Yes, definitely that was the appeal. An everyman going up bad guys instead of buffed out Arnolds and Stallones. If I recall I think he made big money for it back then because he was coming off the hit tv show Moonlighting but the studio was unsure about having a comedy guy be an action hero. You should check out the really good making of it on the Netflix show "The Movies That Made Us" Die Hard episode and there is also a cool book out about the making of all the films.