20 Great Movie Franchises That Became Unwatchable

While many blockbuster hits from the '80s can be looked back upon with nostalgia, there's no rose-tinted glasses needed for Die Hard. John McTiernan's action masterpiece is iconic, still holds up to this day as wildly entertaining, and is relevant even beyond the debates about whether or not it is a Christmas film. 

While never reaching quite the same heights as the original, as few sequels or threequels do, Die Hard 2 and Die Hard with A Vengeance solidified the series as a strong and reliable one. You knew what you were getting with John McClane (Bruce Willis), and it was going to be good.

Then, as with too many that take a break of a few years or decades, Die Hard was brought back as a shadow of its former self. Pitting McClane against a technological threat was exactly what you could expect from a 2007 action flick, but it didn't feel like Die Hard.

Having said that, Die Hard 4.0 is a work of art compared with the fifth and final film with which the franchise limped over the finishing line, A Good Day to Die Hard. John and his son Jack (Jai Courtney) essentially led what would have been an underwhelming, generic, and forgettable outing, even if it wasn't destined to forever be compared to the magic that the Die Hard series once was.