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Avg. Critic Score: 70 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Mr. Showbiz |

    This brash, clever picture caught the attention of audiences after years of moribund product from the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    The result is a foot-stomping rouser. Where else can you get a cop in his underwear boogalooing with skyscraper terrorists? [15 July 1988, Life, p.4D] Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    A firepowered, blood-drenched action picture that doesn't let up. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Tribune | Dave Kehr

    Has everything but a personality. [15 July 1988, Friday, p.A] Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Stack

    Slick, glossy, overblown, implausible. [15 July 1988, Daily Notebook, p.E1] Read full review

  • 70
    Variety |

    As high tech, rock hard and souped up as an action film can be. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times |

    Has to be the most excessive film around. It piles every known element of the action genre onto the flimsy story. [15 July 1988] Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post |

    A logistical wonder, a marvel of engineering, and relentlessly, mercilessly thrilling. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Thomas

    As a grand flourish of cinematic technique, it is awesome; as a human drama, it is disgusting and silly, a mindless depiction of carnage on an epic scale. [15 July 1988, Calendar, p.6-1] Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    On a technical level, there's a lot to be said for Die Hard. It's when we get to some of the unnecessary adornments of the script that the movie shoots itself in the foot. Read full review

View more reviews for Die Hard on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Original Bruce Willis violent actioner.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that the film does include continued acts of violence. The film includes a bloody execution, many onscreen killings, and the holding of many innocent hostages. The film's sexual content is tame, but it does include a moderate amount of swearing.
  • Families can talk about stereotyping and vigilante justice. Are John's actions, blowing things up, killing, etc. warranted by the situation? Should he have taken alternate legal measures to deal with the situation? The film uses a number of stereotypes in the development of its villains. What characteristics unite individuals such as Hans and Karl? Are such generalizations problematic? How do films today approach this subject? All of the film's active characters, John, Al, Hans and his henchmen are men. Can you think of more recent action films that feature women as main characters?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: The film includes extremely violent individuals, both on the sides of good and evil. The German terrorists are clearly marked as the bad guys, but the film does not really interrogate the type of violence used by the film's hero. His role as savior for the innocent rationalizes his killings in the world of the film.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Multiple onscreen killings, graphic execution, some graphic gunfights.
  • sex false3 Sex: Brief female nudity, randy partygoers, and a repeated image of girlie pictures hanging in the building (overall very tame).
  • language false3 Language: Both casual swearing and swearing out of frustration.
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Twinkies
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Cocaine use.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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