"Die Hard" might have been made back in the 80s but it's no less agile than a lot of today's competition. It's good to see it looking nice and fresh on DVD, especially after the rather disappointing quality of the VHS releases.
Cinematographer Jan De Bont is very enthusiastic in his use of icy blues and accompanying lens flares. The effect is stylistically pleasing and sharp on disc.
The sound design of the film is given a thorough reworking in a 5.1 mix that can be quite amusing. The assorted gunfire and explosions will keep your sub woofer busy as will a fist fight in chapter 25, which is perhaps a little over magnified, bordering on ridiculous.
Fox has thrown in a trailer and a five-minute original featurette as added features. The latter offers the usual mix of actors explaining their character motivations but also contains a few shots of behind the scenes footage.
Chapters: 30
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Extra Features: Scene selection, 'making of' featurette, trailer, biographies and filmographies, animated menus, multiple languages, subtitles, English for the hearing impaired.
Die Hard DVD (1998)