25 Years of DIE HARD: A Good Day to Die Hard review

What makes a Die Hard film a Die Hard film?

Doing this retrospective – marathon-ing through the franchise -- I've discovered that the series has had a wildly inconsistent track record in terms of actual Die Hard tropes. Could it be that the most often imitated action film (outside of The Matrix) doesn't even adhere to the mechanics it set in motion? Is it possible that my fellow podcasters were correct: Is the Die Hardformula not really a formula at all?

A Good Day to Die Hard will challenge your expectations of what to demand from a Die Hard film. But is it wrong for doing so, or are we just catching on to the fact that the franchise has been passing us by for years?

Story:

John McClane’s son is in deep. After an assassination attempt goes ball up, Jack McClane (Jai Courtney) is arrested, pulling his estranged father (Willis) out of New York City and into Mother Russia where Jack awaits trial.

An explosion turns Jack’s sentence into a mandatory car chase, bringing him in direct contact with Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch) who is about to get buried by corrupt government officials in a series of overly-elaborate but barely interesting plot threads.

Together, McClane, Yuri, and Jack --- ugh. Y’know what? It’s a sad day when I can’t follow the plot mechanics of a Die Hard film. That used to be the best part…

The People Who Get Paid to Talk:

As usual, Bruce Willis seems to be having a ball. As he should. This is his star vehicle and he's the only original cast member still standing. However, as much fun as it is to see John McClane drive his own adventure, it's becomes more and more obvious that McClane isn't enough. He needs an Alan Rickman, a Samuel L. Jackson, or a Reginald VelJohnson to bounce off. Jai Courtney is not that actor.

What's Action A Go Go:

Director John Moore does bring the action. There is a pretty amazing car chase (albeit with Private Ryan-esque shakey-cam) and a pair of showdowns in Chernobyl that are impressive (albeit a bit cartoon-y). Quite honestly, they are the most memorable parts of the movie.

What's Action A No No:

The forced family drama. Every action sequence is followed up by awkward father-son moments. Quite honestly, it makes McClane look pathetic and wimpy. It also makes John, Jr. sound like a cry baby.

I get what screenwriter Skip Woods (Swordfish) was shooting for: If McClane was estranged from his wife then the same must be said for his kids. It's a logical conclusion but it turns our 80s hero into yet another mopey, modern day protagonist. For just once, I wish a screenwriter wouldn't display his daddy issues so openly.

Verdict:

So what makes a Die Hard film a Die Hard film? Is it the shorts? Is it the lack of shoes? Is it the plot twist? Or is it the motivational family drama? And let's not be trite and say something obvious like Bruce Willis. Truth be told, AGDDH has all these things and still manages to look and feel unrecognizable compared to the sacred trilogy.

No, what makes a Die Hard Die Hard is its standards. Because the first film was copied so much, the subsequent sequels had to be better than everything else. Die Hard 2 tried to stick to the idea of a formula and, despite feeling somewhat repetitive, earned high marks. Die Hard with a Vengeance totally broke the mold, eschewing reoccurring concepts but maintaining its link to the series in a big way. Basically, they had a standard to uphold, so they aimed higher.

With Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard, the franchise stumbles towards a different direction, but the standard has dropped off. Now, the new Die Hard trilogy (Willis claims to have one more in him) is like any other action film and that's something John McClane should never have to be associated with. Maybe McClane should follow Hans Gruber's suggestion from the 1988 original and just "walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly."

"It was Gary Cooper, asshole."

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25 YEARS OF DIE HARD: Die Hard with a Vengeance review

Continuing our Die Hard retrospective. Click here
to check our examination of the rest of  the series.

It's 1995, nearly 7 years after the original Die Hard and 5 years after its sequel. Stuck in Hollywood's endless development cycle, Simon Says, an original screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, finally found a home with John McClane. Before that, the script had been bounced from franchise to franchise, being pushed as both a possible Lethal Weapon sequel or the follow-up to 1994's Speed.

Spinning the unintended into a Die Hard script isn't anything new. But even better, this production had wooed back John McTiernan, the original's director and, quite possibly, the only man who TRULY understands what made Die Hard tick...

