Probably half the readers of this blog won't have been born when the first Die Hard movie came out. Sure, you can rent it, but at the time, it was the hottest thing ever - you have no idea of the world wide phenomenon John McClane and Yippie KaiYai MuthaFu.. was. It was something that redefined the action movie genre and the hero persona. We loved John.

We loved John when he saved the airport the second time around, screaming about "how could this happen to the same guy twice??" We laughed and we loved John.

We loved John as he had to run around New York with Samuel L Jackson, even though we could see he was starting to break down as a human being. We thought we understood, and hell - a lot of us were starting to break down, but in our own ways...it had been a few years since that first exhilarating ride.

Now John is in his 50s, and he's breaking down in the same cartilage-worn ways we are. He doesn't move as fast as he did, he doesn't have the wallop in the punch he once had...but John's got one thing....Experience.

Hackers set out to undo the world economy, headed up by our very own Timothy Olyphant (with hair, the sexy way I want him. And I DO want him.) and a nasty mystery woman partner who is ready to inflict some bad-guy damage on whomever gets in the way. John's mission - get the one remaining hacker who survived (they killed the rest to destroy the evidence) to the Justice Department so they can figure out what is being done and somehow save the day. Easy, right?

Is it ever easy for poor John? Mayhem, Mayhem, Mayhem, and he gets his ass kicked by a girl, Maggie Q. And she does a damn good job of it, too. Poor John starts to show just how broken down he really is. But there's one part of John that ain't broken, and that's his wits - and they have always done him well thus far. Maggie dies a righteous death at the bottom of an elevator shaft, this other wall-jumping Spiderman character ends up in an industrial shredder, and John drives a semi off a broken overpass into a flying object and slides down broken concrete to escape - unbelievedable you say? John McClane I say.

"I've done this before," he deadpans early on. We're with you, buddy.

Kevin Smith and his "command center" is just a fantastic cinematic cameo. I would've paid just for that scene; friggin hilarious. Silent Bob throws a hissy fit. Couldn't have been more perfect.

Eventually, John gets the job done and his daughter safe (oh, she gets taken hostage, but you saw that coming, right?) and the little hacker geek to the right good guys in the white hats and his daughter calls herself McClane, not Gennaro (if you didn't see the other ones, I am NOT explaining it.) and we cue the happy music. And a bruised and battered John McClane ends another day of saving the good old USA.

Thanks for the John McClane's of the world, and there are those of them out there. We dunno who you are,and likely don't wanna, but - thanks.