Tuesday, December 05, 2006
**** Die Hard 2 - Die Harder. Action.
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Bruce Willis, Dennis Franz
Once again, I watched the video over several days while exercising. I would never do this with a movie I hadn't seen before, but with one, like this one, that I've seen several times, just listening while I'm staring at my knees doing crunches or at the floor doing push-ups is enough to refresh my memory... and to keep my mind off the self-torture.
Die Hard 2 is still fun and action-packed, and it still has Bruce Willis, but it follows the Law of Sequels (I just spent some 30 minutes trying to see if anyone's codified this, but all I could find was the quote from Scream 2 about body counts.) --more action and special effects, less believability.
It's Christmas again, and John McClane is again reuniting with his wife, and again terrorists get in the way. This time, it's at an airport, and the terrorists have taken over the communications. They threaten to crash the planes circling overhead, running dangerously low on fuel, unless their demands are met. Then they crash one, to show they're serious.
Their demands concern a Central American general currently arriving to face trial in the U.S. They want him released, and a plane to take him... somewhere--back home, I guess. To this end, they've got a small army of mercenaries who are all willing to kill and/or die, and superior technological skills that they're employing from an abandoned church near the airport.
McClane braves cold and fire and crashing planes, and arrogant airport cops (Dennis Franz) and military personnel, pretty much saving the day on his own, with a little help from a quirky janitor.
There's a little comic relief in Holly's plane, when the obnoxious reporter from the first movie gets wind of the terrorists.
I enjoyed the funny parts, and the action was exciting...and I always enjoy Bruce Willis, but this wasn't nearly as good as its predecessor. I had trouble justifying the means with the motive, and some of it was just downright confusing. I'm still not sure of the point behind the snowmobile chase, other than somebody thought it would be cool. And I kept finding myself asking "but why couldn't they just..." far too often. There's a whole list of inconsistencies in the Wikipedia article, and even more on MovieMistakes.com, but I only caught a few of them--that was plenty.
...more
Categories: Movies, 4stars, ActionAdventure
Labels: 4 stars, action, Movies
