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Die Hard

1988

John McTiernan

Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov ...

7.2

119,628

Action. Thriller Tough New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) finds himself in a tight situation when an office building in Los Angeles is taken over by terrorists. Apart from himself, everyone else in the building - including his wife - is held at gunpoint while their captors spell out their demands. The F.B.I. are called in to survey the situation, but John McClane has other plans for the terrorists...

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The idea has a certain allure to it (...) Inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal the fragile nature of the plot and prevent it from working (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"It's good, dumb fun"	NEU
United States	Richard Brody The New Yorker	"The idea of the film as an advertisement for itself, as a mass-media self-projection, is no coincidence—it’s one of the movie’s crucial reflections of the cultural moment in which it was made."	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"A serviceable if rather overextended and overblown adventure thriller"	NEU
United States	Caryn James The New York Times	"[It] is exceedingly stupid, but escapist fun (...) 'Die Hard' turns out to be everything action-genre fans, and Bruce Willis's relieved investors, might have hoped for"	NEU
United Kingdom	Martin Chilton Telegraph	"Brilliant (...) The intelligent screenplay was written by Steven E de Souza and Jeb Stuart and their dialogue is full of wit (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Stuart Heritage The Guardian	"'Die Hard' is the perfect action film (...) A peerless marriage of plot, arena, execution and cast."	POS
United Kingdom	Chris Hewitt Empire	"[Willis'] McClane — a likeable mix of working-stiff neuroses, desperate heroics and wise guy sardonics — changed the face of action heroes forever (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	David Crow Den of Geek	"One of the most awesome, entertaining and perfectly crafted action movies ever made (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Nigel Floyd Time Out	"A hi-tech thriller with a human heart, offering slam-bang entertainment on a par with 'Lethal Weapon' or 'Aliens' (...) McTiernan excels in the adrenalin-inducing action scenes"	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"Few films falling into the 'mindless entertainment' genre have as much going for them as this movie. Not only is it a thrill-a-minute ride, but it has one of the best film villains in recent memory (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS

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