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250 reviews in total

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71 out of 100 people found the following review useful:
You can't get too much of a good thing, 5 March 2001
Author: (trevor@halifaxatthemovies.com) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

For those who argue that Die Hard 2 is a desperate re-hash of the original... So what? I didn't expect a companion piece like The Godfather Part II. Die Hard was about a really cool guy in a really bad situation, and the result was probably the greatest action movie ever made. Die Hard 2 achieves status on its own just by being about the same thing. When so many movies want to be Die Hard but fail, why not just make another Die Hard? Director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger)realized that because it's a sequel, there had to be more stunts and explosions. So there is. Die Hard 2 (appropriately called Die Harder) ups the ante a bit and has fun with a flurry of furious action scenarios. The fight on the wing of the plane is a classic in its own right, and Die Hard 2 stands alone as one of the best of the genre.

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55 out of 70 people found the following review useful:
Dying Just Got That Little Harder!, 6 March 2001

Author: Old Joe from Hamilton, Australia

I have watched many movies where they have had a sequel which left me disappointed and uneasy, but the sequel to the smash, Die Hard, Die Hard 2 (Die Harder) was what think a sequel should be - more of what made the first film so successful. So it‘s all out war for unlucky Police Detective named McClane, in a heart-stopping, jet-propelled journey through excitement and terror.

On a snowy Christmas Eve in the nation's capital, a team of terrorist have seized a major international airport, and now holds thousands of holiday travellers hostage. The terrorists, a renegade band of crack military commandos led by murderous rogue officer, have come to rescue a drug lord from justice. They've prepared for every contingency, except one: John McClane, an off-duty cop seized by a feeling of deadly deja vu. The heroic cop not only has to battle terrorists, but also an incompetent airport police chief, the hard headed commander of the army's anti-terrorist squad and a deadly winter snowstorm. The runways are littered with death and destruction, and McClane is in a race against time. His wife is trapped on one of the planes circling somewhere overhead, desperately low on fuel!

Die Hard 2 makes 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.

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.

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. His other films worth mentioning include A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Cliffhanger.

So overall Die Hard 2 was extremely enjoyable sequel to watch. The story, the characters and the situation are all of a great tension, which I love in a movie. So one cop who is so vulnerable and emotional ends up being the one person who you would most like to have save your life. Like Willis said in an interview Die Hard 2 - Die Harder - it's bigger, badder and louder. I will leave you with one question, the first Die Hard had approximately 20 people die, can you count for me how many perish in this film? It is quite a turn around!

Rating: 4/5 or 9/10

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40 out of 47 people found the following review useful:
A Total Thrill Ride, 10 March 2007

Author: jonathon_naylor from Manitoba, Canada

Bruce Willis takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', nearly outdoing himself in one of the great actioneers of our time. DIE HARD 2 has everything a true action fan could ever want: explosions, chases, plot twists, suspense, drama and all that other good stuff.

Just two years after his last near-death adventure, John McClane (what a great action hero name) battles bad guys who take over an airport's communication system around the holidays. Unless their demands are met, they will unceremoniously plummet planes to the ground one by one -- including one on which Mrs. McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) is a passenger. Of course Johnny, he of wise-cracking ways, is the only one who can save the day.

Like its predecessor, set almost entirely in a skyscraper, DIE HARD 2 makes the most out of its setting. McClane is as multi-purpose as can be, chasing mercenaries through luggage conveyors, grasping onto aircraft wings, running out onto the runway and, in a truly awesome scene, ejecting from a plane a split second before it bursts into flames. Throw in a snowmobile chase, the standard trip through the air ducts and a legitimate, interesting motivation for the crooks and you have a total thrill ride guaranteed to recharge your batteries.

Efforts like DIE HARD 2 won't win any major awards, but they'll do what films are supposed to do: thrust us into another world and entertain us. This is truly Willis and director Renny Harlin at their best.

