Colin the dude’s review:
A simple fact: action movies have been neutered, half-baked, half-written and served cold for children with Attention Deficit Disorder. Die Hard has aged into a lost art. It has a wholly original, unpredictable screenplay, crisp with sharp dialogue matched with badass line delivery through the mouths of believable human characters (This sentence alone cannot be attributed to a single modern action film). There is a tight plot that gradually escalates, accumulating ZERO gaps in logic equaling to not a single moment of frustration for the viewer.
If that wasn't enough, there is a seamless camera. The lighting is impeccable. The editing is celestial. The Christmas theme ingenious. The music is thunderous joy. The pacing is a genre blueprint. The f/x are ageless, tangible and earth-shattering in HD, and it still gets better. The acting is adult, down-to-earth, menacing when appropriate and god forbid, humanizing. The setting is grand, expressive and claustrophobic. The mapping of action is never once confusing and always challenges the hero with something different with each sequence. It never gets out of control or ludicrous, and climaxes with class. The sum of these qualities equal the closest to perfection that the action formula can achieve. Sadness and frustration only amplifies at the aggressive dumbness of modern action (See: most comic book adaptations, remakes, commercial directors stuck halfway up their asses, who increasingly rely on unreal environments, plot holes, dehumanizing traits, flying debris, "always at 11" stakes, plot holes, incessant yelling, uncharismatic leads, plot holes, CGI clusterfucks and did I mention plot holes?).