot-outs and clever situations that you could hope for in an action film. DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE truly is one of the best action films ever made and the kind of film I could sit and watch over and over again, and there are very few of those around.