As my blog title should bluntly indicate, I've been in a bit of a Die Hard phase recently. Since one of my managers let me borrow his Die Hard films (and I only saw the first one previously), I've been setting a bit of time aside to watch them. It should probably go without saying that the first film is almost completely unmatched by its successors. But this isn't to say that (all of) the sequels were weak; in fact, the only one that hardly had any redeeming qualities was the second film. Both the third and fourth, on the other hand, did far more justice to the first and, in the case of the last 30-40 minutes to Live Free or Die Hard, the intensity hits a real high.

This is how I'd rate and rank the Die Hard films, from best to worst:

1. Die Hard (4.25/5)

2. Live Free or Die Hard (3.75/5)

3. Die Hard with a Vengeance (3.5/5)

4. Die Hard 2/Die Harder (1.5/5)

However, on a less reassuring note, one of my personal favorite underrated actors, Pete Postlethwaite, has passed away. For those who aren't familiar, he played the T-Rex hunter in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (always carried a rifle), a prisoner in Alien 3, the priest in the 1996 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet and also had a small role towards the end of Inception. This is a true shame, for I would have liked to see him in a few more roles. May he rest in peace and his family and friends have my sympathies.