Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) Reviews

It had been years since I saw this one so I thought it was time for a re-watch, this time with Nick, my step-son. Following the surprise success of ‘Die Hard’, it was pretty obvious they would come up with a sequel pretty quickly. This time, the upcoming Finnish director, Renny Harlin, was chosen to be the director and I must admit he did a pretty good job. Bruce Willis’s status was rising at a high velocity back then and with this sequel being a success, it wouldn’t stop anytime soon. Anyway, it was definitely a fun movie and Nick had a blast watching it (we eventually watched 3 or 4 times the famous ejecting seat sequence…) but it was definitely not as amazing as the first movie. I mean, they managed to create a similar plot without making it total a copycat and they should get some credit for that. However, I think the whole thing was in fact upstaged by the big action scenes. I mean, those were impressive but what is so amazing about a shootout or a huge explosion? Not much, in my opinion, and if you have seen one of those, you have seen them all. Still, it is a very well made action flick and Bruce Willis totally rocked his performance as the almighty John McClane. To conclude, even though I don't think it is anything really mind-blowing, it remains a very well made and entertaining action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

''Oh man, I can't fucking believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?''

John McClane is forced to battle mercenaries who seize control of an airport's communications and threaten to cause plane crashes if their demands are not met.

Bruce Willis: John McClane

In 1988, Die Hard became a surprising success with only a 28 million dollar budget. Less money was spent on Timothy Dalton's two Bond movies, and they are not as daring as their immediate preceding installments. With more money and confidence from 20th Century Fox, the writers and producers went to work on the sequel. Die Hard 2 is bigger and better. It is not better because it is bigger, but because Renny Harlin is the director and writer Steven E. de Souza shows more self-discipline.

Die Hard is well constructed and conceived, with far above average action, witty dialogue, a menacing villain, sets that augment the mood, and Michael Kamen's daunting music. It would receive an instant recommendation if not for the gathering of idiotic characters led by Paul Gleason's police chief. Here, we have police Captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) and returning news reporter Dick Thornburg. Lorenzo is not as omnipresent as Gleason's Dwayne T. Robinson. de Souza exerts more control over Thornburg's interfering powers and makes his actions slightly more reasonable.
Die Hard 2 succeeds in making Bruce Willis look better and better. The role of John McClane is one filled with the fight for right and to trying to stop the bad guys. Again a lot of the stunts would have been done by Willis considering the professionalism of the man. Running all over an airport in a fierce snowstorm, fighting scenes on the wing of a real 747 jet and trying to save lives he has no attachment to, L.A. cop John McClane puts his body on the line, so justice is served and so did the actor Bruce Willis in my view to bring a great action movie back for a second time. Willis is one of my favourite actors, but I have only started to watch his movies in about the last 2-3 years and what a mistake that has been.

''Motherfuckin' motherfucker!''

This film has more freedom as it is held at an airport. McClane is like I have said all over the place. The freedom and space this story has makes this film much easier to watch. Another thing which is impressive about Die Hard 2 is the effort to put more thrills in the movie. The snow (which of course is man made) has a major role, so do all the planes making quite a crisis on their hands. Not only do they fight on the wing of a 747, but also fly a real helicopter on the wing of the plane also. The scene where McClane ejects himself from the exploding plane is another favourite scene of mine. Other parts of this movie which stunned me I wont tell you about as it will give too much away, but trust me they are exceptionally done.

Again the bad guys have a major role in this one. William Saddler is Colonial Stuart, a heartless leader, who only cares that a drug lord escapes and can get in on all the money making scheme. I loved his role in this. Another face that I remember in Die hard 2 who was a bad guy is Robert Patrick. I loved his role in Terminator 2. But the conflict between the good guys is extremely tense. Especially between McClane and Police Officer Lorenzo played by L.A law star Dennis Franz. It is hard to understand if this character is on the side for good or not.

''Take the Twinkie out of your mouth and grab a pencil, will ya?''

Here comes another analogy on Die Hard 2, do you ever know who is on the side of good or bad? Well for at least three quarters of the film it is unsure. The storywriters need to be commended because the story left me intrigued and when you think you know what is about to happen, the circumstances change. Also having a different director, gave this sequel new prospective. Director Renny Harlin threw his hand into the ring. What a gamble? An unknown director, but to my surprise I say that it worked more or less.
In the above, it becomes clear that maybe the problem isn't real-world believability but internal logic, although to an extent, some of the internal logic is extremely difficult to separate from facts we know about the real world that aren't mentioned in the film. But Die Hard 1 was an extremely taut film that had impeccable internal logic. The film itself gave reasons for the dilemmas that arose, and they were justifications that made the dilemmas inevitable. It doesn't matter that some of the "facts" or situations in Die Hard 1 were contrary to our beliefs about the real world. The film defined things to be the fictional way it defined them, and the logic was consistent and valid (in the formal sense) from within the film.

