Die Hard

 

Die Hard 1988

• Director: John McTiernan
• Seen by this director: Die Hard with a Vengeance
• Based on the novel by Roderick Thorp
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, DeVoreaux White
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Bruce Willis – Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, The Siege, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, The Twelve Monkeys, Billy Bathgate, In Country
• Alan Rickman – Eye in the Sky, The Butler, Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd, Snowcake, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Love Actually, Galaxy Quest, Dogma, Michael Collins, Sense and Sensibility, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, The January Man, Romeo and Juliet
• Bonnie Bedelia – Presumed Innocent, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
• Reginald VelJohnson – Die Hard 2, Crocodile Dundee in New York
• Paul Gleason – Doctor Who, The Man Who Knew Infinity, The Hobbit, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes/Game of Shadows, Extras, V for Vendetta, Tristram Shandy, Bright Young Things, Gosford Park, Longitude, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, Wild, Cold Comfort Farm, Jeeves and Wooster, Peter’s Friends, A Fish Called Wanda, A Handful of Dust, Black Adder
• DeVoreaux White – 1917, Yesterday, Misfits, The Hollow Crown
• Why? My FB group promised me this is a Christmas film. That I don’t remember but I remember liking it. It’s high time to see it again.
• Seen: Once before. Now 24 December 2020.      

       Hot shot business tycoon Holly (Bedelia) is at a Christmas party with her corporation in a luxury hotel in LA. Her somewhat estranged husband John (Willis), a NY cop, comes to LA to spend Christmas with her and the kids.

       Bad guys led by Hans Gruber (Rickman) take over the hotel with evil and mercenary intent.

       John sneaks around the hotel barefoot, in trousers and an undershirt with one gun to do the heroics.

       I’m sceptical. All this macho gun stuff is a bit stale and his cynical one-liners are not amusing. But it’s lovely to see pre-Snape Rickman. This might be the first film we ever saw him in, same for Willis.

       Anyway, you know what? The one-liners get funnier, it is very exciting, I like Al (VelJohnson) and Argyle (White) and even John turns out OK.  The use of Beethoven’s Ninth is effective too.

 

 4* of 5