by Michael Wetmore

Created on: January 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

When people think Bruce Willis, they think tough guy. They think hard-ass. They conjure up images of a beat-up and bloody hero who stops at nothing to get the job done. They think of a dude who will walk across broken glass in his bare feet. With that in mind, there is one particular movie that stands as Willis' best. That movie is Die Hard. It is not only the high point of his career by which all his other movies can be judged, but the quintessential action movie of the 1980's by which similar such flicks can be judged. Let me tell you why it's so awesome.

First of all the story is solid. Without giving to much away, it revolves around Willis, a New York cop visiting his estranged wife in LA over Christmas and the trouble that ensues when terrorists take over her office building and hold her and her co-workers hostage on Christmas Eve. Their well planned heist is about to foiled however by a certain contingency they didn't plan for - John McClane.

What follows is a finely calculated "fly-in-the-ointment" story. McClane will stop at nothing to see that the terrorists are stopped and his wife returned safely. There's lots of bullets, blood and bad guys. Not to mention a pretty high body count. There are explosions and over-the-top machismo one-liners. Die Hard as all the makings of a great action movie.

The Sequel, Die Hard 2: Die Harder is certainly worth watching, as is Die Hard with A Vengeance, the third installment of the series. However, Willis has also made some great flicks outside of the Die Hard Franchise. Pulp Fiction is undoubtedly one of his finest moments.

However, in the 1990's he made a series of films that total to nothing more than miles of wasted tape. Unfortunately, Willis was struck with that annoying desire, that affects all sorts of actors, to prove that he can go above and beyond action. So what. I say, stick with what you're good at. Even the Sixth Sense was sappy, some of his other movies I couldn't even handle ten minutes of.

Things eventually fell back into place however. His role opposite Michael Madsen in Sin City was stellar and we can all hope for such performances in the future.

Learn more about this author, Michael Wetmore.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.