Movie review - "Die Hard" (1988) ****1/2

This holds up incredibly well. Not completely: it's glamourisation of smoking, the subplot about the fat cop who rediscovers his ability to kill and the wife who learns to reclaim her married name.... but it is wonderful. Well staged action, Bruce Willis was so much more likeable in many ways with hair (and he's perfect in the role), a terrific plot from the bad guys who have a chance of pulling off the heist all the way until the end (one of the best ever baddy plots up there with Goldfinger), Alan Rickman's stunningly good bad guy (despite unprofessional henchmen), Bonnie Bedelia's likeable wife (why didn't they use a daughter/wife under threat again in films three onwards... as in all the way though not in bits), some terrific complicating "non-helpers" in the form of the FBI, media and the police (all too believable). A genuine classic.