John McTiernan

John Campbell McTiernan Jr. (born January 8, 1951) is an American retired filmmaker.

He attended the Juilliard School before graduating with a Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory in 1975.

In 1986, he wrote and directed his first feature film, Nomads, starring Pierce Brosnan (Brosnan's first lead role in a film).

It was not well received by critics, receiving only one positive review out of eight according to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated it 1.5 stars out of four and said that even if viewers cared about the characters, the film is too confusing to understand.

Variety wrote, "Nomads avoids the more obvious ripped-guts devices in favor of dramatic visual scares. [...] In fact, everything seems to come naturally in a tale that even has the supernatural ring true."

Walter Goodman of The New York Times called the Innuat "as menacing as the chorus from West Side Story".

In his memoir, Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was so impressed by the film's tense atmosphere made with a low budget that he hired McTiernan to direct Predator.

The budget for sci-fi Predator was around $15m.

It opened as #1 at the U.S. box office with a gross of $12m on just its opening weekend, and went on to gross nearly $100m overall.

He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990).

In 1987, its domestic grosses were second only to Beverly Hills Cop II.

Initial critical reaction to Predator was negative, with criticism focusing on the thin plot.

Metacritic, which assigns a score out of 100 to reviews, rates the film with an average score of 45 based on 15 reviews, with the review opinions summarized as "mixed".

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described it as "grisly and dull, with few surprises".

Dean Lamanna wrote in Cinefantastique that "the militarized monster movie tires under its own derivative weight."

Variety wrote that the film was a "slightly above-average actioner that tries to compensate for tissue-thin plot with ever-more-grisly death sequences and impressive special effects."

However, in subsequent years critics' attitudes toward the film warmed, and it has appeared on "best of" lists.

The review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes reports that 78% of 40 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review.

Made on a $28m budget, Die Hard went on to gross over $140m theatrically worldwide.

It is considered one of the greatest action films.

The film's success spawned a Die Hard franchise, which so far has included four sequels, video games, and a comic book.

It received very high ratings from critics.

English film critic Mark Kermode expressed admiration for the film, calling it an exciting setup of "Cowboys and Indians in The Towering Inferno".

The film has been included in various top-ten lists of best Christmas movies, including Empire (rating it #1), Entertainment Weekly (rating it #4), Forbes (rating it #1), The Guardian (rating it #8), and San Francisco Gate (rating it #1).

However, not every critic praised it.

Roger Ebert gave it a mere two stars out of four and criticized the stupidity of the deputy police chief character Dwayne T. Robinson (played by Paul Gleason), saying that "all by himself he successfully undermines the last half of the movie".

The Hunt for Red October also received positive reviews from critics.

Nick Schager, for Slant Magazine, called the film "a thrilling edge-of-your-seat trifle that has admirably withstood the test of time".

Ebert called it "a skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played", while Gene Siskel commented on the film's technical achievement and Baldwin's convincing portrayal of the character Jack Ryan.

McTiernan directed Medicine Man (1992), about a medical researcher in a rainforest, starring Sean Connery.

Medicine Man was poorly received.

Roger Ebert gave it one-and-a-half stars, saying that although the film had "some beautiful moments", it never really came together and had "a cornball conclusion".

Entertainment Weekly said the story was "built around some very tired devices" and especially criticized the performance of the female lead.

His later well-known films include the action-comedy-fantasy film Last Action Hero (1993), the action film sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), the heist-film remake The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and The 13th Warrior (1999).

He pleaded guilty to perjury and lying to an FBI investigator in regard to his hiring of the private investigator Anthony Pellicano in late 2000 to illegally wiretap the phone calls of two people, one of whom was Charles Roven, a co-producer of his action film remake Rollerball (2002).

His last completed feature film was the mystery-thriller Basic, released in 2003.

He was incarcerated in federal prison from April 2013 to February 2014.

During his imprisonment, he filed for bankruptcy amidst foreclosure proceedings for his large ranch residence.

McTiernan was born in Albany, New York, the son of Myra and John Campbell McTiernan Sr., a lawyer and actor.