Die Hard Movies Ranked

Easily the best in the series and my favorite action movie of all time, this movie is a classic in itself. It has a classic villain, a classic hero, a classic catchphrase, classic imagery, and most of all, it is a classic Christmas movie. Probably the most Christmas-ey of them all. The action is nail-biting, the hand-to-hand fights are gritty and realistic (most notably the one between John and Karl). This movie is in a class by itself.

The movie is almost identical to the first. Maybe that's why I enjoy it a lot. The villain isn't nearly as good as the first, but he's fun. The plot isn't the smartest, but it's fun. The John McClane action is still fun as ever (specifically the skywalk and seat ejection scenes) despite the lapses in logic. The movie's aspects are essentially the same as the first, but for a second movie, I don't mind it.

Please don't kill me. My gripe with this movie is that it doesn't feel like a Die Hard movie. Maybe it's just me, I'm not sure. Maybe I should watch it again to see if I enjoy it more than last time. I just think the plot is convoluted with way too many subplots, and it's not meshed together well. It wasn't juggling all of the elements very well. The Bruce Willis-Samuel L. Jackson dynamic was great, but I don't even think this connection was as great as the one between Reginald-Vel Johnson and Bruce Willis in the first, and they were communicating on walkie talkies. Granted that there are a few fun scenes (like the elevator lottery scene, or the fantastic opening), I don't think any of them make up for the movie as a whole. I say it's not as good as Die Hard 2 not for the sheer fun of the second one. I never took the second one as seriously as this one wanted to be taken. Granted, there were a lot of jokes in this movie, but I won't say most of them landed (Again, please don't hang me from my toes). This movie wasn't terrible, but I was somewhat disappointed with it.