Die Hard (1988)

I think my recent rewatch of this film was the first time since I saw it originally, back in the day. I think I saw this in the theatre, but not the first run - when it hit the discount, cheap theatres.
Bruce Willis with hair, and it might even have been his hair. He was such a hot commodity when this film dropped. He can actually act, unlike the big three action stars at the time - Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Van Damme. Ok, there might be a few of you out there that think that Stallone can act a little, but it's only because you watched Oscar and it made you laugh, really though, Sly is Sly is Sly.
I had completely forgotten that Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia's hair co-starred with Willis. Future-Snape is so young and thin and really in a different league than everyone else in this film. I think Bonnie Bedelia might have already been a big deal before this movie, and I think that because it certainly wasn't because of this movie. Seriously, you stick that hair on any woman who can read the lines without looking directly into the camera, and voila! You have Holly Generro (until she punches the reporter in the face and defiantly announces, "Holly McClane").
Willis's portrayal of McClane, along with Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies redefined the action hero in the late 80s through mid-90s. No longer was he the biggest, most buff, best trained guy with a funny sounding voice, he was the almost-every-man who won because he was basically a good guy, usually a cop, and because he was the most determined. He was as likely to use his brain as his gun. On television, this change was mirrored but a little more subtle, as we went from shows like Hawaii-5-0 to Miami Vice. The white hat was now likely to get knocked off a couple of times, and the hero was no longer the toughest S.O.B. you ever saw, just the one who wanted it the most. At this moment, I am prepared to take this even one step further, and say this mental shift was being played in the economic sector, where the Captain of Industry was being replaced by the MBA whiz kid and soon the dotcom whiz kid.
Two things about this movie surprised me. First, I found McClane uttering, "Yippee-kai-yea, mother fucker" just as entertaining at 40 as I did at 20. Second. it didn't suck. It's actually a pretty good movie and most of that is McClane. He's a cop, and he acts like a cop. He tries not to kill anyone if he can help it. He gets tired and he gets frustrated, and he certainly gets hurt. The character is very interesting - he desperately wants to get back together with his wife, but he wants her to apologize at the beginning of the film, though every attractive woman he walks by, he stops to gawk, I presume to show that he had been faithful to his wife and hadn't had sex in so long that he forgot how to act in public. By the end of the film he not only has come to grips with his own mortality, he has more importantly embraced the idea of a life without Holly, either because she has died or left him for good to stay in L.A. while he lives in New York.
If the above isn't a reason to give this classic action flick another watch, take a look to count how many of the 12 robbers/terrorists survive the ordeal, and out of those that die, how many do we see die and who do we just hear about. Go ahead, you have my permission to make this film a little more interesting for yourself if you need to.

Die Hard at IMDB