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48 out of 72 people found the following review useful:
It's No Die Hard 1..., 18 December 1998

Author: Gislef from Iowa City, IA

...but other than that, there's very little going against the second in the series. It helps (but not enough) that the character realizes he's basically in a sequel. There are some minor variations in the formula, but basically the movie relies on the Bruce Willis' charisma and humor, and elaborate action sequences. William Sadler is okay, but no Alan Rickman (or Jeremy Irons in #3). It's still enjoyable, though.

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39 out of 62 people found the following review useful:
A strong follow-up to the original, 15 May 2002

Author: Agent10 from Tucson, AZ

I was expecting the worse when I saw this film, but this movie seemed to escape the curse of the cheesy sequel. Just as action packed and enthralling as the original, the wit displayed in this film saved it from being a mediocre follow-up. Bruce Willis was once again a great hero, showing how little being considered a hero means to him. A good film with a great plot twist, this is one of those action films which is just as good as the original.

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51 out of 87 people found the following review useful:
Exciting Action Film with a Totally Unbelievable Premise, 26 March 2006

Author: OFG-Movie from Washington St.

I have no problems with the action in this movie. The acting is fine and the characters are interesting. Add the plot twists and you have a watchable entertaining movie that is worth your time.

What caused me to rate this film a couple of stars lower that I would have otherwise is an idiotic part of the plot. Airliners are stacked up over Dulles and the tower can't communicate with them. Their radio engineer comes up with the idea of rigging the outer marker beacon to transmit a voice communication to all of the aircraft apprising them of the situation. Meanwhile the Army is being called by phone, TV news crews are transmitting back to their stations and ground vehicles are moving in and out of the airport. If one can communicate by phone, TV link and ground, why not just get hold of the regional traffic center to alert the airliners and divert them to other airports. Meanwhile John McClane's wife is on board one of these planes and it has 90 min of fuel on-board. Hmmm, 90 minutes at 500 mph. gives one lots of time and distance to find some kind of alternate destination. But alas, that would ruin the plot line of John trying to save his wife once more from certain death. This hole in the plot is big enough to fly an Airbus A380 through.

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23 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
Die Harder--And More Violently, 2 October 2002

Author: virek213 from San Gabriel, Ca., USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The 1988 action thriller DIE HARD was such a huge critical, commercial, and artistic success that it was probably inevitable, given Hollywood's mentality that there is never too much of a good thing, that a sequel would follow. The result, thus, is DIE HARD 2.

Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, who on this Christmas Eve is at Dulles International Airport in Washington awaiting the arrival of his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) from Los Angeles. Flights, however, are being delayed all across the board into D.C. by one of the biggest blizzards on record. And when Willis spots Army mercenaries in sensitive areas of the airport where nobody is supposed to go, his cop instincts take hold. As it turns out, these mercenaries are led by a hard-nosed right-wing colonel (William Sadler) whose aim is to snatch a known Latin-American drug dealer (Franco Nero) from the hands of U.S. justice agents. Their reason, as Sadler puts it, is because he had "the guts to stand up against Communist aggression." To prove his point, Sadler and his minions shut the entire airport down, putting all those planes in the snowbound skies over the nation's capital in mortal peril, until Nero's military plane arrives. The result is a battle in more ways than one, as Willis must not only tangle with Sadler's gang, but also with an incompetent airport cop (Dennis Franz) who thinks Willis is a lunatic.

Very solid acting from Willis, as well as Fred Dalton Thompson and Art Evans, who portray the two sympathetic airport officials, helps DIE HARD 2 remain leagues ahead of the majority of testosterone-laden action flicks. But many of the same flaws that were in DIE HARD 1 creep up here again. To paint the airport cops as incompetent buffoons just so that Willis can be the hero of the piece is grossly inaccurate and offensive. Even the media, in the guise of the ultra-obnoxious Dick Thornberg (William Atherton), gets slammed, and not in a very fair or accurate fashion. And the violence and language in DIE HARD 2 are far more pervasive than the original, with at least two scenes (the icepick to the eye; and Sadler's ex-commander [John Amos] getting sucked into the engine of the getaway 747 at the end) approaching extreme in terms of bloodshed, and the use of the 'F' word approaching SCARFACE in terms of occasions when it is used.