However, it becomes clear, not too far into Die Hard 2, that perhaps looking at it for things like real-world believability and logical consistency/validity is misconceiving it. My belief is that this film is meant to be a spoof of action films as much as it is meant to be a serious action film. _That's_ why John is standing out on the runway waving around flaming poles like a maniac. That's why baddies can easily shoot and kill 20 or so highly trained, highly armed S.W.A.T. team members wearing bulletproof vests but can't hit John, who is wearing street clothes and rolling around on the floor with a pistol. That's why the planes are stuck over D.C. with no options and the film doesn't even try to justify this. That's why there are scenes of John riding explosions like a cowboy (yippee-ki-yay mf'er indeed). That's why there are a number of "wink-wink" cracks about being in another Die Hard film. That's why there are a few scenes that look oddly similar to Airplane! (1980). That's why the film so frequently, joyously embraces silliness.

Director Renny Harlin and his bulletproof vested army of scriptwriters and producers apparently set out to make a cartoonish satire of action films, while still making a serious action film. In 1990, action films were just at the tail end of their domination of the U.S. box office, so it was a ripe time to spoof them. Harlin and company succeed fairly well. It might have been even more artistically successful if they had more firmly committed to one angle (cartoony satire) or the other (serious action packed escapade), but the performances are pretty good, the fistfights, gunfights, explosions and chases are very good, and the film is frequently funny if you have a taste for the absurd.

''Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker.''

"Just once, I'd like a regular, normal Christmas. Eggnog, a fuckin' Christmas tree, a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin' tin can."

The original Die Hard is an action blockbuster that rapidly became both a critical and commercial success. The prevailing philosophy of Hollywood movie studios is fairly straightforward: if there's an unexpected hit on their back catalogue, they should capitalise on its success by making a sequel. Sequels are an intriguing breed. Very rarely are these follow-ups capable of replicating the quality of its predecessor. These sequels usually adhere to the same formula of its forerunner while additionally retaining a number of the original characters for heightened nostalgia.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder brings back the popular character of John McClane (Willis): his quip-laden, terse style made him an ideal vehicle to be transplanted into just about any situation as long as it included lots of guns, lots of bad guys, and lots of violence. It'd be fair to state that the screenwriters for Die Hard 2 relied on the original far too excessively. The same formula is exercised (as in the main character finding himself in a situation requiring his heroics) and bouts of déjà vu will occur frequently. For instance: it's Christmas Eve again, McClane is forced to crawl through ventilation shafts again (McClane even states his familiarity with the situation), McClane is out to save hostages, his wife is one of these hostages, and the police are as useless as tits on a bull. It may be looked upon as a blatant and unimaginative facsimile of the original Die Hard to some...but, despite the panning this sequel took, it works!

Die Hard 2 is a straightforward, action-packed, thrill-a-minute, violent, extremely entertaining action romp and an endearing return of everyone's favourite action hero. The seminal rule of sequels is that they should be bigger...and everything is bigger. Unfortunately, due to everything being so much bigger, the size of your suspension of disbelief must also be bigger to compensate for it all. Unfortunately, too, this allows slightly less time for characters to flourish and a plot to be developed. This is still an action film, though, so we watch it to see some action of which there is plenty. It may be over-the-top, but it's charming and utterly exhilarating.
To me, Christmas is never complete without at least one screening of Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder back-to-back. They are imbued with the Christmas spirit and provide a very enjoyable evening of entertainment.

Anyway, onto the plot: it's a snowy Christmas Eve, and it's exactly one year following the events that transpired at Nakatomi Plaza. John McClane is waiting at Dulles International Airport in Washington for a plane carrying his wife Holly (Bedelia). Also scheduled for arrival that evening is a drug baron known as General Ramon Esperanza (Nero). Esperanza is being extradited to the United States to face drug charges. As a large snowstorm rages outside, a group of renegade terrorists led by a certain Colonel Stuart (Sadler) attack the airport. They disable all the capabilities of the control tower. Now the terrorists are in command of the landing lights and communication with the planes, essentially holding hostage all the planes endlessly circling above, and all the passengers on-board. Unless the demands of these terrorists are met, the planes will run out of fuel and begin plummeting to the ground. The terrorists are loyal to Esperanza and wish to secure the freedom of the General. Needless to say, McClane steps into the equation with plans to disrupt the intentions of the terrorists. Mayhem is what ensues. Also toss in the arrogant, egotistical TV reporter Richard Thornberg (Atherton), a bumbling airport police chief (Franz), Reginald VelJohnson in a brief cameo, and plenty of baddies for McClane to kill.