Story:

In a plot that could have only existed in a pre-9/11 world, the entire city of New York gets caught in the middle of an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse. The cat in this scenario is "Simon," a mad bomber who seems to have a hard-on for detective John McClane (the mouse). After forcing the NYPD to pull McClane out of his drunken stupor, Simon makes John scramble throughout the city, daring the detective to solve a series of riddles before the next explosive goes off.

And that's when the *SPOILERS* kick in: Turns out that Simon is the brother of Hans Gruber, the terrorist mastermind from the original film who met pavement because of McClane's exuberance.

Is this simply an act of a revenge? An excuse to restore family honor? Of course not. Simon is a Gruber after all...

The People Who Get Paid to Talk:

Bruce Willis has played John McClane five times, but this John McClane is a bit more insane than all the others. Truth be told, it's an inherent character flaw that lies underneath the surface of the better Die Hards (the second film just makes him seem like a smug asshole and the fourth film makes McClane sound like a bitter old man). Here Bruce Willis plays him like a schlub on the brink of personal disaster and, quite honestly, I like this version of McClane more than the others.

Feeding off McClane's silent plea for help is Samuel L. Jackson, the acting equivalent of a livewire. Jackson plays a locksmith from Harlem who gets swept in Simon's nonsense. In classic buddy movie fashion, he's forced to run around NYC with McClane and serve as the voice of reason...even when he says and does some pretty irrational things (more on that later).

This actually marks the first time these two have been on-screen together but the third time they been in the same film. That comes as a bit of a surprise seeing how well they feed off each other. As we would later experience with mixed results in the coming years, the dynamic between these two was too good not to try and replicate.

Then there is Jeremy Irons as Simon. Yes, Irons is classically-trained, but more importantly, he is the only actor on this planet assured and cunning enough to be Alan Rickman's "brother." Endlessly impressive, Irons makes every line of exposition sound like The Immortal Bard (oooh...Shakespeare reference). In an action film, that is no easy feat.

What's Action A Go Go:

I still contest that only John McTiernan understood what made the first Die Hard so great. People claim that it's Willis (then how do you explain Live Free Die Hard), and some will claim that it's the trapped-inside-a-building concept (a theory that holds no weight because of this film), but the fact of the matter is that director John McTiernan remains indispensable to this series.

The way McTiernan combines cinema veritae (oh...french words!) with big budget visuals --- the way he allows actors to bring personality to every minor character role --- the way he dodges every cliche by manipulating the audiences' sense of urgency --- this film is truly a unique example of technical genius propelling a story.

What's Action A No No:

The N-Word.

I can only be so concerned about DHWAV's somewhat casual use of the n-word. Still, in the wake of the more recent Django Unchained controversy it's interesting to compare the two Sam Jackson movies.

If anything, DHWAV is slightly more offensive than Django Unchainedbecause it uses the word purely to manipulate the viewer. The story insists that Willis and Jackson bicker about race throughout the film, even going as far as having Jackson accuse Willis of dropping an N-bomb. Despite this painfully consistent thread, it's pretty obvious that the film has absolutely no interest in actually addressing the topic, making the inclusion of racial epithet woefully inappropriate for escapist fare.

My best assumption is that because of the movie's proximity to the LA Riots and the OJ Simpson case a lot of what was going on during the early-90s had worked its way into the script. In that regard, it's kind of ballsy, harkening back to the bygone era of 70s cinema when blockbusters weren't as shy to acknowledge the zeitgeist.

Verdict:

It's 2013, nearly 25 years after the original Die Hard and 18 years after With a Vengeance. Another sequel later (with another around the corner) and the third movie is still the best conceivable ending to the franchise.

Like most third installments, DHWAV brings the hero's three film journey to a circular completion, ending with John McClane heading to a payphone to reconcile with his wife. It's the only fitting end to the bullheaded cop from New York: He saves the day but barely saves his marriage. As if McClane and Holly are part of some cycle that can only start again with a phone call and a reluctant flight to Nakatomi Plaza.

In addition, because DHWAV wasn't originally intended to be a Die Hard film, it skips over all the egregious winks and nods that most third installments make. Holly, Sgt. Al Powell and the other key players from the previous movies don't make their obligatory appearances. We're introduced to a whole new set of personalities that have heard of McClane's exploits but, in a refreshing change of pace, none of them are impressed by the actual man himself.

