New York City policeman John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and two daughters on Christmas Eve. He joins her at a holiday party in the headquarters of the Japanese-owned business she works for. But the festivities are interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the exclusive high-rise, and everyone in it. Very soon McClane realizes that there’s no one to save the hostages — but him.

Starring  Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia

Directed by John McTiernan

Year 1988

I know I’m late, but it’s still pretty fresh off the holidays so here we are…

Die Hard is an intricate staple of action-movie watching that will do nothing short of entertaining you. It is Bruce Willis’s first real initiation into this thing we call Hollywood and it’s a darn good job. His character is hilarious and meaningfully tough, making you root for him always. I also found most of the characters and interactions to be somewhat realistic and believable. This time the screenwriting doesn’t seem to have a lot of outlandish antics to get your attention. They really don’t need it here.

The situation is tense and unexpected, of course if you haven’t seen it a trillion times, but it still does it’s job of delivering. Alan Rickman also appears here first to give you a taste of just how slimy of a bad guy he can be, and he struck gold. While, strangely, we have adopted this into our Christmas regimen of movie-watching, it is good anytime you need to fire off a few rounds or think you have lost all hope for the police force. Yippee-ki-ya motherf#@%er!