Rating: 
Summary: Another Christmas, another terrorist crisis for John McClane
Review: "Die Hard" has become the standard by which every action film made since 1988 has been judged and almost invariably found wanting. Films were sold in Hollywood on the basis of being reduced to such ideas as "'Die Hard' in a bus" (i.e, "Speed"). Of course another Hollywood tradition is to make a sequel of any successful film, so in 1990 Bruce Willis went back in front of the camera, this time with director Renny Harlin ("The Long Kiss Goodnight"), to do a sequel. "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" is not as good as the original, but it does have a self-reflexivity that (for the most part) makes this film work. Ultimately I would rate this at 4.5 stars, but by the standard of sequels that is an exceptional accomplishment, so I round up.The plot for "Die Hard 2," which is more unsettling today than it was at the time, has a group of terrorists taking control of Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C in order to secure the release of a South American drug lord (Franco Nero) on his way to the United States for trial. If their demands are not met, they are going to start crashing the circling airplanes. Once again, John McClane (Willis) is in the wrong place at the wrong time, at the airport to pick up his wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who is on one of those circling airliners. McClane picks up on something wrong and when the airport cops refuse to take it seriously he starts pursuing it on his own, getting in deeper and deeper into the situation. Soon it is clear that what we have here is "Die Hard" in an airport. As I indicated above, the self-reflexivity of the film works in its favor for the most part. The exception to this idea is when McClane repeats the "Yippie-kay-yay" line from the first film, albeit in a large context this time around, put the best example is when a bewildered Holly turns to her husband and asks "Why do these things keep happening to us?" Otherwise, throughout the film what McClane did at the Nakatomi Building comes into play as various characters either dismiss him out of hand or take him seriously because of his reputation. The first time around it was his anonimity that was one of his biggest weapons; this time his "fame" is a double-edged sword. In many ways this sequel follows the original. But the scope has been enlarged as other parties besides the terrorists become much more problematic for our hero than they were the first time around. Plus, this time McClane gets to keep his shoes on, which is good because there is a blizzard going on in addition to the all the terrorist fun. Actually, there is probably too much going on, because "Die Hard 2" lacks the driving focus of the original. It also lacks as strong of a villain, with William Sadler's Colonel Stewart being restrained to the point of inertness. Granted, it would be hard to top Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber, but they certainly could have found something and someone that would have worked a lot better. They could not work Reginald Veljohnson in for anything more than a cameo in this one, but the cinematic law of convenient coincidences finds William Atherton's slimy reporter stuck on the plane with Holly. Of the new members of the supporting cast Art Evans as Chief Engineer Leslie Barnes, who can come up with creative problem solving in an emergency, Dennis Franz as Capt. Carmine Lorenzo, the airport chief of security who has no use for McClane, Tom Bower as Marvin, who lives in the bowels of the airport with all of the maps, John Amos as the major from special forces who taught the bad guy everything he knows, and future senator Fred Dalton Thomas as the man in charge of the airport control tower. In the final analysis despite the problems with this movie, especially in comparison to the original, it is Bruce Willis as John McClane who makes this work because he manages to keep his character as more or less a real person in extraordinary circumstances. He is not as strong as Stallone or Swarzenegger and he is not as smart as Harrison Ford or whoever is playing James Bond in any given year. But he has enough to get the job done. More importantly, I did not have the sense of disappointment that so often comes at the end of movies with this one, which is a pretty good bottom line for anything coming out of Hollywood. We will have to see what happens with the upcoming "Die Hard 4: Die Hardest."