Still, there is plenty of suspense and tension to be had here, with the direction of Renny Harlin evincing, at times, the feel of a Spielberg or Peckinpah at their edge-of-the-seat best. Michael Kamen's score, which interpolates Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" at the end, is also a plus.

The verdict is that DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER is not an unflawed film, but one can certainly do much worse.

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23 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
die..much harder, 27 May 2008

Author: kai ringler from United States

First reason why this is better than the original.. SNOW.. and lot's of it,, the story is set in Christmas time, so you got to have snow,, love the idea of the bad guys taking over a whole entire airport,, now that is neat, i've been to Dulles more times than i care to remember,, though i don't remember the Annex Skywalk.. so this movie just rocks on all levels,, the bad guys,, and there are lot's of em,, are pretty sneaky, and clever in this one,, Bonnie Bedalia returns as Bruce Ex-wife, but as usual don't have to much to do in here, i loved the fact that Dennis Franz was in this movie,, he is such an underrated actor,, he is so funny, and i love every minute that i see him on the big screen. Bruce has lots of funny moments in this one, he has to be sort of like McGyver in this one,, trying to come up with different ways to outwit the street smart terrorists, and o yeah there is a twist in this movie,, but i can't ruin it ,, in good conscience.

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16 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Tries Hard..., 28 June 2007

Author: Frank Markland from United States

Bruce Willis returns as John McClane who this time faces off against mercenaries who have taken over an airport and are threatening to have all the plane crashes, McClane's wife Holly(Bonnie Bedelia) is on one such plane and so it's McClane back in action as he ponders how the same thing can happen to the same guy twice. Die Hard 2 to tell you the truth was a mixed bag. On one hand it had lots of action and a brutal edge to the action but also lacks the suspense of the first. In either case though Die Hard 2 is not bad as sequels go. Indeed even though it's directed by Renny Harlin, Die Hard 2 works in-spite of itself. The only flaw is that the movie is feels too much like a carbon copy of the first film only with a bigger is better approach to the stunts. That being said this is a minor flaw to behold and one really doesn't understand the mixed reaction to this film, when the movie is overall very entertaining.

* * * out of 4-(Good)

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17 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
There is no comparison to the first Die Hard, but this was still a fun sequel!, 2 August 2004

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

John McClane is back! I had heard a few bad things about Die Hard 2, I was a bit nervous to see this film just because of that. But I think it was just because of the fact that a lot of people really compare it to the first Die Hard, like I said there really is no comparison, the first Die Hard was an absolute blast and can't be beat. However, Die Hard 2 is a little looked over, it's still a great sequel in my opinion. It has great action, the same fun characters, and an awesome story. While it was somewhat bland compared to the first Die Hard, this was a fun movie to watch I think.

John McClane is back to square one in life, his wife doesn't like him very much right now since he hasn't kept his promises. But she is coming into town for a report and John is there to pick her up. But things are quickly interrupted when Col. Stuart takes control of the airport with high demands of money and power. Unfortunately he doesn't realize who he's messing with when he is aware of John's wife being aboard of one of the planes. Since the airport's power is now out, the planes cannot land and are quickly running out of gas to keep them going. John is on the case though and isn't going to let Col. Stuart get away with this.

Die Hard 2 is a cool movie in my books. William Sadler made a good villain, he's really intense looking and got into character very well. I loved how this movie ended, Holly really kicked more butt in this film. But it is Bruce who really wins the movie over, he's even more bad than ever before, he's just so awesome, you can't help but to keep rooting for him. Not to mention one of the most memorable lines ever "Yippe-Kia-Mother-", you get it, but he's the only one that could deliver that line right. I would recommend this movie for anyone, just give it a shot, it's pretty good.

7/10

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