Die Hard: 30th Anniversary Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Die Hard: 30th Anniversary Edition

Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs!”

Ahhhh Die Hard. There are very few movies that can spark instant excitement in this jaded old reviewer, but Die Hard is definitely one of them. Even though there’s no Rudolph, Santas, or the little Drummer Boy present, nothing is more indicative of the upcoming Christmas holidays then seeing Die Hard marathons come across cable TV. In fact, I think I’ve watched Die Hard while making Christmas cookies with my wife every year for the last 11 or 12 years!

John McTiernan was once a legend in the 80s and 90s for his action films. He gave us such films as Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Last Action Hero, Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengeance, and The 13th Warrior. All fantastic films, but this was the movie that broke Bruce Willis into the limelight. Willis was just finishing up his big TV project in Moonlighting and wanting to break out into feature films (back in those days TV actors were TV actors, and the real deal was in making motion pictures. Which seems to have changed in the last 15 or so years). So he took a role offered to him by John McTiernan and the rest is history.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is a tough as nails New York City cop who has been flown out on Christmas Eve to reconcile with his business lady wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedilia). It’s never overly stated, but it’s pretty obvious from the intimations that Holly separated from John due to his work and took the kids with her to New York. She’s a good looking woman executive on the rise, and John is your typical blue collar New York City cop. The meeting is tense, you can cut the positive tension between the couple with a knife, and then all hell breaks loose when a group of international terrorists take the building hostage. John is luckily downstairs cleaning up in a bathroom when the Christmas party is crashed, which leaves him free to operate outside of the terrorist’s view initially.

Their leader, Hans Gruber (the late Alan Rickman) seems to have more complex goals than just negotiating a settlement with the Police, as he has an entire crew of men and equipment, and they seem much more interested in holding the police OFF from the building, than they are with negotiating money, or transportation. However, their aspirations may be cut short as McClane is not about to let them off easy and single handedly becomes the fly in their ointment.

Die Hard pretty much gave the rest of the 90s a blueprint for how to do an action movie right. Back in the early 80s we had the classic Stallone and Arnold actioneers, but Die Hard was the movie that did the whole “terrorist holding a building hostage” thing first, and that particular style has been copied countless times over the last 30 years. McTiernan himself really knows how to stage action, and the dialog is simply superb (for the genre of course). But what really sells the film more than anything else was newcomer Bruce Willis. He just embodied the idea of the hard as a brick smart mouth cop so well that you just adored his character. It was a strange mixture of every day man likability, mixed with tough as nails action and a sense of believability to the action. McClane could take out an entire group of terrorists, but he didn’t do so without some personal loss. He wasn’t invincible, and he actually reloaded his gun during battles, instead of firing 30 shouts out of a 15 shot Beretta. It was that sense of humanizing an action star that endeared him to fans everywhere, and created quite the successful run for the series (although the last 2 Die Hards have been excruciating to watch).




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

This has been a month for great classics on 4K UHD, and I was more than eager to dive into the disc just to see how big of an improvement we were looking at in the switch from 1080p to 2160p. Luckily the uptick is pretty stinking solid too. It may not be the night and day leap that many were hoping for, but this is a technically well done presentation that eeks the most out of the soft style photography of Jan de Bont. The film has always been slightly soft around the edges, as de Bont uses copious soft lens filters to give the movie a gritty ,but almost dreamy looking. Sharper elements like McClane insides of the air vents, or some moments inside of Mr. Akagi’s office with Hans are razor sharp, but if you look at the backgrounds closely you’ll notice the edges start to soften and the focus remains clearly in the foreground. The detail levels show a nice little uptick in quality, with fine points like stitching on clothing, as well as blood smears across the face showing better resolution. There’s some minor crush going on (the scene where John is about to light up his lighter in the air vent is one of the most obvious) and shadow detail is a bit wonky, but otherwise the upgrades are definitely there.

One of the biggest improvements has to do with the contrast and white levels. They have been given a serious boost that gives a much more balanced look, as the old Blu-ray has always looked a bit washed out to me. The added contrast levels allow for more natural skin tones and the black levels (while crushed) show more distinct details than ever before as a result. HDR is not a wild improvement here, but I did notice primary colors being distinctly sharper and more vibrant, such as the blood dripping off John’s feet in the bathroom. There’s a sense of depth that is excellent, and the gray washed out look of the Blu-ray and DVD is nearly completely gone (outside of the lens flaring that will create a slightly gray halo around the edges of the film.






Audio:

The original theatrical track for Die Hard was a Dolby Digital stereo track back in the 80s, and then given a 5.1 upgrade for the home video release back in the DVD era. The same mix (although upgraded to lossless) was re-done for the Blu-ray and repackaged. While I would LIKE an object based track like Atmos or DTS:X, I’m not deadly sure just how big of an upgrade (if any) we would see with its implementation considering that the 5.1 mix is stretching the stereo track to its max as it is. The audio was a solid performer on the Blu-ray, and remains a solid performer on the 4K UHD disc as well, providing good vocals support as well as a good low end for the thundering roar of MP5 automatic fire throughout the film (although the Steyr Aug that Karl wields sounds a bit too powerful considering it’s using basic 5.56 ammo). The surrounds are immersive and strong, with plenty of background support during the gunfights, but the rest of the track tends to live in the front of the room and is just ever so slightly thin.






Extras:

• Commentary by Director John McTiernan and Production Designer Jackson DeGovia
• Scene-Specific Commentary by Special Effects Supervisor Richard Edlund
• Subtitle Commentary by Various Cast and Crew
• The News Casts Featurette
• Interactive Style Gallery
• Interactive Articles from Cinefex and American Cinematographer
• Full-Length Screenplay
• Trailers & TV Spots

Final Score: ​

Thirty years later, Die Hard is still one of the greatest action movies ever made, and a quintessential Christmas movie for cinemaphiles everywhere. Bruce Willis became the legend he was after this film, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s likable, sarcastic enough to be funny, and tough as nails while staying outside of the “untouchable hero” trap. John McTiernan made some of the best action movies of the 80s and 90s, but this and Predator will always remain at the top of his accolades list. The 4K UHD ports over the Blu-ray’s audio and extras, but does sport a nice looking 2160p encode that delivers a satisfactory upgrade over the 1080p disc. I personally felt that, like The Matrix, fans would have benefited from a 4K UHD boxset of all the Die Hard films, but we can be satisfied with this solid 30th anniversary edition for now. Recommended.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Directed by: John McTiernan
Written by: Roderick Thorp (Novel), Jeb Stuart (Screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Spanish DD 5.1, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: May 15th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

I am so torn about this release! This is now the 4th copy of Die Hard I've purchased (VHS, DVD THX release, Blu-ray and now 4K BD).

I bought it... it's here... haven't dialed it up yet. But, wow, I was **really** hoping that the audio would get a little refresh. To me the audio has always been a sore spot. IMO the Blu-ray release was lacking in the bass dept and too bright. And perhaps there's really nothing to be done to fix it?

That being said, Die Hard is one of my desert island flicks. I've seen dozens and dozens of times and will definitely be watching it again (and soon!).

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. A great movie.

 

[typ44q]

I can't count the number of times I have seen this movie, an absolute classic! I picked up a copy of this and will hopefully get to watch it this weekend.