Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs.
It’s about a father’s quest to get the perfect present for his son. Christmas movie.
I might go so far as to say Die Hard is just a sly remake of It’s a Wonderful Life. The elements are all there.
As for IAWL being released in the summer, yes, and it was filmed in summer too. It was an especially hot one, I recall reading. The snow was all artificial, and the actors were almost dying of heat stroke on the set.
My wife also has it listed as a Christmas movie and insists on watching it at Christmas along with all the other favourites. (My own favourite is the Blackadder Christmas Carol.)
“Attention, whoever you are: this channel is reserved for emergency calls only.”
“No, uh, no fucking shit, lady; does it, ah, does it sound like I’m, uh, ordering a pizza?”
it’s about a man who has to travel to LA where they don’t have traditional christmas to bring his wife back to normal America (and killing terrorists).
Only roughly 12 hours til this year’s viewing! I’m so pumped!
“Heeeyyy! kiss Merry Christmas!”
“Fuckin’ California!”
Did that last night, I will watch 3 and 4 tonight + Last Kiss Goodnight for good measure.
Christmas night over here, and the wife and I just finished watching Die Hard. You know, that movie is 26 years old now. I remember when it first came out, and the technology in the movie seemed so up-to-date. Touch screens! And those ladies’ hairstyles. All looks quaint now.
Back when it first came out, it was very popular in guesthouses on Khao San Road, Bangkok’s backpacker haven then as now. This was before the Internet or e-mail cafes. The numerous guesthouses on the road would show movies in their restaurant or common areas to attract custom, and it was a big source of entertainment. Tapes, no DVDs yet. Every night you could find at least a couple guesthouses showing Die Hard. I remember often kicking back with some large bottles of Singha beer and watching it when I was in town from up North. Those were some good times. Lethal Weapon was another big guesthouse favorite too, watched it so many times on Khao San Road as well.
One of the Die Hard terrorists is also in Lethal Weapon. The Chinese guy. Long hair but with a receding hairline. Fu Manchu mustache. I looked him up, and he’s Al Leong. He’s killed by Bruce Willis in one and Mel Gibson in the other. (In Lethal Weapon, he’s the guy who gives Mel Gibson electric shocks while Mel’s hanging from the ceiling.)
And the utility worker we see sticking out of the manhole, the one who gets on the radio to order the power grid cut, that’s Gus in Groundhog Day, aka Rick Ducommun.
The folks at collegehumor.com clearly consider Die Hard a Christmas movie, judging by this flowchart:
It is not just A Christmas movie, it is THE Christmas Eve tradition. Along with tourtière and hot chocolate with Bailey’s. And Die Hard 2: Die Harder if I’m still “awake” enough.
ETA: with a break for Boris Karloff’s Grinch, 'cause I’m a sentimentalist.
He was killed by Bruce Lee’s son in Rapid Fire.
This year I happened to notice that the airline traveler who tells McClane to make fists with his toes (stupid scene only there to give him a reason to be barefoot), is the same actor who plays the sleazy agent in Ernest Saves Christmas, one of my *other *yearly Christmas movies.
And we watched another great Christmas movie this afternoon – Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Knowing now that they’ll break up again later in the series, my wife points out that he’s so good to her so she should stay with him.
I recall when this one came out in 1990. There was much concern in the press about movies at the time trying to outdo each other with higher body counts. They crashed a whole jetliner full of passengers in one scene here.
Bill Smith, Louise Baltimore, and Chief O’Brien beamed them all out just before it burst into flames.
Speaking of Die Hard 2, the movie is very much pre-9/11, but still, how easy would it have been for the old lady to get on the plane with that Taser in her purse? Thinking back to 1990, they had metal detectors then. I assume this was one of those movie plot points that you just had to go along with,
I watched it just this Christmas.
Sorry if it is not appropriate but I thought I would resurrect this thread from last year to see if there was further discussion/voting for this year.
Still not a Christmas movie, gorrammit.
Still in my top 3 Xmas movies. Miracle on 34th St and It’s a Wonderful Life are the only 2 I put ahead of it.
It is an awesome movie that takes place at Christmas with Christmas music. Maybe not a traditional Christmas movie but then *Miracle *is about a probably crazy old man and Wonderful Life involves a suicide attempt, so what exactly makes a Christmas Movie?
It is and it always will be! I think it’ll be time to crank it up yet again this year.