ceej@pawl.rpi.edu (Chris J Hillery) (07/06/90)
DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
A film review by Chris J. Hillery
Copyright 1990 Chris J. Hillery
Finally, a movie which restores my faith in sequels. After the
disjointed disappointment of ROBOCOP 2 and the utter idiocy of GREMLINS
2, I must say I went into DIE HARDER with a few reservations. Happily,
they were mostly proved unfounded.
Now, make no mistakes: the original DIE HARD was the superior
movie of the two. It was a fabulous thriller and a well planned action
movie, with plenty of amazing stunt work and expensive (!) scenery-
chewing; a pretty hard act to follow. However, DIE HARD 2 makes a
valiant effort, and with considerable success. It certainly matches
up in action and violence; this was almost certainly a more expensive
movie, and the action, stunt work, and blowing-up-of-expensive-objects
were all at least on par with the first. I would go so far as to say
that, as an action movie, this was superior to the original. Where it
falls a bit short is in the suspense end of the line. DIE HARD 2 has
few edge-of-your seat thrills, little "omigosh, what's going to happen
now?"; indeed, there's little room for this between the continuous
stream of finding out what's going to happen (mostly "boom!"s). The
main cause for this is that, while the first movie was placed in a
skyscraper, with close proximity between McClane and the Bad Guys (tm),
no escape and the claustrophobic tension brought about by that, DIE HARD
2 is set in a big, open airport -- and the Bad Guys weren't even there,
for the most part, instead having their base of operations in a nearby
church. Because of this, there's few times we either are tensely
expecting someone to jump out or are surprised by someone jumping out,
etc....
Despite this, DIE HARD 2 succeeds well in being a non-stop action
movie. It doesn't fall into the common trap, of which even DIE HARD 1
was somewhat guilty, of taking too long to get going; the action is
nearly from the word go. Also, the plotline, while necessarily a bit
credibility-stretching (these terrorists were *really* prepared for
anything) and over-done, was not distractingly so; it followed its own
lead, all apparent inconsistencies were well-explained, and while
several turns were pretty obvious, there were a couple true surprise
twists stuck in to keep things interesting. On the other hand,
character development was a bit lax in this sequel. McClane was again
surprising and interesting, but even he was somewhat flat; the wry
humor which was so common in the first movie was notably absent. Also,
the other central characters were, in the main, pretty one-dimensional,
and maybe even a little cliched. I must say, though, I'm only now
thinking of these problems; it's a tribute to the amount of sheer action
in this movie that those flaws simply didn't occur to me while I was
actually watching the thing (I guess that makes them not really flaws,
doesn't it?). DIE HARD 2 tries to blow you away with action, and it
does that exceedingly well.
Principally because I prefer a good thriller, I can't rate this one
as well as the first, but nonetheless it is far and away the best movie
I've seen yet this summer (although I have yet to see DICK TRACY, TOTAL
RECALL or ANOTHER 48 HOURS). If you enjoy a good slug/blow-up fest,
this is the movie to see (definitely more so than ROBOCOP 2); and, if
having seen a few too many rotten flops, you need something to convince
you that a sequel to a good movie *can* be made and made well, here's
your choice. Do note, though, that this really is not a movie to take
the whole family to. While many of the deaths involved seeing how many
ways one can blow up airplanes, there were a good number of unique and
grisly ways to finish off your favorite enemy employed and plenty of
bodies filled with lead; and these people are every bit as foul-mouthed
as in the first.
DIE HARD 2, Rated R: violence, profanity.
Ratings IMHO, 0-100 scale: Compare to: DIE HARD
Action: 95 Action: 85
Suspense: 50 Suspense: 100
Plot: 79 Plot: 92
Characterization: 25 Characterization: 90
Overall: 82 [A-, 3 1/2 stars] Overall: 96 [A+, 4 stars]
Please note that the "Overall" rating is not designed to be an average
or any sort of summary of the preceding ratings, but rather a true
rating of how good the movie was taken as a whole. With four
categories one can't fully rate all aspects of a movie, nor should
they all be weighted equally; also, as is the case with DIE HARD, a
movie can sometimes be more (or, in other cases, less) than the sum
of its parts. In the case of DIE HARD 2, the movie was exactly the
sum of its parts; fortunately, most of the parts were pretty strong.
--
-- Ceej
ceej@pawl.rpi.edu
gmry@mts.rpi.edu
aka Chris Hilleryjeffw@scam.Berkeley.EDU (Jeff Wallace) (07/06/90)
DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
A film review by Jeff Wallace
Copyright 1990 Jeff Wallace
Summary:
Terrorists take over an airport at Christmas time.
John McClane (Bruce Willis) is waiting for his
wife's flight to arrive. Much havoc ensues. The
result is the most spectacular and entertaining
movie this summer.
The Los Angeles Times recently asked "Where's this summer's
blockbuster movie?" The answer is: it's finally here and it's name is
DIE HARD 2.
I loved the original DIE HARD and I fully expected to be
disappointed by the sequel. Incredibly, this movie is as engrossing and
even more spectacular than the original. The plot isn't all that
important, but it provides a good foundation for John McClane (Bruce
Willis) vs. the bad guys as in the original.