Grant: "You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time."
John McClane: "Story of my life."

Even at a running time of two hours, Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a pulse-pounding action film featuring Bruce Willis as Bruce Willis in spades. Finnish director Renny Harlin was handed the reigns for this sequel. Harlin has had his good days (Cliffhanger) and bad days (Deep Blue Sea). Thankfully, this is one of his better days.
The film must be lauded for its outstanding special effects. Reminiscent of the first film, all the major explosions are done for real. There's green screen and miniatures with very little computer imagery in between. For the planes, the effects are close to unbeatable. Once again, this film serves as a good reminder of the dying art now being replaced in this current digital age. Harlin appears right at home with the action scenes. The director once described this movie as being during his "squib period" when referring to the abundance of blood being spilt when characters are gunned down. At times, though, the action is more pedestrian than stylish. The film also establishes more of a "shoot now, ask questions later" attitude for John McClane. Instead of a warning before pulling the trigger, he disperses bullets without a second of hesitation. With all the action and an extra dollop of gore, director Harlin has taken a literal reading of the subtitle, Die Harder.

Screenwriters Doug Richardson and Steven E. de Souza adequately recapture a number of the strengths of the original film. John McClane is still John McClane. He's tired, pissed off, and is thrown into a situation he doesn't like. While a few of the film's aspects borrow heavily from its predecessor, McClane's wisecracks and witticisms are new material and they're as sharp as a knife. On top of this, his "why me?" attitude remains the same and he spends a lot of his time talking to himself. He's the John McClane we've come to know and love. If you watch a Die Hard sequel, you're obviously looking to see exhilarating action, big explosions, and John McClane doing what he does best. Die Hard 2: Die Harder ticks all these boxes. The villain is one-dimensional, at times it's utterly absurd, plot holes are easier to notice and it's undeniably overproduced - but the film is entertaining nonsense and you can't be too picky when it comes to the action genre. However, with some well-written characters and a moderate amount of character development, it rises above the usual standard of Van Damme or Chuck Norris rubbish. Although Die Hard 2 is occasionally just an unimaginative remake of the original film, there are still a handful of creative ideas incorporated into this sequel.

Bruce Willis supplies yet another masterful performance as John McClane. His sardonic wit is in tact, and he has great chemistry with the actors surrounding him. By the 1990s, Willis had become the essential embodiment of the realistic action hero. He was the John Wayne of the contemporary action genre. Like The Duke (i.e. John Wayne), Bruce Willis has his trademark characters. In fact the 1990s and beyond bore the releases of several Bruce Willis action vehicles. Out of this selection my personal favourites are The Last Boy Scout, Mercury Rising, Hostage and 16 Blocks. An honourable mention to Striking Distance as well. At heart, John McClane is a lone Western hero, much like the characters The Duke played during his golden years. Similar to John Wayne, Willis easily got stereotyped and very rarely stepped out of his comfort zone. But Willis knew what his strengths were, and he played to them.

Also returning from the original film is Bonnie Bedelia as McClane's wife. Bedelia plays the part wonderfully. She is also given the opportunity to deliver amusing wisecracks. William Sadler is very one-dimensional as the villain. This fact lies in both Sadler's performance and in the way the character is written. His proper motivations are never made clear, therefore he's never anything more than a typical action movie villain. He's not nearly as compelling, charismatic or interesting as Alan Rickman's performance in the first film. Rounding out the cast are William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, John Amos, Dennis Franz, Fred Dalton Thompson, and even Robert Patrick who appears very briefly (Robert Patrick will probably be most widely known as the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day).

All things considered, Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a solid entry to the Die Hard canon. John McClane is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time once again, and we're all happier for it. Die Hard 2 isn't nearly of the quality of its predecessor, but it never tried to be. Occasionally one will have to accept McClane's superhuman powers and indestructibility, and the film is very derivative of its forerunner in addition to being preposterous and absurdly over-the-top - but hey, it's never boring. The realism of the first entry is sorely missed, yet there is a sufficient offering to keep any action fan happy. You'll be entertained, you'll root for the good guys, you'll love watching the bad guys get their just deserts, and you'll have the immortal words of John McClane in your heart - "Yippee-ki-yay Motherfucker!"

Followed by Die Hard: With A Vengeance.

"Oh man, I can't fucking believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"

7.8/10