TheRetroCritic

Christmas movies don't come any tougher than this. Bruce Willis is officer John McClane, an NYPD cop heading for the intimidating Nakatomi building where his wife (played by Bonnie Bedelia) works to try and patch things up marriage-wise. All goes according to plan until a group of bad guys led by Alan Rickman's cocky mastermind Hans Gruber waltz in and take over the skyscraper. McClane soon becomes the hostages' only hope as he tries to foil the big-time robbers' plans from within. What follows is an exciting and nail-biting one-man stealth sabotage mission complete with explosions, shoot-outs, punches and broken glass. It's weird watching the original Die Hard after the likes of Live Free Or Die Hard because the first film really is in a different league, a different genre even. The first film wasn't about John McClane being this superman who can outrun planes and stop by Kevin Smith's house for shits and giggles: it's actually much grittier