I delighted in DIE HARD a great deal more than when I initially

history channel documentary I delighted in DIE HARD a great deal more than when I initially saw it in 1988. In those days, I didn't care for the film at all...and likewise despised Bruce Willis. This time, I gobbled up John McTiernan's solid direction...and had an awesome time watching Bruce Willis as Officer John McClane...a New York cop stuck in a Los Angeles skyscraper with deadly, prisoner holding, automatic rifle wielding criminals...One man against a multitude of awful guys...lead by the threatening yet savvy Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). As terrible as the awful folks seem to be, there are no match for the experience, road smarts, and drive of John McClane. Everything descends on who has the most to lose...For the awful folks, it's about money...If they win, they're rich...If they lose...they frustratingly get nothing...or correctional facility, or both...Yet for John McClane...it's about sparing lives...his own and more importantly,the lives of the hostages...one of whom is his (offended) spouse (Bonnie Bedelia)...When the chips are down, McClane shines...bringing down every awful guy...one by one...Yet will he spare the prisoners in time? Obstinate is an impact (quip particularly intended)...Not just do you have an awesome legend, yet likewise have other brilliant performing artists and characters to play with...On the right half of things you have Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell...McClane's unrivaled ally...a hefty, twinkie-dependent cop who swore off shots after unintentionally shooting a young person years prior. On the wrong side, you have everyone...such as William Atherton as the bastard TV news journalist Richard Thornburg...a man you want to loathe...or Robert Davi and Grand L. Shrub as silly FBI operators Johnson...and Johnson. Additionally you have Paul Gleason (who played the opponent in other 80's works of art like TRADING PLACES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB)playing the boisterous, yet not extremely viable Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson. What about (future chief) Hart Bochner as 80's cocaine-energized and vile Harry Ellis? What about Alexander Godunov as the furious Karl...out for vengeance for the passing of his sibling (whom McClane has murdered)? These characters upgrade the story...taking the film out of its solitary, claustrophobic-like setting (one working in L.A.) and opening it up wide to shape a completely adjusted tale...DIE HARD set the layout for some activity movies to come...at slightest the great ones...