Some will say the original was a crap film...some will say mindless action movies have no merit. I would like to start off by pointing out that the ooriginal Die Hard was nominated for 4 Academy Awards (Visual effects, sound effects, editing, best sound) and won the Best Foreign Language Film from the Japanese Academy...John McClane is big in Japan, enough said!
While all the films are gems of the action genre. I am partial to the first and second in the series. Much like the original Star Wars films...you can't beat the originals.
The recipe for the first movies is as follows: 1 part Hardened cop coming home for Christmas to reconnect with his ex-wife and kids, 1 part crazy high rise office Christmas party (technically I classify this as a favorite holiday film!), add in a bunch of bad ass terrorists (I'm looking at you Hans Gruber), and some inept Feds, mix in a bowl and watch tensions rise for approx 2hr and 10min.
When he's not running around the building killing bad guys, jumping off the top strapped to a fire hose, or dropping exploding computers down elevator shafts, all while rocking a pair dress pants and a white wife beater sans shoes he's throwing classic one liners at the terrorists.
When called a John Wayne cowboy type by Hans --"Yippee Ki-Aye.. Muther Fucker", aft"Now I have a Machine Gun...HO, HO, HO" (written in sharpie on a dead terrorists shirt), while climbing through the ventilation system "Now I know what a TV dinner feels like", and a personal favorite of mine--"Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister."
Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is equal parts charming and brutal psychopath. In the end
**SPOILER ALERT**
You almost feel bad that John McClane had to drop him off a tall building! Almost....
For the second film in the series , aptly titled Die Hard 2-Die Harder, the scene shift from Nakatomi Plaza to an East Coast Airport besieged by terrorists..again at Christmas time! John McClane has the worst holiday luck ever! It's kinda like getting on a plane now and seeing a member from the cast of Jackass sitting in the next row...you know this may end up being be an interesting ride.
While trying to fly home, again to see his ex-wife and kids, John now has to deal with Terrorists in an airport. These guys though have no thoughts of money. Instead they are hell bent on freeing a political prisoner who is schedule to fly in ... in SECRET, to the airport. To do so they end up hijacking the air control system and wreaking general havoc for all involved.
Where the first film had the fun of Johnny boy jumping off buildings and scampering though ventilation ducts, Die Harder ups the ante with crashing planes and snow mobiles! Seriously, I love this film. Now, the main bad guy is no where as cool as Hans Gruber, but William Sadler's Col. Stuart does his best to stop our cop hero. And per the first formula you have: 1 harden cop, a bunch of terrorists, again some inept Feds, and a passable bad guy. change bowls...shake and re-heat!!
For me this movie was the first time I had seen Fred Thompson on screen which was nothing at the time...but did cause some confusion for me a few years later when I saw him on C-SPAN. It was the first time I think I ever had to do a little research to see if he was an actor or a Senator. For some reason I couldn't wrap my 15 year old mind around the fact that he could be BOTH. I also remember that I wanted John McClane to keep kicking bad guy ass for as long as he could.
In 1995 I would get my wish as John McClane would team up with Zeus Carver (Sam Jackson) "Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don't fuck with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that!!" To take on Jeremy Irons "Simon Gruber"...trying really hard to re-capture some of the uber cool that was Hans Gruber. (hint: the characters were supposed to be brothers)
Then again in 2007 52 year old Bruce Wills again donned the cocky attitude and gun to bring everyone's favorite wise ass cop to the screen. This time paired with a young hacker, played by Justin Long, it's up to the two of them to foil the plan of domestic cyber terrorists lead by Thomas Gabriel (the always fantastic Timothy Olyphant).
With a box office take of almost $135Milion it proved that the cop/terrorist/inept Fed plot line still puts butts in seats. This time you get to throw in some crazy jet plane shooting at a tanker truck...basically it was the movie equivalent of Fonzie jumping the shark.
All in all the four films have made almost $432Million. With the last movie being the top grosser of the series. I wish I could say it was time for Bruce to hang up the John McClane shield and move on...but the man still makes a kick ass action flick! Which means as long as John McClane is in a movie, and he's played by Bruce Willis my ass will be firmly placed in a seat at a theatre nearby!
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