With Lethal Weapon giving the action genre a much needed kick in the butt, Die Hard raised the bar to new heights. taking with it the career of then TV personality Bruce Willis.

Willis stars as New York police officer John McClane. Flying to California on Christmas Eve to visit his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) at her workplace, the Nakatomi Plaza office building, it is up to McClaine to save the day after the building is seized by a group of international terrorists led by the charming yet sadistic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).

By deciding not to cast an archetypical muscle bound action star such as Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger (who both ironically turned the movie down), Die Hard instantly becomes a unique action movie.

Instead of being the big man with all of the answers, Willis plays McClaine as the everyday man caught in an extraordinary situation, who uses his skills as a police officer to take down the bad guys. The action is played out in a much more realistic manner when compared to other movies cut by the same cloth.

Willis brings a vulnerability to his wise cracking, bad ass action roles. The most memorable images in Die Hard are that of John McClaine limping around, his bare feet all cut to shreds while the rest of him is a dirty bloody mess, something that neither Stallone nor Schwarzenegger could pull off. He was a new action hero for a new generation, and even though has been imitated numerous times he has yet to be bettered.

With Willis playing the hero, Alan Rickman nails the part of the vile villain to perfection. Suave yet cold blooded, Rickman plays Hans Gruber with much authority and intensity, never going over the top yet stealing every scene he is in.

Bonny Bedelia makes use of her limited screen time, thankfully not resorting to playing the damsel in distress, while Hart Bochner is brilliantly sleazy as yuppie coke head Harry Ellis.

The portrayal of the media as ratings hungry savages cuts close to the bone, especially considering how the media would cover events such as the O.J. Simpson trial, 9/11, and the Iraq War not as news but as big time entertainment, where journalistic responsibility is passed aside for the "big story", with William Atherton continuing to shine playing wankers, this time in the guise of journalist Richard Thornburg.

The action scenes have lost none of their intensity thanks to John McTiernan's electrifying direction. Yet the emergence of too many sub plots and annoying side characters damage the film.

Die Hard can be seen in two parts: the first is an awesome action thriller that takes place inside the building.  The second is a bumbling almost “spoof” like cop movie outside the building, where the fat cop loves Twinkies, the head cop is an ignorant prick, and the FBI are even bigger douche bags on a power trip.

Thankfully the performances by Willis and Rickman are strong enough to counter the films flaws, making Die Hard a very good, big bang, action movie.