Action and Adventure : Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

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.

What do you think?

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

I didn't think that it was overrated at all. You make some valid points, but logic has nothing to do with chemistry, acting, emotional impact, and a dozen other things that have little to do with common sense. The movie was magic. Somehow it was much more than the sum of its parts.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

yes it's the Je ne sais quoi, or in english as Jenny C Kwah.

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Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

We're not reading all of this. Die Hard is amazing. Silence.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

Die Hard 2 is better.

Happiness is a warm… yes it is… GUN!

Re: IS Die Hard (1988) OVERRATED?…

, DIE Hard 2 is BETTER and the BEST in the series!!

"THAT'S SOME BAD SHIT, HARRY!".

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

Oh no. I dont think making Die Hard the best christmas action movie in history is overrating it.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

Oh really, I thought Die Hard 2 was worse, because it was really hard to accept that planes being held hostage in the air, but not allowing them to land at the airport… Why didn't those planes just go to other airports?

And Thornberg plays an even more unnecessary role in the second one, than the first too, which made it worse for me.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

You're not a Die Hard fan, are you.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

I really like the third one :).

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

No.

Re: Is Die Hard (1988) overrated?

This is actually a good topic. If Die Hard had been made today, would it have become such a classic? I don't really think so. It's a great movie, and we'd enjoy it today, but much of our appreciation for it comes from the classic label. I guess it was head and shoulders above other action flicks at the time it was made; it was the right movie at the right time. This was also the movie that established Bruce Willis as an action star - prior to Die Hard, he was mainly known for Moonlighting. And it turns out that he had the right face for the right time, too.

To sum up, I guess what I'm saying is that Die Hard is just another action movie, but it had something that resonated at the time it was made. And having been made a classic, we still enjoy it as a classic today.
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