It’s difficult to imagine that we’ve had John McTiernan’s Die Hard, with us for thirty years.
After all that time, it has not lost one iota of it’s thrills or pleasure.
Is it a perfect film?
Pretty much.
Brought to 4k UHD Blu-ray courtesy of Fox, along with HDR, and a huge DTS-HD MA track, it joins that ranks for that tiny number of bona fide true 4k Blu-rays.
And it’s perfect in every regard.
Full film resolution, with requisite grain, perfect color, deep rich blacks, and stable as a rock.
Bruce Willis still shines through. Alan Rickman is as nasty as ever. And Reginald VelJohnson still delights.
This ones is easy. Just buy a copy and add it to your library. Once you see it in 4k, there’s no going back.
A magnificent release from Fox!
Image – 5
Audio – 5 (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Upgrade from Blu-ray – You better believe it!
Pass / Fail – Pass
Very Highly Recommended
RAH
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I just watched this last night on my JVC RS440 – very impressive indeed and a great movie.
Yippee-ki-yay, Robert!
I'll have to pick this one up before the holidays, as this film is always a must watch for us around Christmas. Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber is one of the all-time best screen villains.
One of the greatest Christmas films of all time.
It’s a shame that they didn’t make this new master available on standard BD in addition to UHD.
It's kind of interesting that someday people will look back, and there's going to be this weird period from ~2000 to ~2020 where a ton of movies are limited to 2K resolution because they were made during the early days of digital intermediates. Most things before then can be true 4K and most things after then will be true 4k, but from O Brother Where Are Thou? to now, the majority of movies are 2048×1080 or less.
I think it’ll be akin to the way much of the television we have from a certain era (or eras) is locked in at 480i, either due to being shot on tape, or worse, shot on expensive and good looking film but edited on lower quality tape.
Absolutely. The shows that had the foresight to shoot on film, going back to I Love Lucy, survive in reruns forever. The shows that were broadcast live (where only a kinescope survives, if anything survives at all) have mostly disappeared from our consciousness.
At least with the 1980s to early 2000s shows that were shot on film and edited on tape can be resurrected at full resolution, albeit through a very expensive and time-consuming process of reconstruction. I doubt we'll ever see one as ambitious as "Star Trek: The Next Generation", but hopefully we'll see more "Twin Peaks" and "Freaks & Geeks".
I watch Brooklyn 99 with my 14 yo son, and of course There are a ton of die hard references as it is Perralta's favorite movie.
I received this uhd disc yesterday and the first thing my son said was "whoa, that's a real movie?"
Can't wait to introduce him to it this weekend.
I think a lot of shows from the shot-on-film-but-edited-on-tape era will quietly disappear. They won’t really be lost, but they’ll fall out of favor by younger generations who will use the metric of whether or not a show is in HD as an arbitrary metric just to limit choices to something manageable.
To my eyes, the difference between standard definition and HD is the biggest leap. I think 2K mastered films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens will do fine even if they don’t look as good as some other native 4K productions. But I think stuff that’s shot on film but edited on tape can look pretty lousy especially on modern sets, and even worse when compressed for streaming, so I worry about the long term viability of those programs.
But it’s great to finally have a better-than-decent Die Hard release at long last!
Matlock is the one that's most in danger of having this happen.
Both Murder She Wrote and Matlock premiered about the same time, but MSW stuck to film editing, while Matlock used video. MSW is now being released on Blu-Ray while Matlock doesn't have an HD master at all.
OMG….. SO hard as this is one of my all-time favorites ( My family watches this every Christmas Eve (whether they want to or not) butI'm gonna wait wait for the inenvitable "collection" release in 4k
I got my 4K/UHD from Amazon yesterday as I plan on watching the disc either today or tomorrow.
And I was planning to hold off on buying this…
So was I, but with the current pricing down to $19.99, I used some bonus points to get it down to $16.19 after sales tax.
Spot-on, Mr. Harris.
Every time I watch this movie, I come away completely amazed at how flawlessly it all comes together. And yes, it totally is one of the great Christmas movies!
…And for everyone's enjoyment, there's THIS guy's take (saw this link from discussion at the blu-ray forums):
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/i-watched-die-hard-for-the-first-time
Does the blu-ray in the package also feature the new transfer or is it the same disc as before?
Same as before.
The digital code also does not redeem in 4K.
One would have to be a die-hard hater of fun who couldn't enjoy this film.
Looks like the town I live in. Any wonder why I don't have my 4K panel, yet?
Too late for you but it's down to $17.99 at wally world.
Yeah I grabbed the single copy my local had on the shelf for $18.
I agree with Robert re: DIE HARD really being a "perfect movie", and UHD is glorious. I wish Jan De Bont would go back to being a cinematographer.
Vincent
Die Hard is a Christmas tradition in our house. Looks like I'll be double-dipping on this one. Thanks for the review Mr. Harris!
Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are not Christmas movies! At least some will argue that, but not me.;) By the way, I'm just joking so let's not get into a full blown "what is a Christmas movie" discussion.:) I'm firing up Die Hard tomorrow and I'm looking forward to watching this disc.
