Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Collection

The first four Die Hard films—the popular action-movie franchise that turned wisecracking lug Bruce Willis into a crime-fighting hero—were released in this Blu-ray box just as the fifth, A Good Day to Die Hard, was opening in theaters. Directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard (1988) drops New York cop John McClane (Willis) into a Los Angeles skyscraper to match wits with terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) while the building is in lockdown on Christmas Eve. Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), helmed by Renny Harlin, serves up another Christmas crisis for McClane—here battling rogue military officials at a snowbound airport. McTiernan returned to direct Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), in which Samuel L. Jackson becomes Willis's reluctant ally, Zeus Carver, while criminal mastermind Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) puts them through a lethal game of “Simon Says.” More than 10 years would pass before the appearance of the fourth film, director Len Wiseman's Live Free or Die Hard (2007), with resilient old-school cop McClane a little older and balder (and a lot more battered) as he takes on 21st-century super-genius Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) and the biggest cybercrime theft in history. What makes the series work is Willis as the hardened veteran who is held together by scar tissue, invariably roused to action because, hey, he's the guy who can do it, and staying sane thanks to his sardonic sense of humor. All four films have been released on Blu-ray before (leading one reviewer to quip, “yippie-ki-yay, double dippers!”), and the discs here are the same editions with all of the supplements intact. What's new is a bonus disc with almost two hours of new behind-the-scenes retrospective featurettes (although none feature Willis). So, for those who don't already own the films individually, this collection—sure to please Willis fans—is recommended. (S. Axmaker)