Let’s start with Bruce Willis’ most famous role — his legacy character, John McClane. Overall, critics believe “Die Hard” is a Fresh franchise. Three of the five films in Willis’ iconic series made the cut, while one barely missed the mark, and the fifth … well, the fifth fell far short. According to a round-up on Rotten Tomatoes, here is where they landed.
“Die Hard” put Willis on the map in 1988, arguably changing the face of action movies everywhere. Willis wasn’t a hulking action star like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone or a martial artist like Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Instead, he was the everyman, and critics and audiences alike responded to him. The first movie gave him his top-rated critic score of 94%. The follow-up to that film, “Die Hard 2: Die Harder,” landed in 1990 with a 70% critic score. Then the fourth one, “Live Free or Die Hard,” hit the screens in 2007 with an 82%.
It is a travesty that the third film in the franchise, “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” barely missed the mark with 58%. Dropping in 1995 and adding bitter New Yorker Jesus (Samuel L. Jackson) to the mix to face off against Simon (Jeremy Irons) was likely the most fun you could have in an action movie that year (“Heat” and “Desperado” could give it a run for its money for sure). The most recent film, “A Good Day to Die Hard,” released in 2013 to a dreadful 15%, effectively killing the franchise.
