Die Hard

The ultimate Christmas film?

 

It's impossible to put into words how much I love this film, but I'll try.

 

Die Hard is my favourite film of all time. I've watched it countless, and I mean countless, times. Bruce Willis is perfect in the role of John MaClane, the New York cop visiting his wife for Christmas in LA. Alan Rickman is arguably even better as Hans Gruber, the leader of a gang of thieves hellbent on what lies in the vault of the Nakatomi Tower.

 

The film spends no more than twenty minutes calmly introducing the main characters and then......

 

Cue the action.

 

Die Hard has been remade so many times over the following twenty odd years but has never been bettered. Willis was so good it spawned 4 sequels (dying a sad death with 2013's awful Good Day to Die Hard) while Rickman's master thief was genius casting. His ice cool demeanor works wonderfully here, his plan slowly revealing itself as the film progresses. 

 

Add to this a cracking script with too many quotable lines, and a rounded set of supporting characters, from the world weary cop who helps, to the FBI agents happy to lose "20-25 % of the hostages", and you have the perfect action thriller.

 

Will it help my English? Absolutely! American and European accented English throughout, with German too.