It's the holiday season, so we're holding The Unenthusiastic Critic hostage for her first viewing of John McTiernan's Die Hard (1988), starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, and Reginald VelJohnson.
Throughout December we'll be watching "Christmas-adjacent" movies, and we're beginning with a discussion about what does or doesn't make something a yuletide classic.
Then, we're sitting down for Nakea's first viewing of the quintessential non-Christmas Christmas movie. Released 30 years ago this year, Die Hard is widely considered the greatest action movie ever made, but will that be enough to get Nakea into the holiday spirit?
0:00: Prologue: from The Lion in Winter (1968)
0:21: Preliminary Conversation: Christmas-Adjacent Movies
14:31: Interlude: Original Trailer
15:58: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion
26:19: Interlude: Scene from Die Hard
27:01: The Verdict: Post-Viewing Discussion
58:21: Outro and Next Week's Movie
59:13: Outtake
Notes and Links
—Movie Reviewed: Die Hard (dir. John McTiernan, 20th Century Fox, 1988)
—Prologue: snippet from The Lion in Winter (dir. Anthony Harvey, Embassy, 1968)
—Articles Mentioned and Referenced: "Die Hard Works Because it’s Only Christmas-Adjacent," Zack Handlen, avclub.com; "Die Hard in a Building: An Action Classic Turns 25," Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com; reviews by Caryn James, nytimes.com; Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com; David Crow, denofgeek.com; Martin Chilton, telegraph.co.uk.
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—Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:41 — 55.0MB)
