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After seeing it a few times over the years, I still don't get all the hype. I mean the action scenes are good, but I find the story to be an average action movie plot, to be quite honest.
There isn't a huge deal of character change, the heroes and villains are very black and white, and some parts of the plot I find unconvincing. I mean I know it's an action movie, but this is rated so high by many people, that I can't help to pick on illogics in the plot more so, because of how highly praised it is.
SPOILERS
Basically when Kristoff is looking for McClane, McClane sneaks up on Kristoff and points his gun at Christoff's head.
He tells Kristoff to drop his gun, and Kristoff says "You won't hurt me, there are rules for policemen". McClane then says that's what my Captain keeps telling me. He then pistol whips Kristoff, and then tries to wrestle Kristoff's Machine gun, out of his hands.
But why! Why would a cop try to fight someone, who has a machine gun, when the cop can just shoot him? It's not like McClane has any handcuffs on him to neutralize Kristoff, so what is he going to do, if Kristoff surrenders?
Kristoff refused to drop the gun, and any realistic person would know that a cop would just shoot you in this situation and not attempt to wrestle a machine gun out of your hand.
Later on, McClane is trying to get the cop's attention from out the window and another goon comes to try stop him. McClane again tells the guy to put the gun down, but why? It's not like he can keep him held prisoner in situation like that.
He does this with Hans later as well instead of just shooting Hans.
I also feel that some of the dialogue is really dumb in this movie, like when the Deputy Chief cop says that the body that fell from the window that was full of bullet holes, must have been a depressed stockbroker. Really???
And I also feel that the Thornberg character, was not necessary to the plot and didn't really add anything really. I first saw Die Hard on edited television way back, and back then, all of Thornberg's scenes were cut, accept for the video footage, on the news that Holly saw, which tipped Hans' off. Having seen the uncut version of the movie, I feel that Thornberg being turned into an actual subplot character, doesn't really add anything.
We don't need to know the personal squabbles of the news guy, who's only role in the plot was to unintentionally tip the villain off. It made perfect sense on TV to cut all his scenes out accept the video footage one, that tipped Hans off.
And a lot of people out there say that Hans Gruber is the greatest movie villain ever, if not the greatest, but I dunno... I mean he doesn't really go through any huge personal character changes, and he is really just a bankrobber, with no hugely personal stakes in his goal.
McClane is good character, but I feel he is doesn't really do anything to be go through much of a change, and he is not pushed to his moral limits either in the end. But maybe this is not a bad thing, and maybe he doesn't have to.
So I feel the movie, in spite of having really good action scenes, is just not as well written as it could be, and is more of an average, perhaps decent action movie in terms of story and script.
No, it was a very big movie and very well done. If you want over rated, look at the "Lethal Weapon" movies. The sequels of DH were... "meh", same as with LW.
I thought the police captain was a poorly-written character. The only purpose he served was to obstruct police business and to prolong the movie's plot.
But no, I don't think the original Die Hard is overrated. It's not perfect either.
The hype was about the ordinary man stepping up to be extra ordinary. John McClain was not Ranger Chuck Norris, the perfect human weapon trained for nothing but combat or an out sized Terminator. And Bruce Willis was just a guy from a romantic comedy TV show.
That movies to this day are described as Die Hard on a boat, in the White House, on a train.... is telling. The original Lethal Weapon with its buddy cop format is just as good but not as ground breaking. But it was in the era of welcoming back Vietnam vets into American society as good men.
The hype was about the ordinary man stepping up to be extra ordinary. John McClain was not Ranger Chuck Norris, the perfect human weapon trained for nothing but combat or an out sized Terminator. And Bruce Willis was just a guy from a romantic comedy TV show. <snip>
The real irony is, that the movie was made from a 1979 book, Nothing_Lasts_Forever_(by Roderick Thorp). and John McClain wasn't a NYC street copy, he was a retired NYC Detective, now a world-class consultant on anti-terrorism. (Which is how he was able to recognize bad-guy Hans).
So changing the book's lead to an Every-man was the screenwriter's idea, and I agree - what makes it such a great action film. (And pretty believable, all the way through, unlike the sequels).
No, it was a very big movie and very well done. If you want over rated, look at the "Lethal Weapon" movies. The sequels of DH were... "meh", same as with LW.
The very first Lethal Weapon is by no means "overrated" and I prefer it to Die Hard (though that's not a knock).
The sequels of both franchises are overrated, while Lethal Weapon 2 & 4 easily outshine the DH sequels (though Die Hard with a Vengeance is entertaining).
Fact: Both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are cheesy and ridiculous, but they are both awesome movies with great action heroes with awesome one liners and comedy mixed in. If you have a problem with that I will send Mr. Joshua or Hans Gruber to help you change your mind.
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