Oh well, I have so many Amazon bonus points, I have to spend it something.
Picked up a copy today. The 4k is a huge improvement over the 1080p disc. But a :thumbsdown: for not releasing the new transfer on the 1080p disc.
I haven't watched this since it came out. I think I liked it, I don't remember much about it. I might pick it up.
Are you serious?
Yeah. My brother got me into an "R" rated movie which I always liked at the time.
I remember really wanting to see it because it starred Bruce Willis(one of my favorite shows was Moonlighting), and honestly the only thing I can think of about the movie is that he cut his feet open, was bleeding, and probably needed stitches.
Again, I may be wrong. It has been a long time.
I rewatched the first four and saw for the first time the fifth Die Hard this Winter. I was impressed at how well the original aged: still an exceptional and genre-shifting movie. I was disappointed at how badly 2 and 3 aged for me. But the fourth, with Justin Long, was still really good, and even more relevant today (despite the overly ridiculous Harrier sequence). And the fifth…ugh.
Realized I forgot to mention the logo.
It’s my perception, that the wrong Fox logo has been on this film, possibly from day One.
Does de Bont work at all anymore? According to IMDB, he hasn't directed anything since 2003 and his only credit of any sort since then was executive producer for 2012's "Paperboy"…
I don't want to oversell it but it's a heckuva movie. I envy you not remembering much of it.
Yeah, it seems they incorrectly attached a flat Fox logo to this 'Scope film, so it's "stretched" and distorted. As I recall, it looked that way on my old laserdisc copy, as well.
Vincent
Yeah both Die Hard and Die Hard 2 had that stretched 1.85:1 logo originally.
Joel Silver liked it that way.
Neil
McTiernan had some weird issues with the Fox logo – Die Hard uses a flat one for a ‘scope film, while Predator uses a ‘scope one for a flat film.
I was watching Paul Blart the other day. I know..comedies like that isn't my thing and I truly had never seen this one.
While I came away with a kind of "meh" it's alright, but I still would rather watch King of Queens, I couldn't help but think of one thing. Is this Die Hard or what? Guy stuck in the middle of a kind of terrorist hostage situation check….loved one is one of the victims..check…cheeseball boyfriend wannabe is almost the one that gives it all a way (ok this was a changeup..but really really close)….bad ass skilled henchmen….a walky talky situation where he doesn't want to talk to the FBI dude.
Ok, so maybe I am dim and other people have caught on to this way earlier, but I couldn't help but smile thinking of the original great movie. In the laserdisc days this movie was supreme…and in THX goodness.
Looking forward to this one.
All this talk got me to order the UHD. Now I will have to watch the film before Christmas! I'm blaming everyone in this thread!
Even though I wish this had an immersive track, I picked up the disc anyway because Die Hard is FLIPPIN' AWESOME!
That's a bummer. Do you know if the HDX stream is a downscale of the UHD stream, or is it the same HDX stream it was six months ago?
Thank you for the heads up on this! I was going to hold off and wait for a better price, but I don't see it getting much better than this for a while now. And it had dropped 3 cents in price since you posted this.:)
I have HD copies of 2 through 4 but I never upgraded my "Five Star Collection" DVD of the first one from 2001. So even though I don't have a 4K setup yet, this future proofs me and still represents an upgrade from a 17-year-old DVD.
The fourth one is my second favorite after the original, too — especially the R-rated cut that restored the blood and foul language. Then the third one, with the second one bringing up the rear. We won't talk about the dreadful fifth one at all.
I want to like #3. The villain and plot are all good. But the ‘90s race politics and reverse racism schtick don’t work for me in 2018. YMMV.
But #4 is still aces. It feels die hard through and through. So much, that I wanted a Justin Long and Elizabeth Olson spinoff.
HDX stream Is the same.
I would rate the DH films as follows by the way.
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
Die Hard 4
Die Hard 3
Die Hard 5
Saw 45 minutes of this yesterday and was very impressed with the transfer.
Full disclosure: only checked into this thread because I thought the 20th Century Fox logo looked horizontally stretched. Glad I did. Question answered. :rolling-smiley:
Tino,
I agree completely with your rating of these films.
Raul
The image on the front page with the link to this thread is from Die Hard 5 which is heresy of the highest order.
Haha, I never saw 5, but I did wonder why it clearly wasn't a picture from the original film.
I can not wait to add the 4K Blu-ray to my collection even thought I have this movie on regular blu-ray.
Weird little audio mixing anomaly I noticed at 46:07- when Reginald VelJohnson slams his police car door which is on screen-right, the sound of the car door slamming comes from the left, on both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The wonders of stereophonic sound!
Vincent
Thanks to your review, I have purchased the 4K. As I have several earlier releases, my wife thinks I am crazy.
Most UHD reissues are ending up at $14.95 e.g., A Few Good Men now at Amazon.
It depends on the studio. You won't find many Warner or Disney titles that low. Sony, Lionsgate and at times, Fox have been that low.
It's close, but you're right, Mr. Harris: https://wp.me/p5FuJY-1dq
Another half baked catalog title by Fox in the sense that they again failed to add a Dolby Atmos track that was already completed. They did this with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and The Revenant too.
