DIE HARD (John McTiernan, 1988): In the spirit of this holiday season, LeisureSuit.net would like to suggest for your viewing enjoyment the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Die Hard. From the moment RUN-DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" booms from the soundtrack over the opening credits, it's clear that this is going to be a Yule-tide to remember.

The plot will be familiar to anyone who has seen any action film since Die Hard: a lone man must save many from murderous terrorists. It's a formula much-used since Die Hard was a huge hit in 1988, in films that ranged from the very good (Under Siege, Executive Decision) to the pretty good (Speed), to the bloody awful (The Rock, Passenger 57). But make no mistake--Die Hard is the granddaddy of the modern action picture, and nobody's done it better since.

The trailers promised to "blow you through the back wall of the theatre," and with state-of-the-art 70mm 6-track Dolby stereo, and an astonishing $40-million budget, the film delivered. Twelve men, apparently terrorists, seize the 40-story Nakatomi building with a party in progress on one of the top floors. New York cop John McClane is in town visiting his estranged wife (the adorably wifely Bonnie Bedelia) and shows up for the party just before the terrorists, led by Alan Rickman (in a role that created an archetype), burst in and take everybody hostage.

McClane manages to escape into the stairwell and proceeds to make a major nuisance of himself, getting little help from the cops or the FBI men assembling outside. I won't be giving anything away by revealing that he saves the day, living to fight again in two sequels, with another one in the works as of this writing.

So what makes Die Hard a cut above subsequent action pictures that borrowed its premise? An advance poster for the film announced: "Twelve terrorists. One cop. The odds are against John McClane . . . That's just the way he likes it," and got it exactly wrong. This very traditional Hollywood tag line shows a clueless copywriter grasping to understand a story that's a little deeper than the traditional action fare. This isn't Raw Deal. John McClane doesn't want to be there fighting terrorists. He wants to get his wife and go home. He wants the cops to come and handle things. He gets hurt, he bleeds, he is afraid. But damn it, it's not his lucky day. Tired, weak, and beaten, he is forced to be a hero.

Alas, in creating the biggest, loudest, most expensive action picture ever, the makers of Die Hard were pretty much begging for a quick obsolescence, and in the light of the my-bazooka-is-bigger-than-your-bazooka action picture arms race that the film spawned, Die Hard already seems a little, well, quaint. Just take a look at the awe on William Atherton's face when one floor of the Nakatomi building blows up. It's only been ten years, but even a viewer who remembers what an awesome spectacle that was at the time is apt to think "What's the big deal? It's only one floor." The melodramatic orchestral score also seems a bit dated.

But you can't blame a movie for the history that followed it. And even if action pictures continue to get bigger and costlier and louder, Die Hard still has the smart script, great supporting players, nail-biting suspense, real human pathos, and non-stop action to make it a classic.