A BEEFED-UP Bruce Willis fares well in breezy mode in Die Hard (Pearl, 9.30pm). But when the emoting turns heavy he looks uncomfortable, as he always does. Alan Rickman, as the head villain, steals the show. He gives an impeccably evil performance, one which put him on the international map and gave rise to his equally manic showing as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (alongside Kevin Costner).
Yet Die Hard, directed by Predator's John McTiernan and the surprise hit of 1988, suits Willis. It is the perfect role for him, if there is one; all testosterone and no technique. His performance is as pumped-up, but as lowbrow, as the action. The film is only marred, not quite spoiled, by a script that panders to an unpleasant stereotype - that foreigners are not to be trusted. We all know they are to be trusted, except where changing money on street corners and negotiating taxi fares is concerned.
On Christmas Eve, a New York City cop (Willis) arrives in Los Angeles to spend the holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and two young children. The couple separated after the massive Japanese corporation (didn't they do this story in Rising Sun?) Bedelia works for promoted her to a powerful position in their state-of-the-art headquarters, an imposing office building in Century City.
There is a sub-text that feminists will enjoy. The implication is that Bedelia should not be jeopardising marital bliss by working so hard. It's her fault that Willis left her; for goodness sake, she should be at home looking after the brats.
Willis meets Bedelia at the office Christmas party on the 30th floor. While he is doing what comes naturally in the men's executive lavatories, a group of terrorists, headed by Rickman, seizes the building and takes everyone in it hostage.
The plan is to break into the company safe and walk off with a cool US$670 million in negotiable bonds. Willis, who has lost his shoes along the way and is barefoot, slips to the upper floors of the building, from where he wages a one-man war against the occupying force.
IN Drugstore Cowboy (Pearl, 2.00am) Matt Dillon is an altogether more considered actor. This is not a thrill-a-minute drug scum film, but a darkly funny and stylish character study, with some violence thrown in for those who need their fix.
