Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I've always felt that Die Hard is a movie that's held back slightly by a couple of noteworthy flaws, but it's a testament to the skill of the people involved that it still manages to overcome its problems, and end up as a thrilling icon of modern Action movies in the end. To get my complaints out of the way first, one thing I've never liked about it is its sometimes broad writing, and often rather stock, generic characters; you see, I could forgive the film for having one, maybe two of them, but when you've got the inexplicably stupid, stubborn chief of police we've seen in every cop movie since at least Dirty Harry, the muscling-in Feds who literally say to the local police chief "not anymore you're not [in charge]", the goofy teenage sidekick, and other examples all in the same film, it gets to be a bit much, don't you think? I also agree somewhat with Ebert when he complained about how the pacing here is sometimes interrupted by unnecessary tangents, the chief offender being Carl Winslow's "tragic" backstory about why he isn't a beat cop anymore, complete with obligatory sad acoustic guitar on the soundtrack, a moment that totally MURDERS the pacing, and adds nothing to the story.

However, it says a lot for the film that it still managed to become such an influential Action classic despite all that, as what it does get right is its overall sense of character and personality, as John McClane genuinely feels like a reluctant, wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time everyman, similar to how you'd imagine a real street cop would react in the same situation. And of course, he's matched by the late, great Alan Rickman in his first(!) and possibly best onscreen role, as the iconic Han Gruber, a sophisticated, urbane, and utterly ruthless German mercenary. The film wrings great mileage out of their dualing performances, Willis as the sclub-y, sarcastic New York cop trying to triumph over a well-armed European invader, and Rickman as an educated elite struggling to wipe out a class-less American Neanderthal who's apparently convinced that he's "Rambo", as Gruber puts it.

Besides that strong central dynamic, Hard genuinely succeeds in being a thinking man's action movie, with its storytelling placing a greater emphasis on building tension and suspense than you'd normally expect from a movie of this genre; Nakatomi Plaza serves well as a claustrophobic, high-tech Alamo under siege, and at times, it feels less like an action movie, and more like a giant game of chess, with a forty-floor skyscraper serving as the board.

Pretty much every character here is constantly strategizing and maneuvering in order to achieve their individual goals, and McClane and Gruber themselves often duel over the radio with plenty of insults and psychological warfare, alongside the ACTUAL warfare that they're waging. And, speaking of the action, Die Hard has plenty of it; firefights, neck-snappings, destroying armored SWAT vehicles with rockets, bare-knuckled fistfights to the death, shooting through a window while hanging off a building while at the same time the roof blows up and a helicopter explodes and crashes hundreds of feet to the ground... it would seem ludicrous if it wasn't as well-made as it is, and flaws aside, Die Hard still more than provides the "forty stories of adventure" promised on its poster in the end, and then some, baby.

I've always felt that Die Hard is a movie that's held back slightly by a couple of noteworthy flaws, but it's a testament to the skill of the people involved that it still manages to overcome its problems, and end up as a thrilling icon of modern Action movies in the end. To get my complaints out of the way first, one thing I've never liked about it is its sometimes broad writing, and often rather stock, generic characters; you see, I could forgive the film for having one, maybe two of them, but when you've got the inexplicably stupid, stubborn chief of police we've seen in every cop movie since at least Dirty Harry, the muscling-in Feds who literally say to the local police chief "not anymore you're not [in charge]", the goofy teenage sidekick, and other examples all in the same film, it gets to be a bit much, don't you think? I also agree somewhat with Ebert when he complained about how the pacing here is sometimes interrupted by unnecessary tangents, the chief offender being Carl Winslow's "tragic" backstory about why he isn't a beat cop anymore, complete with obligatory sad acoustic guitar on the soundtrack, a moment that totally MURDERS the pacing, and adds nothing to the story.

However, it says a lot for the film that it still managed to become such an influential Action classic despite all that, as what it does get right is its overall sense of character and personality, as John McClane genuinely feels like a reluctant, wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time everyman, similar to how you'd imagine a real street cop would react in the same situation. And of course, he's matched by the late, great Alan Rickman in his first(!) and possibly best onscreen role, as the iconic Han Gruber, a sophisticated, urbane, and utterly ruthless German mercenary. The film wrings great mileage out of their dualing performances, Willis as the sclub-y, sarcastic New York cop trying to triumph over a well-armed European invader, and Rickman as an educated elite struggling to wipe out a class-less American Neanderthal who's apparently convinced that he's "Rambo", as Gruber puts it.

Besides that strong central dynamic, Hard genuinely succeeds in being a thinking man's action movie, with its storytelling placing a greater emphasis on building tension and suspense than you'd normally expect from a movie of this genre; Nakatomi Plaza serves well as a claustrophobic, high-tech Alamo under siege, and at times, it feels less like an action movie, and more like a giant game of chess, with a forty-floor skyscraper serving as the board.

Pretty much every character here is constantly strategizing and maneuvering in order to achieve their individual goals, and McClane and Gruber themselves often duel over the radio with plenty of insults and psychological warfare, alongside the ACTUAL warfare that they're waging. And, speaking of the action, Die Hard has plenty of it; firefights, neck-snappings, destroying armored SWAT vehicles with rockets, bare-knuckled fistfights to the death, shooting through a window while hanging off a building while at the same time the roof blows up and a helicopter explodes and crashes hundreds of feet to the ground... it would seem ludicrous if it wasn't as well-made as it is, and flaws aside, Die Hard still more than provides the "forty stories of adventure" promised on its poster in the end, and then some, baby.

...the actual ending? Part of me thinks it feels forced, as if trying too hard to have a shock ending... but then I think of stuff we hear all the time about Waco or Jim Jones. Casually, just one or two nights ago I was reading a bit about Jim Jones, and ended up listening to the "Death Tape" recorded the night of the mass suicide (it's on Wikipedia) and was asking myself "How the hell does a man convince almost 1000 people to kill themselves and their children??". But that kinda puts in perspective what we see in the end of The Invitation and the possibility of something like that happening.

...the actual ending? Part of me thinks it feels forced, as if trying too hard to have a shock ending... but then I think of stuff we hear all the time about Waco or Jim Jones. Casually, just one or two nights ago I was reading a bit about Jim Jones, and ended up listening to the "Death Tape" recorded the night of the mass suicide (it's on Wikipedia) and was asking myself "How the hell does a man convince almost 1000 people to kill themselves and their children??". But that kinda puts in perspective what we see in the end of The Invitation and the possibility of something like that happening.

not having left the party when you clearly should have left the party. As the viewer we KNOW something is going down, but the characters themselves are just enough on the fence that they can be convinced to stay. For me it just walked the line where I was going "Get out of there!" but not so much that it came across as them being really stupid.

not having left the party when you clearly should have left the party. As the viewer we KNOW something is going down, but the characters themselves are just enough on the fence that they can be convinced to stay. For me it just walked the line where I was going "Get out of there!" but not so much that it came across as them being really stupid.

you hear sirens or an emergency vehicle goes by? I just remember on a second watch picking up on a few bits of foreshadowing.

And in terms of the main character, he has his moment where he decides that he wants to live (something I really love is that this is tied to his relationship with the girlfriend). But seeing all those lanterns--those are all people who were willing to die to escape their pain.

you hear sirens or an emergency vehicle goes by? I just remember on a second watch picking up on a few bits of foreshadowing.

And in terms of the main character, he has his moment where he decides that he wants to live (something I really love is that this is tied to his relationship with the girlfriend). But seeing all those lanterns--those are all people who were willing to die to escape their pain.

way her body falls apart as events go on

way her body falls apart as events go on