Die Hard

What is the best thing about Die Hard? Bruce Willis! If anyone from the anonymous lineage of action characters had appeared in the main role, it would have been completely forgotten and no one could enjoy John McClane as the archetypal example of the reluctant hero. John McTiernan also manages to present the action in a completely uncolored way and fearlessly builds the atmosphere of a several-story skyscraper with bloodied feet and a flood of black humor. It's just a shame about a few unforgivable and laughable 80s bits; the rest is undeniable classic. (16/06/2007)

Text: The textbook example of a high-quality and entertaining action spectacle. John McClane is quite possibly the most stylish American action hero ever. He detonates explosives, goes through ammo magazines like on a conveyor belt, runs barefoot on broken glass, crawls through ventilation shafts, rescues hostages, smokes one cigarette after another, throws lifeless bodies of villains onto police cars, dresses up corpses in Santa Claus suits - and yet through it all, he never loses his sense of humor and always adds a witty line to lighten the mood. Bruce Willis rightfully belongs among the fundamental action archetypes of the last century. He is natural, charismatic, and within two hours, he bombards you with a torrent of legendary lines that would make for a pretty long YouTube compilation. But Die Hard is not just about Willis' one-man show - not at all. The other supporting characters here fulfill their roles excellently, especially the absolutely brilliant Alan Rickman in the role of Hans Gruber. This is exactly how a textbook main villain for this type of film should look like. I have never been a hardcore fan of action movies, and I probably never will be, but I definitely enjoy films like Die Hard. It is truly one of the most cult films of all time. (08/01/2020)

A classic of the action genre. It’s brilliant, but it’s undeniable it was the first. Even Bruce Willis as the main hero was something new at that time and basically defined a new era of modern action heroes. From that moment on, there was no longer a 100-ton machine with machine guns in both hands eliminating hundreds of villains without a scratch. Now he had to be a cool likeable character who often paid for his recklessness with a drop of blood. John McTiernan, the director, was probably under the influence of some drugs because later (especially now), he would make one trash after another and he will probably never be able to return to the quality of his first films, neither in terms of form nor content (a genre pioneer). (20/04/2007)

I didn't think I could enjoy it so much after all these years, but the opposite is true. This is simply an excellent movie, and I couldn't even believe that my girlfriend and I decided to watch it instead of something romantic, and we both had a great time. We simply have to do this again sometime. And then the second part. And if there is no second part, then we'll watch the first one again, and it will be "Die Hard 2". (14/04/2014)

Die Hard is the ultimate action blockbuster. I saw it when I was just a little kid and I remember thinking how cool Bruce was. And then I didn’t watch it again until fifteen years later, forgetting quite a lot of scenes. I thought that this wouldn’t do, so I came back to this movie. When I was little, I couldn’t fully grasp my own emotions, but now I know that I fell in love with John McClane back then. (02/02/2013)