Genre Grandeur August Finale – Die Hard (1988) – MovieRob – Encore Review 11

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Movies that take place over a 24 Hour Time Frame (Not including time loop movies). here’s a review of Die Hard (1988) by me.

In case you missed any of the review, here’s a recap:

Fail Safe (1964) – David
The Breakfast Club (1985) – Joel
The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (2009) – Paul
Old (2021) – Aaron
Don’t Breathe (2016) – Darren
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962) – David
High Noon (1952) – Rob
Superbad (2007) – Joel
Grandma (2015) – Paul
Bad Times At the El Royale (2018) – Aaron
Dazed and Confused (1993) – Quiggy
Before Tonight is Over (1965) – David
United 93 (2006) – Rob
1917 (2019) – Joel
1917 (2019) – Aaron
Victoria (2016) – Paul
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) – David
The Amusement Park (1973) – Aaron
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1985) – Rob
Snake Eyes (1998) – Darren
Suddenly (1954) – Sally
The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Joel
Dunkirk (2017) – Aaron
Magnolia (1999) – Joel
Die Hard (1988) – Rob

In addition, I watched 7 movies in my companion series Genre Guesstimation. Unfortunately, None of those films will now be considered among my favorites in the genre.

88 Minutes (2007)
Nick of Time (1995)
Kids (1995)
Breakdown (1997)
White House Down (2013)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
The House of Yes (1997)

Thanks again to Jess Manzo of French Toast Sunday for choosing this month’s genre.

Next month’s genre has been chosen by Michaela of Love Letters to Hollywood and we will be reviewing our favorite 60’s Comedies.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Sep by sending them to 60smichaela@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Michaela!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

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“[on the phone] This is agent Johnson. No, the other one. ” – FBI Special Agent Johnson

Number of Times Seen – Seriously too many to count (Video, Cable, 13 Oct 1992, DVD, 4 May 2000, Jan 2012, 24 Nov 2013, 30 Nov 2014, 4 Nov 2015, 11 Nov 2015, 13 Jul 2017, 3 Dec 2017, 30 Jul 2018, 2 Apr 2019, 29 Oct 2019, 27 May 2020, 30 Dec 2020 and 30 Aug 2021)

Link to original review – Here Here Here Here Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – On Christmas Eve, a NYPD detective gets trapped in an office building after it is taken over by terrorists.

My Take on it – This is one of my top 5 films and I enjoy watching it over and over.

Bruce Willis is superbly cast in the lead role and makes things so enjoyable and entertaining to watch unfold despite the serious nature of events taking place.

The fact that the main character seems like an average “Joe” helps keep things realistic and over the 33 years since this film came out, dozens and dozens of doppelgangers movies have been made, yet none achieve what this film did before inadvertently launching its own genre.

The story is paced really well and the thrills keep coming the entire time.

The dialogue is both witty and powerful especially once things start to get grittier.

Alan Rickman is superbly cast as the villain and remains one of the bets villains to ever appear on screen.

The action sequences are fun to watch and seem pretty believable without the need of it looking like they used a lot of special effects.

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – In the spring of 1987, producer Joel Silver and director John McTiernan attended a performance of the play Dangerous Liaisons, in which Alan Rickman played the evil Vicomte de Valmont. Immediately, Silver and McTiernan realized they had found Hans Gruber. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)