The significance of the 1988 action classic Die Hard is not lost on most people. A critical hit and a runaway smash at the box office, it’s regarded by everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together as one of the greatest action movies ever made.
The nature of Die Hard and its status as one of the manliest motion pictures ever committed to 35mm has a habit of placing it in the same category as monster trucks and meat that you can eat with your hands, for some people at least. Part of a punchline for things that define a strange, stereotypically male experience.
It’s mostly light-hearted posturing, of course, but I don’t really buy into that. Die Hard, naturally, does not belong to men alone. Very little gets between my wife and a viewing of Die Hard every Christmas Eve. Moreover, however, Die Hard not a punchline for me. I am completely, entirely, and thoroughly unironically in love with Die Hard.
2013, then, is another momentous year for a man who was once just one more Jägermeister and two more minutes away from getting the words Hans and Karl and a tally of dead bad guys tattooed on the inside of his arm. A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth instalment of the adventures of New York’s favourite dumb Irish flatfoot, is just a month away (in the US, at least) and as cynical as I am wont to be about most things these days, more Die Hard isn’t one of them.
But this year is special. More special than most, in fact. Die Hard may the yardstick against which I measure all other action movies, but I still love other action movies. Especially when they feature Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. Point is, within the space of a few weeks action movie fans are about to be treated to a brand new Schwarzenegger movie, a brand new Stallone movie, and A BRAND NEW DIE HARD. When was the last time that happened? 1995? Nope. 1990. Almost. Try 1988, and even that was over a longer time period.
That’s right; this buffet of battle from the holy trinity of Hollywood heroes is virtually unprecedented. Of course, Bruce Willis has featured in plenty of action movies that weren’t Die Hard (many of which are likely to have been released in close proximity to Schwarzenegger and Stallone flicks) but I’m specifying Die Hard because it’s my article and because Die Hard.
Here it is. A few weeks of cinema that feels like it could’ve been plucked straight from the decade fashion forgot. Die Hard returns and three old-school custodians of action, forged in the fires of ’80s excellence, go head-to-head once more. There hasn’t been a month like this since there was a wall through Berlin and everyone on the eastern side of it were abnormally fast swimmers, as we shall now demonstrate.
A quiet year, compounded by the fact that the unrated home video version of Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0 (which came out a few months later) is by far the superior version. No Arnie. No Sly.
Not that much better, to be honest. Sly had a film of his own out shortly after Bruce conquered the world with the incredible Die Hard With a Vengeance (the highest grossing film of 1995 worldwide) but it was Judge Dredd. History does not look favourably upon Judge Dredd. He also had Assassins out later in the year, a movie the writers unsuccessfully tried to disown.
This is a close one. 1990 is a Die Hard year, and both Arnie and Sly were still in their prime and had movies out in the same year. However, only Arnie had one out within approximately a month of Die Hard 2 with Total Recall. Sly’s Rocky V didn’t come out until later in the year (followed by another dose of Schwarzenegger).
This is it. As close as we’ve come to the next glorious few weeks of 2013. A triple treat of Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Die Hard – our first taste – all within a month of each other.
So it’s been almost 25 years since you could see a Schwarzenegger movie, a Stallone movie and a Die Hard movie in such close proximity to each other. But this is only the beginning. 2013 also promises us Jason Statham’s Parker, a return of a quintet of comic legends (Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor, Superman and Kick Ass), a veritable bevy a sci-fi extravaganzas (including Star Trek Into Darkness and Pacific Rim), another serving of Bruce Willis with RED 2, a Sly and Arnie team-up in The Tomb and no less than four (4!) Dwayne Johnson joints.
Is 2013 the year action hits back? Is the golden age of action making a triumphant return?
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about Die Hard, Die Hard and/or Die Hard on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
Source : ign[dot]com
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