Do you know what today is (27 November)? Sure, it's Cyber Monday so you can get some cheap shopping deals. But, no, it's a much more important day than that: it's the 35th anniversary of an all-time classic Christmas movie that's finally on Disney+ right now. That's right: 1988's Die Hard is now available to stream. And you'll want to, given its 94% Rotten Tomatoes score.
I already know some of you are likely baulking at the suggestion Die Hard is even a Christmas movie at all. But, hey, it just is. There's an office Christmas party. An instrumental of Let It Snow by Frank Sinatra features. There's a coming together of family (of sorts). It might not feature the most obvious tropes, but you can call it Christmas-adjacent at the very least.
I recently watched Die Hard on a plane while travelling just the other week. It jumped out of the classics menu to me because, well, it just is a true classic. So I've got many scenes fresh in my mind and it's pretty mind-blowing to me that this flick is a full 35 years of age. It sometimes looks it, but it's still very well-pieced-together entertainment that marries together action and a lick of comedy too.
It's the movie that propelled Bruce Willis to superstardom thanks to his take on cop John McClane – but the other exceptional role is, of course, Alan Rickman's portrayal of Hans Gruber. No, I can't call him Scrooge-like, but Gruber's demise not only threads into the movie's sequel, it's caused all kinds of spin-offs, including a frankly absurd Advent calendar.
As we get close to December and the end of the year for the festive period, I'm looking forward to compiling a bunch of Christmas and Christmas-adjacent movies across the best streaming services. And I'm not talking about the 'best worst-rated Christmas movies' as I somewhat self-indulgently pieced together last year, but actual quality films worth watching.
Speaking of Christmas, a big part of the reason this whole Die Hard anniversary came to my attention is because Disney+ has actually gone all-out in raising awareness by creating a campaign with Alfie Boe. I know, a tenor to promote Die Hard? The resulting Kingom Choir performance, titled An Ode to Die Hard, which I've embedded below, is actually very lyrically amusing – whether you're a Boe fan or not.
All in all, I think it's great to see streaming services continue to deliver variety: while Disney+ has recently added a version with ads, it's promised to not ruin your movie-watching with adverts during those typically longer runtime pieces of content. Besides, that adds lots of price levels to consider.
I'm yet to subscribe to Disney+ myself (I'm paying top whack for Netflix after all and Amazon Prime just seems to ensure), but if movies such as Die Hard and other classics come to the Disney fold then, well, I may be forced to sign-up come the Christmas period...
