Review:

It's been thirty years and I recognize that Die Hard was relatively novel in 1988, so I cut it some slack, but it just doesn't hold up. The plot is pretty good for what is essentially a popcorn action movie and the villain is well developed, but motivations aren't fleshed out, characters to stupid things because the plot needs them to, and I had some issues with the pacing. Bruce Willis's character is the biggest issue for me. I can appreciate a little levity sometimes, but he doesn't take the events of the movie seriously enough. It makes it especially jarring when one minute he's cracking lame jokes and goofing around and then the next he's near tears relaying a message for his wife. Die Hard doesn't take itself seriously when it needs to. For an action movie, they don't give us enough action. Explosions are minimal, fight scenes are quick and mostly uneventful, and there weren't any cool kills or action moments that pushed me to the edge of my seat. It just wasn't eventful enough. The one thing I really have to give it credit for is its attention to detail. There was a time where the main character is thrown through a wall. My first thought is "The metal framing in that wall would be pretty sharp; I bet he just gets dusty, though." but he actually gets cuts on his arm from the frame. There are pretty minor plot details that I was beginning to think wouldn't be resolved or characters that wouldn't get their comeuppance, but Die Hard resolved them all to my satisfaction. Die Hard is a solid base of a movie that I just wish they would have built on more. Maybe it's just because I'm watching it for the first time in 2018 and not 1988, but I really wanted more. Just to throw my opinion in the ring, Die Hard is not a Christmas movie and the joke that it was never funny. Die Hard takes place in the Christmas season and there is a Christmas party, but that's it. Christmas is not part of the plot. Nothing changes if the movie takes place in July or September, or April. Christmas is not an important part of the story, It's just a minor detail. Elf is a movie about Christmas. A Christmas Story is a movie about Christmas. Christmas Vacation is about Christmas. Die Hard is about criminals (they keep calling them terrorists, but their goal is theft, not creating terror, so I don't think terrorist is a fair label) taking over a business tower and steal bonds.