Rating:
Summary: The most awesomest movie
Review: This movie has so much fire! And things blowing up! And it's even got a plot. How often do you find a movie with non-stop explosions that has a plot? Bruce is pretty hot, and he's got a sense of humor too. An extremely excellent movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Suprisingly Weak
Review: The first, and worst, sequel to Die Hard, is terrorised by the same plot as the original. While waiting for his wife's plane to arrive at Dulles Airport (on Xmas Eve), McClane notices a few suspicious exchanges between a group of men amidst the busy yuletide passengers. Before you know he is neck deep in trouble with an army of mercenaries, led by Colonel Stewart (William Sadler), who are hell-bent on setting free a corrupt South American General/Drug Baron (Franco Nero). There are more bad guys than before. And more suspension of disbelief is required. There are so many plot holes and illogical moments that the film almost drowns in its own absurdity. But there is enough action and stunts to cancel it out and distract our attention. Though they not presented in a breathtaking or memorable way. It's all too generic and a bit mean-spirited. No audience nowadays would be satisfied with it so prepare yourself for 80's violence. William Sadler and Franco Nero lack the callous efficiency of Alan Rickman. And a hero can only be measured by his nemesis. But most of the time McClane is just capping off nameless mercs. How boring. Tho this should not be blamed on Sadler, he has a threatening and intense presence and as he has proved himself in movies like Trespass and Demon Knight. Too bad his character here is so badly written and underdeveloped. I'm sorry but blowing up 250 people off-screen to show how evil you are just won't cut it. This was Renny Harlin's second movie of 1990 (the other was Ford Fairlain) and it is without a doubt the movie that made him a certified action director. It was a tough, and huge, movie to pull off. He just pulled it off with no particular charm. Though he does a wonderful job of capturing the look and feel of an East Coast winter. The wide-open snowfields and ice-covered runways will definitely make you feel chilly. Although this is another problem. The first Die Hard worked entirely within the space of Nakatomi Plaza. It was claustrophobic and almost plausible. The scale and scope of Die Hard 2 is too big for its own good. Similar to the problems of ID4, the staples of reality are ripped out with ignorance and over-confidence. The bulk of the film is nothing but one dumb action scene after another. It doesn't make for coherent viewing. Die Hard 2 is a definite lag in between both of McTiernan's very strong outings. By today's standards it seems dated and very 90's. Which is a shame considering the original and 'With A Vengeance' are, in a way, 'timeless'. It's movies like this that inspired 'Last Action Hero'. Filmed in Panavision, the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture is superb looking with true blacks (a lot of this film is set at night) and nice fleshtones. Fire effects and colors look beautifully orange and overall the quality is top notch aside from a few instances of minor pixelation. The gunshots are loud and ferocious in both the Dolby Digital and DTS tracks. All explosions and every punch and kick are rendered with amazing clarity. Some of the surrounds tend to stick to mono but the plane crash in the middle of the movie will convince it is actually happening in your living room. Dialogue scenes tend to stick to the front speaker and the musical score by Michael Kamen is well recorded and is sure to excite. Renny Harlin's commentary is much more interesting that John McTiernan's fatigued and labored effort on the first movie. Harlin talks about the characters more and how he prefers his movies to be in terms of motivation and why characters should smoke only if it is necessary. Among other things. Such as how many of the effects he did then, in many different ways, would be so much quicker and easier to do today in Digital CGI. The Featurette was made for Fox TV back in 1990 and it is a bit better than the usual, self-congratulatory nonsense that bogs down most featurettes. But it still can't resist talking about how 'great' the movie is. Tho thanks to this extra we now know that most of the snow in the movie is shredded soap. A second, 4-minute, Featurette is basically an extended trailer. There are a few deleted scenes that are not that interesting and it's easy to see why they were cut from the film. Although the alternate scene on how McClane gets to the Annex Skywalk (The Boiler Room) is quite cool. The interview with Renny Harlin and the Villain's Profile are promotional titbits in which they discuss how to direct a high-concept sequel and how to be an evil bad guy. Behind the scenes and storyboards focuses on 2 scenes. The first is 'Breaking the Ice' and the second is 'Chaos on the Conveyor Belt'. The storyboard and film comparison is for the 'Skywalk Ambush' sequence. Visual effects breakdowns explore, in great length and tedious, repetitive slo-mo, the Ejector seat scene and the Airport Runway. These are basically green-screen evolutions. The other model effects scenes broken down are 'Chopper', 'Airplane Models' and 'Wing Fight'.
Rating:
Summary: The best of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: What is wrong with you lot??!!! This is a great movie and I have to say that this is better than the first one!!! Not to say that that one was mediocre. It was great to but I love this one even more! McClane finds himself fighting vicious terrorists whove seized a major international airport with many planes stranded in mid-air and McClane has to save the passengers on the planes and destroy the terror network before fuel runs out and causes the planes to crash. This is a great movie and should be owned today!!
Rating:
Summary: A movie 2 Die Hard For!
