Christmas Countdown: Die Hard (1988)

A hirsute Bruce Willis combats a crack team of Scandinavian terrorists cum thieves in the yuletide classic Die Hard.

Die Hard is a worthy entrant on any list of all-time best action films. It sits comfortably in the delicate and illusive balance between character, plot, dialogue, guns and explosions. The repartee between Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman is now textbook Good Guy vs. Bad Guy stuff; it makes the film.

Christmas movies generally have a lot of puerile emotional drivel, so it's refreshing to see a film like Die Hard where the protagonist survives enough physical trauma to have a good excuse to get a bit choked up by the holidays. It may be caused by PTSD, but them's the breaks.

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Never Mind Pop Film

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