Lean-N-Mean actioner is the best ever.

Bruce Willis in Die Hard!!! This is the film that invented the "Die Hard On a..." formula, it is the original, the best. It is Die hard.

In Die Hard Bruce Willis plays Detective John Mcclain, an NYPD officer heading to LA to patch things up with his wife but finding himself the only one who can deal with a problem when terrorists break up his wife's office party and take everyone hostage.

The reason for Die Hard's success though, the reason that it has had such an influence on action movie history is because it was the first real action movie to star an every day guy. Bruce Willis was not as big as Schwarzenegger and he didn't have the moves of Bruce Lee, he was simply a normal everyday guy who had spent long periods of time in the gym. He was a charismatic hero who made up for his lack in size with an abundance of witty wise cracks, a habit that noone has perfected in the same way as Willis.

Playing opposite him was a wonderfully over the top portrayal of evil from everyone's favorite British villain, Alan Rickman. His snidey, twisted character was brought to life by Rickman, a man with a knack for bringing to life snidey, twisted characters.

Other characters of note include the traditional weasel of a news reader Thornberg, brought to wonderful Wesley life by William Atherton, and the hilarious Limo driver Argyle, played perfectly by De'voreaux White, who brought out the characters sarcasm, and general fun loving manor in classic fasion.

Of course Die Hard wasn't exactly a quiet, character led peace. Those watching it likely don't care about the acting or the characters, it's the action they want, and this is where Die Hard delivers in spades. Shootouts on the rooftop, dropping dead bodies onto cop cars, dropping bombs down elevator shafts, and even leaping from the roof of an office block to avoid being killed, Die Hard has it all and delivers in spectacular fashion.

If I were to pick a complaint it would likely be that the film is very violent, gun shots are shown in graphic detail, as was the norm in the 80's, occasionally offering a close-up as someone's flesh is torn up by bullets. This film is not for the squeamish.

Nevertheless it remains one of the greatest action movies in blockbuster history. Shame it really amounted to little more than Die Hard in an office block, Oh right.

This has been my entry into the Lean-N-Mean write-off.