Review: The second entry in the legendary action "Die Hard" trilogy movie seems to get an unfairly high number of unfavorable reviews by many when compared to the first "Die Hard" movie. Many say that "Die Harder" is significantly weaker than the first one. As for me, I couldn't disagree more. "Die Hard 2" is every bit as good if not better than the first one and is one of the best movie sequels in movie history. The directing reins are passed from McTierman who did the 1988 original, on to Renny Harlin and I have to say that Harlin did an excellent job directing this movie. This is no sequel slump by any stretch of the imagination. After the extremely exhausting events of the first one involving the spectacular demise of the L.A. terrorist leader Hans Gruber and the rescue of the surviving hostages exactly one year ago (according to the storyline), John McClane is on a trip back home to his home city of New York City for the Christmas Holidays on snowy night during Christmas Eve but the pleasures of the holidays are completely destroyed when a vicious band of New-Nazi military men turned traitor terrorists lead by Colonel Stuart seizes control of the airport while numerous planes are stranded in mid-air with plummeting fuel levels and one of those planes stranded in mid-air is carrying John's wife Holly McClane who is still recovering from the last events of the incident at the L.A. office high rise. The mercenaries are demanding the release of a notorious and dangerous drug baron being extradited to the U.S. and now the terrorists threatening to crash airlines with the hijacked air controls if their demands are not met and with the plane Holly McClane beginning to run low on fuel, it's now a frantic race against the clock to stop the evil deeds of the terrorists and save the lives of the countless passengers on the planes. Police Officer Al Powell who was there to help Mr. McClane is back to mentor John but they both face another relatively rough path as the police and anti-terrorist force is headed by a VERY disgruntled and inept head of NYPD forces named Captain Carmine Lorenzo(Dennis Franz). McClaen clashes bitterly with Lorenzo and numerous other inept bureaucracies and other police forces, making the whole mission much more dangerous. Once again Bruce Willis brings in another amazing acting character with the oddly eccentric but tough guy John McClane as he uses his incredible wits and cunning battle against the mercenaries. It's difficult to really say which "Die Hard" movie one he did the best acting in but for the most part, this awesome movie trilogy is Bruce Willis' crowning achievement even with some great movies since then. The "NYPD Blue" star Dennis Franz is awesome playing the constantly [upset] Caption Carmine Lorenzo, head of the airport Security. It almost makes me wonder if Lorenzo is about to give himself a stroke one of these days with his constantly foul mood and temper and also of constantly being angry. :\ I personally love the change of atmosphere in this movie. The first one involved a building and now it's a large airport but an airport being held hostage can be every bit as shocking and dangerous as a large building. The first one was almost like warm sunny desert with the setting in L.A. and "Die Hard 2" is much colder with it taking place in snowy Dulles Airport. I strongly disagree with a previous reviewer saying that it should've taken place in another high-rise office tower. Harlin took a good chance at a new place and really pulled it off very well and the result is another excellent and unforgettable classic with one of the best explosions in movie history. Even elements of Mother Nature (Icicles anyone?) come to the aid of McClane in his battle against Stuarts goons. I would almost go far enough to say that while the first movie was great, "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" is even better especially with it's chilly winter landscape and awesome action sequences. In some ways, this movie has gotten a bit unsettling these days because of real life events much worse than have happened these past few years. But even then, it's still a lot of fun to watch and have a large bag of popcorn to eat and soda to drink! "Die Hard 2" is a action movie to enjoy for it's intelligent dialogue and brilliant storyline or just to have adrenaline drenched fun! This is a must have sequel and is an excellent follow-up to the 1988 classic original. Buy this movie today! The DVD edition comes in the form of two discs. The first disc has the original movie on it as well as the original theatrical trailor. The movie itself benefits from an excellent transfer to DVD and the picture quality improves the original VHS edition. The second disc contains commentary by director Renny Harlin, interviews with the actors who played in the movie, some deleted scenes that weren't put into the movie and commentary on the making of this movie. I'm not a big fan of deleted scenes so I'm in no rush like there's no tomorrow to replace my VHS edition. The series continued to a great conclusion with the 1995 finale "With A Vengeance". If you can, get the Ultimate Collection Trilogy with the silver packaging. You can get all three movies in one!
