December 22, 2010 
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Simon Miraudo picks…
It’s Christmas Eve. A New York cop – terrified of flying, mind you – catches a plane out to Los Angeles for his estranged wife’s Xmas party. He wants nothing more than to spend the holidays with his family, including his two cherubic children. “Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…” she said. Things are finally looking up for John McClane.
Die Hard is the quintessential Christmas film. It has everything we know and love from this cheesy (but deservedly so!) genre: a family reunion, cute kids, the promise and hope of the holiday season, a wise-cracking limo driver named Argyle. John McClane’s primary motivation is to keep his wife safe, and see his children – even if he and the guy from Family Matters need to shoot a bunch of Eurotrash criminals in the face to do. Spoiler alert: he succeeds. It’s a Christmas miracle!
The earth-shattering love I feel for John McTiernan’s Die Hard has been extolled elsewhere on the web, so let me just add some Christmassy context. I recall first watching Die Hard on Boxing Day back in the late-90s, back when I was a young pup who relished the sight of a man both swearing and killing people at the same time. I wore out the VHS tape I had recorded it on with repeat viewings. Years later, I would similarly wear down the DVD (it can happen). There is quite simply no film I’ve watched more times than Die Hard. I love everything about this movie, particularly how it reminds me of being a ten-year-old at Christmas, pushing all new presents aside to rewatch the anarchic, darkly comic adventures of John McClane.
Seeing as Tara already stole the primo Die Hard quote, allow me to share one with a more festive feel: “Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.”
Discuss: What are your favourite Christmas movies?
Quickflix 
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