On the night that John McClane (Bruce Willis), an NYC cop, is visiting his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) in a 40-story skyscraper, terrorist thieves seize control of the building. McClane manages to slip away unnoticed and singlehandedly works to take out the terrorists and save 30 or so hostages.<br /><br />Fantastic! This ought to get anybody out of their seat and make them take notice! Once it gets going there is non-stop action and violence, and even entertaining exchanges between McClane and terrorist leader Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). The picture offers some good dialog, good thrills, some impressive special effects, and some good performances. I think this movie and its equally macho sequels would be a must for any action fan's video/DVD library.<br /><br />McClane does sort of turn out to be a one-man army, but he's not exactly superhuman. He suffers wounds and injuries just like any normal human being, and he talks quite a bit. McClane's efforts are not appreciated by either the L.A.P.D. *or* the F.B.I., and his only support outside the building is from weary street cop Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). The relationship between McClane and Powell is a well-developed one, and Willis and VelJohnson have good dialog as Powell offers McClane words of encouragement.<br /><br />I would be remiss if I didn't mention the superb performances by Rickman and Russian ballet dancer Alexander Godunov as the primary bad guys. These are thoroughly entertaining action movie villains, and Hans is actually more than one-dimensional. On the one hand, he's cold-blooded and cruel, yet he also enjoys dressing well and seems very cultured.<br /><br />The only sour note is the abundance of the F-word (although, in retrospect, I might be swearing a blue streak if I were in the same frustrating situation) and the variety of truly moronic supporting characters in the film (the self-serving, coke-snorting yuppie Ellis (Hart Bochner), the foolish and brain-dead deputy police chief Robinson (Paul Gleason), the equally self-serving and pompous TV news reporter Thornburg (William Atherton), and the ignorant and overconfident FBI men (Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush).<br /><br />But what a film it is. Entertaining for over two hours. While on the surface it seems like a real "Guy's" film, Bonnie Bedelia, as the estranged wife, has a decent role, although hers is the only prominent female role in the picture.<br /><br />9/10