DIE HARD

It’s always a pleasure to rewatch a well nigh perfect film.

Yet again I get to admire the consummate skill with which director John McTiernan and co-writers Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza manage all the moving parts in terms of both the plot and the character beats.  

All the dialogue scenes between McClane and sergeant Al are on the money - McClane saying to put $20 on him to survive (‘I’m good for it’) makes me chuckle almost as much as it does Al.

And even though I know exactly what’s coming, the action sequence starting from when McClane checks out the roof and ending with him on the end of the hosepipe, shooting out the window, is still as thrilling as hell.

This time around I thought I would put my nit-picker glasses on and see if I could find any flaws, but I didn’t find much.

The early scene in the lift shaft does involve McClane doing some things which seem physically impossible; it's rather careless of McClane to drop the bag containing the detonators so as to put Gruber's plan back on track; and given how obnoxious the IT guy, Theo, is I'm always disappointed that he doesn't come to a sticky end.

It's thin pickings indeed.

In a recent poll of the British public a majority were of the view that this is not a Christmas film, yet more proof (were it needed) that a significant proportion of my fellow citizens are inherently unreliable.