SUBSCRIBE
F O R T R E S S
No Result
View All Result
  • MOVIES
  • TV
  • GAMING
  • TECH
  • COMICS
  • SNEAKERS
  • TOYS
  • VIDEO
  • WIN
Fortress of Solitude
No Result
View All Result

Die Hard Is The Ultimate Christmas Movie

Home > Movies > Is Die Hard The Ultimate Christmas Movie? Yippee Ki-Yay!

Is Die Hard The Ultimate Christmas Movie? Yippee Ki-Yay!

Rick AustinbyRick Austin
December 20, 2018
in Movies
Tags: ChristmasMovie ReviewMovies

It’s A Wonderful Life. White Christmas. A Christmas Carol. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A Charlie Brown Christmas. How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Scrooged. Holiday Inn. Miracle On 34th Street. These are all great Christmas movies, but there’s only one that gives gifts like certain death after falling from the 30th floor of a skyscraper if you’ve been naughty, and a machine gun if you’ve been nice: Die Hard.

Die Hard Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve, and New York cop John McClane travels to California in the hopes of seeing his kids and possibly reuniting with his wife. He’s even brought a teddy bear with him, because that’s the sort of cuddly Christmas everyone hopes for. Reality comes crashing in almost instantly though, because California Christmases are about palm trees and Run-DMC, and the only snow in sight is a businessman’s cocaine. Things get worse for him when he gets into a huge fight with his ex at her work and, for John McClane, it’s about to become a Christmas he’ll never forget.

A group of heavily-armed gunmen – initially presumed to be terrorists – take over the office building where McClane and his wife Holly are, with all the building’s employees becoming hostages. McClane, being an unexpected guest, manages to slip away and it falls to him to become a one-man army in order to stop them. Communications with the outside world are shut off, McClane only has his pistol to defend himself with, and owing to some ill-timed travel advice he’s also barefoot.

With a mixture of dark Christmas humour and a serious amount of violence he manages to create mayhem amongst the criminals, and once the police in the area are alerted to the situation the holiday cheer becomes absolutely explosive. Between adrenaline-fuelled fight scenes, the tense cat-and-mouse game going on between McClane and his pursuers, and an intelligent, cultured villain as his arch-nemesis, it’s gleeful, profane-ridden bloody anarchy unlike anything ever seen before at Christmas time!



Die Hard Christmas Movie

For anyone who thinks Home Alone still holds up and is the most chaotic Christmas fun on screen ever, watch Die Hard again. Kevin McCallister, for all the psychotic traps he sets for the burglars, isn’t a patch on McClane delivering a dead henchman back to his bosses or the blowing up of an FBI helicopter (complete with deadpan comedic punchline) and a multi-story explosion which blows out a chunk of the massive building. There’s gunplay, fistfights, cheap-shots and bloodshed everywhere, and all delivered with unapologetic glee. In short, Die Hard kicks Home Alone’s ass.

It helps that the villain, Hans Gruber (played by the late, great Alan Rickman), is one of the best villains of all time who switches from cultured crook to sadistic extremist with ease, and he kills people with casual playfulness. Matching him move for move is Bruce Willis as John McClane, a foul-mouthed fly in the ointment who seems to enjoy causing problems as much as he enjoys doing the right thing. He isn’t a traditional good-looking hero, he’s just some average Joe Bloggs doing his job and using a dementedly dark sense of humour to get through the day.



Die Hard A Christmas Movie

The real gift of this film is the setting, and no, that doesn’t mean the skyscraper (although that certainly does help). It’s clearly a Christmas movie, set at “the most wonderful time of the year”, but it has as much fun inverting all the Christmas traditions as that other great Holiday action film, Lethal Weapon. It doesn’t insult Christmas in any way, since it’s made clear repeatedly how special a time it is. But it twists things, allowing gift wrapping to become a holster for a gun, a home-made Christmas sweater to be an insulting message of good tidings, and Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is used with delicious irony.

There are plenty of Christmas movies out there, some good and many bad. But if you’re looking for one that spreads bullets, blood and good cheer simultaneously, then Die Hard is the best.



ShareTweetSend
ADVERTISEMENT

POPULAR

  • The 15 Most Powerful Anime Characters Of All Time

    The 15 Most Powerful & Strongest Anime Characters Of All Time

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Top 10 Best Anime Series Of All-Time

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The 15 Most Powerful Characters In The Marvel Universe

    26 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Wyatt Russell Receiving Death Threats For John Walker Captain America

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mortal Kombat (2021) Review: Not a Flawless Victory But Certainly Victorious

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Related Posts

Vanquish Review – Ruby Rose Morgan Freeman
Movies

Vanquish Movie Review – The Morgan Freeman Thriller With Unfulfilled Potential

by Sergio Pereira
April 14, 2021
Jakob's Wife Movie Review
Movies

Jakob’s Wife Is Like Jennifer’s Body All Grown Up

by Sergio Pereira
April 12, 2021
doctor strange 1978 Movie
Movies

Marvel, We Haven’t Forgotten That 1978 Doctor Strange Movie

by Rick Austin
April 5, 2021
Adam Wingard Is Working On A ThunderCats Movie
Movies

Adam Wingard Is Working On A ThunderCats Movie

by Caryn Ganess
March 30, 2021
movies at home
Movies

How To Watch The Best & Latest Movies At Home

by Caryn Ganess
March 18, 2021

POPULAR

  • The 15 Most Powerful Anime Characters Of All Time

    The 15 Most Powerful & Strongest Anime Characters Of All Time

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Top 10 Best Anime Series Of All-Time

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The 15 Most Powerful Characters In The Marvel Universe

    26 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Why Johnny Cage Isn’t In The Mortal Kombat 2021 Movie

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Wyatt Russell Receiving Death Threats For John Walker Captain America

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
ADVERTISEMENT

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments 3

  1. Avatar Matthew Wessels says:
    3 years ago
    Reply
  2. Avatar Sindie Allum says:
    3 years ago

    Never have truer words been written.

    Reply
  3. Avatar Candi Leppan Bracken says:
    3 years ago

    I keep telling everyone this, and they keep looking at me strangely, shaking their heads. I think I need new friends.

    Reply

Fortress of Solitude

Fortress of Solitude

Fortress of Solitude has become one of the most popular geek entertainment interest websites in South Africa and covers news and reviews on movies, games, comic books, gadgets, TV series, toys, sneakers and more.

The articles on Fortress of Solitude are written by a group of talented, professional and experienced freelance writers, all experts and leaders in their various fields.

Categories

  • Board Games
  • Books
  • Comic Books
  • Competitions
  • Gaming
  • Internet
  • Movies
  • Podcast
  • Sneakers
  • Tech
  • Toys
  • TV Series

Newsletter

Sign up for news in your inbox.

  • For more information on COVID-19
  • About Us
  • Authors
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy & Site Disclaimer
  • Contact Fortress of Solitude

© 2021 Fortress of Solitude, a division of Fortress Entertainment. Registered in South Africa. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movies
  • TV
  • Gaming
  • Tech
  • Comics
  • Sneakers
  • Toys
  • Video
  • Win
  • Contact

© 2021 Fortress of Solitude, a division of Fortress Entertainment. Registered in South Africa. All Rights Reserved.