Then there is Simon. Outside of McClane (who, of course, is expected to be there) he is the narrative's one true link to the original movie. Just when the film seems on the brink of exhaustion, Simon makes his first physical appearance and the movie subtlety shifts gears. Screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh made a very clever script without the Die Hard elements, but once the movie reveals that Simon is Hans Gruber's brother it becomes a film that amplifies the original Die Hard, shames Die Hard 2, and becomes an action classic in its own right.

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25 YEARS OF DIE HARD: Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Ah. Die Hard 2…of all the Die Hard films you are the misfit of the bunch. Not as iconic as the first film, just not as good as the third film, and probably not as memorable as the fourth film (which is high praise, as I'm not a fan). And yet, you still manage to stand out in the action landscape.

But should we care? Has it stood the test of time? Should it be forgotten so we can just live in a world where every odd Die Hard film exists in a perfect unbroken stream of action awesome?

We're going to answer all those questions and more with a final verdict on Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

The Story:

"Oh God...anything but snow..."

John McClane is at it again, this time waiting for his wife to arrive at Washington Dulles International airport in Virginia. (Yet, everyone keeps calling it D.C...but more on that later). They're supposed to meet the in-laws for the holidays, but of course this all goes out the window when a group of terrorists takes over an airport to safely intercept a South American drug lord. In doing so they are holding every airplane in the sky hostage until said drug lord and terrorists are out safe.

Honestly, it works. The script is well written and hits all the beats it needs to. The highest praise overall is that it manages to "feel" like a Die Hard film. There are deep rooted flaws, but those will be explained later.

The People Who Get Paid to Talk:

This Die Hard film is star studded.

Some players come back for minor roles, such as Reginald VelJohnson showing up as Sgt. Powell and William Atherton pulling repeat shenanigans as Richard "Dick" Thornburg. Bonnie Bedelia is back as Holly McClane, (Sen) Fred Dalton Thompson (Law and Order) is thrown in there, as well as Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue), Art Evans,  John Amos (Good Times), and Colm Meaney (Under Siege) as the pilot.

The terrorists have some interesting casting choices as well.

Franco Nero (Django, Django Unchained) plays the drug lord, and William Sadler leads the terrorists with a ruthless performance as Col. Stuart. The minor players among the terrorist are the most interesting. Robert Patrick is here, and as everyone knows he went on the play the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. John Legiuzamo also has a bit part. Others familiar faces are present as well.  All of them give great performances and do their best to sell the script.

The standouts are Fred Thompson as the airport chief and  Dennis Franz as the head of airport police. Both manage to steal the scenes they are in.

William Saddler plays a great, but overshadowed psycho as the head of the terrorists and John Amos is a fantastic as Major Grant. He is one of the best things going on in the movie.

But this is Bruce's show, and he carries it the whole way through, with style.

What's Action A Go Go?:

Great behind the scenes shot of director Renny Harlin laughing it up with Willis and Amos between takes.

The last half of the movie. After the terrorists make themselves known and do something really bad, this movie kicks into high gear and turns into a real Die Hard film.

As morbid as this might sound, the plane crashes (using models) are amazing to watch and give the movie an epic scope.

The shoot outs and plot twists kick in, as well. That's the other secret sauce that makes a Die Hard movie special. Nothing should be what it seems. Towards the end of the movie that factors in, particularly with Major Grant. When the big reveal happens, you'll instantly start backtracking to figure out where all the earlier seeds were planted.

Oh, and it's a Christmas movie…can't forget that.

What's Action A No No?:

It's nothing but critics blabbing about our shaky facts...it's horrible...

Well, here's were I get to rip into this one. It's full of factual errors all over the place. It's bad, even for an action movie.

First and foremost, Action A Go Go is headquartered in D.C, so this is a huge no no for us: This film is "set" in the District of Columbia, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice. Thanks to casting, a complete lack of establishing shots, or "geography," it might as well been set in New York.

