Die Hard 2: McClane is back...

With the success of John McTiernan's 1988 action thriller Die Hard, moviegoers were literally overwhelmed with explosion-and-mayhem laden tales of good-guy-vs.-bunch-of-clever-and-well-armed villains-in-an-enclosed-space films. Some, like Andrew Davis' Under Siege (one of the few movies starring Steven Seagal that I'll sit through) were actually good. Most of them got sillier and sillier as producers and screenwriters struggled with the familiar Hollywood question: How can we top/rip off Die Hard? (In the text commentary to McTiernan's Die Hard, one of the producers reveals that in one studio meeting he heard the ultimate in ironic pitches: one producer tried to sell his action adventure flick as "Die Hard in a building.")

1990's Die Hard 2: Die Harder, directed by Finnish director Renny Harlin, is actually one of those few good films of the action-thriller genre, although at times it suffers from its own excesses. Taking the blueprint from its 1988 source movie, it once again places John McClane (Bruce Willis) in a tight spot...actually, several tight spots, including such people-friendly places as a luggage conveyor belt, a C-130's cockpit, and the wing of a Boeing 747 as he once again fights a group of heavily armed villains and rescue many innocent hostages.

Die Hard 2 echoes many motifs from the first film. It is set 12 months later, during the Christmas holidays. It starts in an airport. Once again his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) is in jeopardy. Once again smarmy reporter Dick Thornburg (William Atherton) attempts to exploit the story for his own career advancement. And of course McClane, who has transferred to L.A. and is now a police lieutenant there, clashes with various bureaucracies and local police officers who don't want the hero of the Nakatomi hostage crisis to wreak havoc in their neck of the woods.

Of course, this being a very ambitious sequel, Die Hard 2 had to have a different setting, since audiences certainly would not have paid to see McClane simply blow up another skycraper. This time it's Dulles International Airport that is being held hostage by former Army Col. Stuart (William Sadler) and a team of renegade soldiers who mix right wing politics with sheer capitalism. Their plot: to take control of the airport and its air control systems until Gen. Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), a Manuel Noriega-like dictator who is en route Stateside to be tried for drug-related crimes, is set free.

While predictable (c'mon, you know McClane is not going to sit idly by while those terrorists hold thousands of lives in their hands, right?) and with a very high casualty rate, Die Hard 2 is an entertaining film. Willis still shoots, smirks and wisecracks his way through the sometimes unbelievable situations concocted by screenwriters Steven de Souza and Doug Richardson. Explosions still bloom and boom. Bullets, knives, golf clubs, and even icicles are still deadly tools for hero and villains alike, and the bad guys get their just deserts...

I enjoyed this film immensely when it was released in the summer of 1990, in part because I'm partial to action movies that are well-written and have a fine balance of suspense, adrenaline rush-inducing action set pieces, and humor, but mostly because I'd enjoyed the original Die Hard on VHS -- I missed it during its 1988 theatrical run. That having been said, even at the time I was bothered by the high body count -- including the 300 or so innocent passengers and crew of an airliner. Yes, it did make McClane's predicament more interesting and the villains more menacing, but it made me feel a bit uneasy. (In the post 9/11 world, the whole premise of terrorists taking over an airport is even scarier!)

Special Edition Features:

The Special Edition two-disc set, like the others in the Die Hard collection, contains the feature film (with director's commentary, various audio and subtitle options, and anamorphic Widescreen presentation) in Disc 1. Disc 2 contains the theatrical and TV trailers, interviews, and making-of featurettes.

Rated: R Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video
DVD Release Date: July 10, 2001
Run Time: 131

DVD Features:
Available subtitles: English, Spanish
Available Audio Tracks: English (DTS), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Commentary by director Renny Harlin

"Die Harder: The Making of Die Hard 2" (23 min; created for FOX affiliate networks)

Making-of featurette (4 min.; created for FOX publicity's electronic press kit)

Trailers and TV spots

Deleted scenes: Merry Christmas, Down the Rabbit Hole, Marvin, The Boiler Room

Interview with Renny Harlin

Villain's profile

Behind-the-scenes and storyboards

Visual effects: ejector seat, airport runway, side-by-side comparisons of chopper, airplane models, and wing fight

THX Optimode tests

Number of discs: 2