At this point, I’m sure you’ve all seen Die Hard. It’s an action classic and the flick propelled Bruce Willis to a super star status that few actors have ever achieved. (Oh, and it established Alan Rickman as a go to bad guy for Hollywood – even if it didn’t last that long.) But the point is, this movie is awesome, and if you’ve never seen it, you need to stop reading this and go check it out.

The first Die Hard began the short-lived tradition of an actor playing a cop in the movie and then getting a similar acting job on a TV show. In the first installment, that honor falls to Reginald VelJohnson in the role of Sgt. Al Powell (who reprises his role in Die Hard 2), who went on to star in Family Matters as Sgt. Carl Winslow.

Of course, that’s not the only tradition Die Hard has inspired as people always watch this movie at Christmas time… because the movie takes place at Christmas time, I guess. I’ve written about this phenomenon before, and I still don’t understand it. And, even more curious, no one watches the second Die Hard at Christmas time… but I’ll get why that might be when I review that flick.

Die Hard is great – sure, some of the characters are silly (Richard Thornburg, played by William Atherton, who plays Walter Peck in Ghostbusters the exact same way) or flat, but it’s fun, the camera work is great and the explosions, gun fire and blood look fantastic. Oh, and for no reason, there are topless women (and pictures of topless women) in this movie, so you really can’t go wrong. I give Die Hard a 9 out of 10.