Also, McClane says a GLOCK 7 is a porcelyne gun that can't be detected in a metal detector. This is cool to say but total bullsh**. A GLOCK "17" is a polymer, or "plastic" pistol and has a metal barrel, so it most definitely can be detected by a metal detector. 

What else? Well, the beginning sucks. It literally throws itself into being an action movie and lacks the depth of character and tone that made the original Die Hard special.

I watched it with the director's commentary on and got to hear Renny Harlin talk about the experience of making the movie. It was fascinating listening to him go on about the mechanics and building blocks of an action movie. It definitely made me appreciate the movie more, but also gave me a good impression of what is wrong with Die Hard 2 to begin with. They set out to make a good action movie, but along the way ignored the things that made Die Harda great movie to begin with. That is Die Hard 2's greatest flaw.

The Verdict:

"SCREW YOU AND YOUR FACTS REALITY!!!!!!"

Despite those severe flaws this is ACTION A GO GO approved.

It's intense, has loads of drama, epic explosions, and John McClane shines throughout with a cast full of characters that simply can't be ignored. But it could have been so much better.

Moving on, Troy is going to be handling Die Hard with a Vengeance and Live Free and Die Hard so stay tuned for more installments in our Die HardRetrospective. We're going all in on this one.

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25 YEARS OF DIE HARD: Die Hard (1988)

Often imitated, never replicated, DIE HARD (1988) still stands as an action movie masterpiece. It's got everything you can ask for in an action movie. A fantastic script, a unique setting, iconic performances, and intense action scene after intense action scene. Oh...and an amazing soundtrack.

But I know what you're going to say. "Derek, what can you, a no name BLOGGER tell me about DIE HARD that I don't already know?"

Well, let's go for a ride and see if I can surprise you.

THE STORY AND THE PEOPLE WHO GET PAID TO TALK

We all know the story. John McClane (Bruce Willis) heads out to L.A to visit his family. His first stop is a party at his wife's workplace. Her name is Holly Gennaro McClane (Bonnie Bedelia). While at the party all hell breaks loose when a group of terrorists lead by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) storm the skyscraper and take the whole thing over. Of course, only John McClane can stop them.

And hilarity ensues.

All kidding aside, the acting is the unsung hero of this movie. If you look at all of the performances given not one can be looked at as weak. Also, every character has their own little space carved out in the movie and is allowed to shine.

This is in marked contrast to other action classics up to this point. Think: THE TERMINATOR (1984), RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART 2 (1985), NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER (1986), or ROBOCOP (1987). Sure, all of these movies have great casts with great characters, but none of them match DIE HARD when it comes to the breadth of emotion and story.

Best hostage in a movie ever?

We get even the most mundane characters. For example, take Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner). His death is unique because he's pitching to the terrorists before getting shot in the head. Before that, we see that he's obviously trying to get with McClane's wife, creating a minor love triangle that's destroyed once he is executed. Because of his execution, we learn just how serious these bad guys are.

In the other previously mentioned flicks, the first execution would be a screaming, no name hostage that the viewer barely get to know. In DIE HARD, these characters are savored and brought to the forefront, which makes it a much more engrossing film on every level.

Besides the aforementioned Hart Bochner, there are many standout performances. As Sgt. Al Powell, Reginald Veljohnson is a great pseudo-sidekick, playing the role of a bumbling beat cop on the sidelines.

Stair into the cheery eyes of the law...or Reginald Vel Johnson. 

The same can be said for William Atherton's excellent slime ball reporter, as he a character type that Atherton seems destined to eternally play. was typecast as that in other movies. (And if you don't believe me then check him out in GHOSTBUSTERS.)

The 80's were kind to everyone's favorite slimball, William Atherton. 

Of course, the two standouts are Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. They only meet for a scene or two, but the chemistry is fantastic and each brings maximal performance to the screen.

Rickman is so affable and charming it's hard not to root for him along the way. It's like you want him to just get what he is looking for and gingerly hop on a helicopter for his next heist. It's still his best performance, and possibly the best villain of the 80's.