Yup sounds about right.
Hey! I paid for all those speakers and I want them all to be used, even if it's a silent movie! (to paraphrase an argument by the full-screen, anti-black bars contingent of old). 😀
I don’t have a 4K tv yet but most of the 4K movies I’ve watched still work very well on my 4K player and old fashioned 1080p tv.
Die Hard isn’t one of them though.
Very dark and over saturated.
Well guess I have to wait until I get the new tv someday.
Oh and I forgot, it’s been so long since I’ve watched the movie I forgot that Huey Lewis was in this.
Ha. THat guy does looks A little like Huey. 😛
Great, I'm going to go to my grave seeing that guy as Huey Lewis now. :laugh:
Which guy?
Which guy?
View attachment 46547
There ya go.
View attachment 46547
There ya go.
The American dude that mans the front desk when Al first shows up to investigate ("I got $50 bet on them assholes").
The American dude that mans the front desk when Al first shows up to investigate ("I got $50 bet on them assholes").
Hans believed in the Power of Love. Or he needed a New Drug. Not sure which.
Hans believed in the Power of Love. Or he needed a New Drug. Not sure which.
Hans believed in the Power of Love. Or he needed a New Drug. Not sure which.
So as I was reading your post, that line came on in the movie. True story.
So as I was reading your post, that line came on in the movie. True story.
So as I was reading your post, that line came on in the movie. True story.
Every time we watch the film, I say to my wife "there's the guy who looks like Huey Lewis". So it's not just me — glad to know. 🙂
BTW, when "Huey" is watching the USC – Notre Dame football game I get irritated every time, too. Those two teams never played on Christmas Eve — their annual rivalry game would have been played before Thanksgiving.
He should have known the outcome of the game, so I don't feel sorry if he loses $50. USC and Notre Dame played every year before Thanksgiving weekend. (See my other post).
If you want to make a great movie, the surrounding actors are just as important as the principal actors. That's why Geordie from Star Trek TNG, Huey Lewis, and Fabio all make Snape's goon squad.
On that note, what business has a Christmas party on Christmas eve?
Neil
Yes, another faux pas in the film. Only a company run by Ebeneezer Scrooge would make its employees stick around late on Christmas Eve.
A Japanese one that doesn't know the conventions and is driven by corporate greed. No early time off, you gotta be working! Which is why Hans, Geordie, Huey and Fabio had to teach them a lesson.
The guy that takes over the front desk.
The last dozen posts of this thread made me LOL today! :laugh:
If this is it…
I wonder if he thinks Die Hard is just too darn loud.
Grabbed my copy of Die Hard on 4K for $19.98
View attachment 46561
Ah, but they are not teaching them a lesson — they are just a bunch of thieves. Not common thieves, but according to Hans Gruber, "exceptional thieves".
An exceptional thief could tell the difference between John Wayne and Gary Cooper. :razz:;)
I am glad you settled this. I can now tell my wife that DH belongs in our yearly Xmas rotation. I’ve already told her multiple times, but now she’s gotta believe. 😛
I've seen this movie enough times to get this joke, but not enough times to come up with it myself.
It really upsets me that they are not including the 4K on blu ray. Not everyone has a 4K UHD blu ray player yet. I do have a UHD TV but the player will have to wait for the Holidays, and alot of it has to do with my Blu Ray player. I have a Sony that had the player and the surround sound system all in one, and it would mean I have to get a seperate sound system as well as the player. They should always use the new 4K master for the Blu if they include a Blu.
I don't have a 4K TV so when I pick up a 4K title (I use the Blu-ray). I think of the 4K disc as something to look forward to. 🙂
Yes the BD looks only marginally better than the DVD, IMO.
Do you have a 4K player?
Not yet but I have seen the few 4K discs that I've bought on a friend's set up. And I've largely only bought new releases to future proof so I haven't bought/seen Die Hard yet.
Paid 19.99 @ BB today.
Looks just like it did the four times I saw it in the theater over its long 1988 theatrical release. My first showing was opening day in a sparse matinee and my final was about five weeks later when word had spread to a 70mm sold out Saturday night show where the audience went crazy. De Bont's camerawork was eye candy then and now in 4k. This film is a cultural snapshot of 1988 too.
No release thus far in Australia .. not that I can detect, anyway. Looks as if the 4k era is going to pass us by … in the same way it's impossible in Australia to purchase HD audio .. although I have managed to get around the regional checks of France's very desirable Qobuz site, with its treasure-trove of 24-96 dubs from vintage LPs and tapes. Moderate prices too..
Watched the 4k disk last night and was underwhelmed by the image. Not sure i would have recognised it as a UHD if i hadn't had the case! I accept that all the reviews have been positive, but i just couldn't see it.
How are you viewing it?
Watched it in 4k on a Panasonic 65 OLED and upscaled Optoma 1080p projector. I think it may just be expectation. Same as when blu ray replaced DVD, wide variation in quality.
I think it looks about as good as it possibly can – it was shot anamorphic on 80s stock using low-light lenses.
Film just looks lousy. Yet another example of the myth of 4k.
What do you mean by that myth comment?