Rating: 
Summary: This film would not get made today
Review: Because of 9/11, this movie would not see the light of day if submitted to Hollywood, but it is definately a good one, as with most sequels this one suffers from redundantcy, but it works better than most follow-ups, it is exactly one year to the day since John McClane saved the day in the first movie, & he is at Dulles International airport awaiting the arrival of his wife Holly on Christmas Eve, while there he notices suspious activity in which he once again gets caught up with terrorist, who turn out to be former military men who have for whatever reason abandoned their code of conduct & are led by Col. Stewart(William Sadler) who takes control of the airport in an attempt to see the safe arrival of a International drug lord, who is being extradicted to the U.S. to stand trial for crimes, almost like a Saddam Hussein type, who he is in cahoots with, with other arriving flights held in the air low on fuel, one in which McClane's wife Holly is on, several shootouts ensue as McClane desperatly tries to foil their plan, one attempt even enrages Stewart to where he puposely crashes a plane in an attempt to make good on his threats to the towers above after he has seized control of the towers operations, with many of the tower's operaters watching helplessly, one being TN Senator Fred Dalton Thompson as the head of operations at the airport & NYPD Blue's Dennis Franz as a bearucratic airport security chief who fails to listen to McClane's earlier warnings, the crash scene is graphic in its portrayal & disturbing in light of 9/11, many of the first films same elements are here & are quite good, Willis' sarcasm is on par, & many neat action sequences make this better that most sequels, the action never stops & never bores, you really can't compare Sadler to Alan Rickman in the first film, because they are different kinds of bad guys with different intensions & motivations, & the setting in an airport with snow constant throughout the film shows the attention to detail, directed by Renny Harlan(Cliffhanger) this is definately a winner as far as sequels go, & a better follow-up than the 1995 "with a Vengence"!!!
Rating:
Summary: Die Harder
Review: While waiting for his wife to arrive at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C., Lt. John MacClaine (Bruce Willis) discovers that high-IQ right-wing terrorists are prepared to take back a deposed Central American dictator who is prisoner on a cargo flight headed for the airport. The terrorists (led by William Sadler) take over a nearby independent church and use equipment to disable the power in the controls tower. The control tower is given enough time to alert planes above not to land and to remain circling with low fuel. The terrorists demand that they let dictator (who is biding his time before he takes over the cargo plane) land in an isolated runway so that they may take a fully fueled jet to escape with him. Otherwise, they threaten to cause the planes to crash by masquerading as the control tower and making the planes equipment indicate that they are higher than they really are. In effort to rescue his wife on one of the planes, he battles the terrorists however he can, while dealing with the useless, foul-mouthed chief police officer (Dennis Kranz). Die Hard 2 is highly enjoyable and maintains your attention like the first film. However, be warned that some of the characterizations are slightly flatter than the ones in the first film. If this doesn't bother you, than you should enjoy the exciting action scenes and the twist-filled plot. If you like this film, I also recommend Executive Decision and Air Force One. Rated R for extreme graphic violence, strong language, and nudity.
Rating:
Summary: one sequal that works
Review: This is one sequal that stays right on line with the original. Bruce Willis is in top form in this one and for me anyway, this is the best of the two that follow the original. Director Renny Harlin puts the action in high gear by combining a snow storm, a busy airport at xmas under terrorist control, and the threat of planes falling from the sky as they run our of fuel. As typical with the first Die Hard, once the action starts it doesnt stop until the film ends. There is great support acting such as Dennis Franz as the airport security chief, Bonnie Bedelia returns as Mclaines ex wife, the casting of Fred Dalton Thompson, polician and actor, as the chief of operataions is excellent. And there a host of others that add to a never a dull moment of a film. Buy the DVD, its been remastered in Dolby 5.1, and is perfect on surround sound.
Rating:
Summary: Yippy Kay Yay !
Review: Good movie with good action. I still would fly on an airline just as long as Brucey ain't gonna blow it up. Yeah , it's good if you want a good sequel to a really good movie! Once again the cameos of villains are here, especially if you have watched alot of movies from the late 80's early 90's than you will recognize alot of people that play not so very long parts of the film. This is essential for any movie library owner looking to soup up their action genre sections!
Rating: 
Summary: Nowhere near on par with the original, but still decent
Review: The first Die Hard film was a monumental action blockbuster that set the standard for action films for years to come, made director John McTiernan one of the most sought after directors out there, and made a superstar out of Bruce Willis. This sequel finds Detective John McClane battling terrorists of the homegrown kind at Dulles Airport in Washington while he awaits the arrival of his wife (Bonnie Bedilia returns, she would not be in the third installment however). Director Renny Harlin (McTiernan opted not to direct Die Hard 2, however he would return for the third entry, Die Hard With a Vengeance) has strung together some great action scenes (the film is more violent and graphic than the original), but the story is inane at best and some of the action scenes are a bit more than far fetched. Still though, Die Hard 2 is still a decent action yarn that could not live up to the original, but thankfully would be topped by the third and final installment, Die Hard With a Vengeance. Returning cast members include William Atherton and Reginald Vel Johnson, along with William Sadler and a pre-NYPD Blue Dennis Franz.
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