TIL that Die Hard received mixed reviews upon release. Critics didn't like Bruce Willis' performance, action and violence

Critics for movies tend to shit on everything I like. Critics for video games tend to overrate games highly way too much.

Unpopular opinion but I don’t think this movie is good lol. I get that it’s very nostalgic and it has its moments but otherwise it’s not too different from any other late 80’s/early 90’s action film. Which is frankly not a high bar to achieve.

My kids watched it for the first time ever last weekend. They had no nostalgia or frame of reference for it and yet they both loved it - “the dumbest fun movie I’ve seen in ages”. We’re watching #2 tonight.
- I've always told people they're thinking too much when they watch these movies. Just have fun. They're ridiculous, that's the point.
I suppose you had to be there at the time. For people who only watched US/Hollywood films it was wild. There hadn’t been much, if anything, like it before. Everything that came after it… came after it.
I understand how, in retrospect, it may feel like it isn’t groundbreaking, but do consider that before Die Hard, there really wasn’t anything quite like it.
A quote straight from Wikipedia:
It is considered to have revitalized the action genre, largely due to its depiction of McClane as a vulnerable and fallible protagonist, in contrast to the muscle-bound and invincible heroes of other films of the period.
While it did sort of fall apart and away from what made it great in the later sequels, I think it’s important to put the film into the context of when it was released and what it did to the genre.
All that to say, Die Hard fucking rules.
- Exactly, this is 100% Seinfeld is Unfunny material.
  In the eighties, action films preferred invincible heroes who slaughtered mooks by the dozen with casual disdain. Die Hard popularized grittier and more realistic action, with heroes who are vulnerable and suffer from character faults. It also popularized the concept of action movies confined to limited space, a setup that this very wiki calls ""Die Hard" on an X". (For example, Speed is "Die Hard on a bus.") Also, at the time it came out, people were shocked at the idea of a comedic actor like Bruce Willis being an action star. Nowadays, what with Tom Hanks Syndrome, comedic actors doing serious roles aren't nearly so amazing. Younger fans might not even know Willis got his start in comedy.

I don’t recall the reviews of the first movie but I vividly recall LOTS of articles exclaiming about all the unnecessary violence in the second movie. One news piece had some “expert” show how many times MacLaine would have died, broken bones, etc if it were real. So much free advertising.

In 1988, what was the general consensus on "fun" or "over the top" movies? Did 80s audiences not understand how fucking cool the action movies of their era were? Was it yet another critics vs average chad movie enjoyer scenario?

Oh, it must be Christmas time