10. Die Hard With A Vengeance
The first Die Hard movie is unquestionably in the top 5 action movies of all time, and it was a film that didn't call for a sequel, but we got one anyway in the form of Renny Harlin's Die Hard 2: Die Harder. It was simply awful, but the studio persevered with the franchise and wrangled back John McTiernan to do the third instalment. Samuel L Jackson had just become a superstar off the back of Pulp Fiction despite working in the industry from the early 80's and Jeremy Irons was just a few years removed from his Academy Award win, and with Bruce Willis back, the film was sincerely promising. McTiernan and co emphatically delivered the goods with an elaborate and dangerous game of Simon Says that takes the unlikely duo of John McClain and Jackson's shop owner, Zeus across New York City trying to avert multiple potentially catastrophic disasters. The film is much more plot focussed than the first film which relied heavily on McClain's character, but the intelligently designed story takes central focus here. Die Hard with a Vengeance regains the feeling of oppression and intensity that the first movie had and as a result, we were served with a highly entertaining thriller that features Willis and Jackson on fine form as their chemistry appears natural. Sadly, studio bosses couldn't just leave the series at this and later churned out two more explicitly awful sequels.