Bruce Willis on the other hand…what can be said? He helped create a character that's had legs for the last 25 years and shows no sign of loosing popularity. In John McClane we have more than the average action hero. McClane is a hero who struggles. Hell, he spends a good chunk of the movie trying to convince other cops just to show up! Thee authorities aren't even on his side! But as the movie progresses we see the whole mess start to wear McClane down physically. By the end, he's not stone faced and standing tall like the machines in ROBOCOP or a force of a nature like John Rambo. He's limping along bleeding all over the place and is barely coherent. But he will not stop. And he will not lose. This makes him one of the most relatable action heroes of the 80's, and of course well into the 90's and the next century.

JOHN MCTIERNAN:  THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE INCARCERATED…

A huge part of what makes DIE HARD work is the relentless artistry of John McTiernan. Besides the actors themselves, I'm sure McTiernan was responsible for bringing all that talent onto the screen. It's something he was able to do with PREDATOR (1987), but in a totally different context.

With PREDATOR (1987) we got to know each and every character with a scene here and an interaction there. By the end of the first act we've got a good baseline of all of the characters involved. We know these characters. We also get to know the jungle they are running through and the dangerous creature hunting them. But it's all done in bits and pieces that equal one magnificent whole.

DIE HARD inherits this economy of characterization and manages to extract even more from its setting. In the skyscraper we have a cage. The rats can see the outside world but cannot touch it. This makes all of the characters isolated to a certain degree, and with that isolation we are able to peer into their lives and get to know them in way's that other action movies don't dare to travel.

Also, McTiernan revels in turning the genre on it's head. In DIE HARD, we have police officers and FBI agents, traditional symbols of authority, nearly all portrayed as self-absorbed idiots throughout the film. As a matter of fact, whenever they get involved things get worse. Even McClane himself is simply a problem that won't go away. It's the best and most ironic joke in the film that isn't repeated as heavily in rest of the series.

WHAT'S ACTION A GO GO…

Everything.

It's also a Christmas movie. It's important to remember that.

THE VERDICT

Well look what we found here...another awesome action movie.

DIE HARD will probably never be beat.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is going to try and walk in it's footsteps, and hopefully it will give it a good go.

Next on the list is DIE HARD 2. Often forgotten in the wake of DIE HARD  and DIE HARD WITH A VENGENCE (1995), we're going to see what we can drag out of "DIE HARDER." I think it will be fun.

We hope you enjoyed this, and please leave something in the comments if you want to add anything or just let us know what DIE HARD means to you.

Derek Scarzella 

P.S  Oh, and here are some funnies...

Anybody else play this game? Awesome....

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Die Hard

Back when Bruce Willis gave a fuck.

Stunts and Effects: 95%
Logic: 55%
Soundtrack: 95%
TnA: 20%
Cognitive Decline of Audience: 20% 
Overall Inches on the Action Erection Scale: 12 out of 12

When Die Hard arrived to theatres in 1988, it instantly fathered a number of cinematic bastards in its wake. Studios seemed all too eager to pitch the next big blockbuster as “Die Hard on a noun.” (Six years later, Speed would dethrone Die Hard as the go-to action film template.) Hollywood, however, sought only to mimic the high concept and failed to recognize how humor and personality factored into making the film so memorable.

Harry Potter would've shit himself if he was up against Hans instead of Snape.

As John McClane, Bruce Willis owns the first and third act of Die Hard. Arrogant as fuck but not off-putting, Willis' star power seemed almost destined to shine in his breakthrough role, but it's the supporting cast of characters that toughens the film's second act. Suddenly, Die Hard charmingly alternates between comedy, character, and action. Outside of Willis, no one actor exemplifies this better than faux-terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Rickman walks onto the film with assuredness and precise timing. Everything Rickman says has a bitter punch line and his assortment of multi-cultural henchmen walk that mandatory thin line between competency and ineptness.


Narrowing down Willis' heroic options are the LAPD, and the FBI. Along with the radioed anxiety of desk jockey Al Powell (Reginald Vel Johnson), these character add an exuberance to the ramped up violence (seriously, 80s action films were only a centimeter away from matching horror films in terms of bloodshed).


By the end of the film, the cast of background characters have made as impressionable and personable mark as our quip-y protagonist. It's this element that seemed to elude every clone thereafter, cementing Die Hard as one of the granddaddies of the genre to this day.

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