Die Hard 2

Die Hard 2 (1990)

Director: Renny Harlin

Writers: Walter Wager (novel), Steven E. de Souza (screenplay), Doug Richardson (screenplay)

Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, William Sadler, John Amos, Dennis Franz, Art Evans, Fred Thompson, Tom Bower, Sheila McCarthy

Synopsis:

It's deja vu all over again for Detective John McClane (Willis) when visiting his in-laws in Washington DC, terrorists seize control of Dulles Airport taking thousands of travellers hostage. The terrorists, led by rogue U.S. Army Colonel Stewart (Sadler), want the government to free the notorious South American drug lord, General Esperanza (Nero), who is scheduled to land at the airport later that evening. The terrorists cut off the airport's ability to communicate with incoming flight, forcing dozens of planes to circle the airport stranding hundreds of people in the air, including McClane's wife Holly (Bedelia). John must contend with a well-trained group of terrorists, along with the uncooperative Captain Lorenzo (Franz) of the airport police as he fights to regain control of the airport before Holly's plane runs out of fuel. Further Christmas violence ensues.

First Impressions:

I don't have a strong first impression of this movie. I didn't see it in theaters, and I really didn't see it in full until I watched the entire series in one sitting with some friends several years later. It's definitely my least favorite of the three Die Hard movies (there are only three, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise). Whenever I have a hankering to watch the antics of Detective McClane, I rarely turn to this film and usually opt to view one, or both, of the other two films. It's been a while since I watched this one, and I'm excited to watch it with my critical peepers. 

Story/Direction: 

"Another basement. Another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"

While it's often considered one of the best action movies of all time, the first Die Hard also has the distinction of creating an entire sub-genre of films known as "Die Hard on a..." This specific sub-genre dominated much of action cinema throughout the 90s, and Die Hard 2 might have been the first. Basically, the film took the same premise as the first one but switched up the locale and the caper's specifics and, voila! A pre-fab sequel ready to go, with no assembly required. Now, it sounds like I'm bashing the film's story, and I'm really not. While nowadays the premise is a well-worn trope, it was still a fairly fresh idea in 1990. I think, for the most part, it works and finds that sweet spot that so many other sequels miss. Namely, it's similar enough to the original that it doesn't alienate existing fans and throws in enough new material/characters to make it fresh without upending the status quo too much.

One of the things that I really enjoy about the original Die Hard trilogy is that John McClane is still just a regular guy. He's a cop, sure, but he's not some mound of muscle like Ahnold or a martial arts master like Van Damme. Part of these movies' fun is to watch McClane's transition from average Joe having an average day to becoming a complete wreck of a human being by the end of the film. While Die Hard 2 accomplishes this, it's not quite as satisfying as the other two films in the trilogy. Still, it's paced very well, and it's a fun watch, so that's worth the price of admission, as far as I'm concerned.

I don't have a heck of a lot to say about Renny Harlin's job directing this film. I thought his use of news reports as a way to get some of the story's necessary exposition across was well done and kind of reminiscent of what Verhoeven did in Robocop. All in all, I'd say Harlin did a decent job directing this film, and it would have been interesting to see what else he could have put out over the years if only Cutthroat Island didn't ruin him.

Acting:

I've already discussed Bruce Willis as the hero, John McClane, in my review of the first film. As I mentioned in that review, Willis does a good job at playing the everyman, and he keeps this up for his second go-round in the role. I especially like how, this time around, detective McClane is more than a bit annoyed that this keeps happening to him.

William Sadler is one of those great character actors that never seemed to get a chance to headline a film. I've been a fan of his since I saw him as Death in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey ("sorry, they melvined me..."). While Sadler is often cast in more dopey roles, he plays the cool, calculating villain very well. His performance in this film reminded me a lot of what he did as Sloan in the latter seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A solid turn in a trilogy with some solid villains.

Speaking of villains, the first two films in the series had a secondary villain, which I have yet to discuss in detail. I am, of course, talking about Willaim Atherton as the arrogant reporter Richard Thornburg. Atherton really was the go-to guy in the 80s to play guys that everybody just hates. While in Ghostbusters, you could argue that Walter Peck is just doing his job, Thornburg is just a flat out twat. He's only looking for the story that will get him promoted to the network news, and he doesn't care who he steps on to do it. Just a great performance, and it's a shame they couldn't find a way to fit him into Die Hard with a Vengence. 

Visuals:

Like its predecessor, most of the visual effects in this film are of the pyrotechnic variety. Explosions, ho-hum, yawn. There's also some early 90s green screen work, which doesn't look too bad. Really, though, this is all par for the course with most action movies. The most interesting thing for me from a visual standpoint is that the film is set in the winter during a snowstorm. The darkness of the night, contrasting with the fluffy white flakes, gave the movie an interesting look. I don't know what it is, but I always find films set during winter to be very interesting. Anyway, there's nothing really exceptional about the visuals of this film. They're pretty much standard for the time.

Score/Music:

The music was again composed by Michael Kamen, and apart from the jaunty rendition of "Let It Snow" at the end, I was scarcely aware that the film had any score at all. I suppose that's probably a good thing. It's better to have unremarkable music than bad music.

Action:

There's plenty of good action here, and it manages to avoid the 80s/90s action sequel trope of "bigger and louder." In this film, we've got a gunfight/brawl in the airport's luggage sorting area, a firefight on a skywalk, a fistfight on the wing of a moving 747 and a battle between the army and the terrorists outside a small church. It's all very well done, and Harlin does a good job mixing the action up, so it doesn't grow stale. Top marks.

Final Verdict:

I think my appreciation for this film grew a bit on this most recent viewing. It's still my least favorite of the original three, but its still a fun ride and will definitely be included in future holiday viewings,