It's Christmas time again and McClane is at Dulles International
Airport waiting for his wife's flight to arrive. Also due to arrive is
General Esperanza, a deposed Latin American dictator, who is being
extradited to the U.S. to face drug charges. Esperanza appears
unruffled by his extradition and we quickly discover why.
A group of terrorists/mercenaries take control of the airport and
threaten mass destruction if Esperanza isn't released to them. Of
course McClane figures out that something nasty is occurring before
anyone else. And, of course, the local police don't listen to him.
This occurs in the first 15-20 minutes which leaves our hero,
Lieutenant John McClane, now with the Los Angeles Police Department, a
good 90+ minutes to kill bad guys, get shot at and make wisecracks.
The story isn't highly original and it certainly isn't going to win
an Academy Award for script writing, but you don't go to an action film
expecting an in-depth character analysis.
Once the basic set-up information is out of the way DIE HARD 2
takes off. It rolls from shoot-outs to explosions to chase scenes
without letting you (or McClane) catch your breath. The fast pace is
perfect for this movie and it holds your attention from start to finish.
The bad guys are very bad. The good guy is very good (and very
lucky). The photography is impressive and the stunts and effects are
stupendous. Industrial Light & Magic is at its peak once again. ILM's
models can easily convince you that you're looking at a real 747. This
movie is at its finest in 70mm at a theater with a good sound system.
It is a perfect put-your-mind-in-neutral-and-kick-back summer
adventure movie.
Highly recommended. On the -4 to +4 scale, I give it +4. The best
summer movie this year.
----
Jeff Wallace, Experimental Computing Facility (XCF), U.C. Berkeley
Internet: jeffw@scam.Berkeley.EDU UUCP:...!ucbvax!scam!jeffwleeper@mtgzx.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (07/09/90)
DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: McClane is back, picking his wife up at
the airport and foiling a plot by mercenaries to free a
Noriega-like dictator. Much in the mold of a James Bond
film, DIE HARD 2 has some good suspense, good action, nice
visuals, and minorities in good roles that did not
necessarily call for minorities. McClane is not as creative
as in DIE HARD, but his powers of deduction are tested just
as much. Rating: high +1.
This year there is no James Bond film, in fact, but there is a
reasonable substitute. There is no film about British superspy James Bond
being sent out to save England, but there is a film about L.A. supercop John
McClane sending himself out to pick up his wife from Dulles Airport in
Washington D.C. McClane is played by Bruce Willis who is my idea of no
actor, but in films such as this can be a reasonable substitute. Of course,
dealing with an airport during Christmas rush is never easy. McClane has to
deal with airport police who ticket him for parking in a no-parking zone and
with a bunch of Army-bred mercenaries who are trying to free Manuel Noriega
(thinly disguised under the character name Esperanza). DIE HARD 2 is the
story of how McClane gets the airport police to tear up the parking ticket
and how he picks up his wife on a night when Dulles is not at its dullest.
I will not say exactly how McClane gets the ticket torn up but it involves
killing a bunch of "bad guys" and saving a lot of "good guys" (to use his
sophisticated jargon). It also involves him being just about the only guy
with intelligence and pluck in an airport full of and run by jerks.
DIE HARD 2 *is* a big beefy action film much in the style of a James Bond
film. It follows the time-honored traditions of Bond films, like all the
luck working for the hero. McClane makes no false moves while trained
commandos make mistakes such as running out of ammunition without realizing
it. Eight bad guys can be having a showdown with McClane but they will very
obligingly attack one at a time so McClane can pick them off like Horatio at
the Bridge. Later, when there is one piece of equipment that McClane really
needs it just sort of falls into his hands, no muss, no fuss. That is not
to say there is not a whole lot of mussing and fussing in the film. But
McClane is the sort of hero who can go through a trash compactor, wince and
maybe bleed a little to remind the audience that it is painful to be
compacted, and five minutes later he is back to normal. His bones must be
made of the stuff they built Patton tanks from (or perhaps should build them
from).
There are a number of reasons the plot could not really proceed as it
does. McClane gets an identification on a character based on fingerprints
that he faxes from a car rental stand. Even assuming he could coerce the
car rental agency to do his faxing, it is very unlikely the print at the
other end would have anything but black blotches. But I guess part of the
fun of seeing a film like this is picking holes in the screenplay, which in
this case was written by Doug Richardson and Steven de Souza. The latter
wrote 48 HOURS and here is adapting 58 MINUTES, the novel by Walter Wager on
which DIE HARD 2 is based.
Visual effects are impressive and provided by Industrial Light and
Magic. One very nice shot involves McClane sort of flying away from an
explosion but toward the camera. The musical score is by Michael Kamen.
Rare is the film review that has a spoiler warning for a comment about the
musical score, but this one does. Jump to the next paragraph if you wish to
avoid it. Through the film Kamen often uses a theme for the villains that
sounds just like the first eight notes of Sibelius's "Finlandia." Well, I
had always thought they did sound ominous, but was it coincidence or was
Kamen really quoting? Sibelius's tribute to Finland has, after all, little
to do with the story at hand. Then in the final suspense scene the
orchestra finally breaks out into a big chunk of "Finlandia." The end
credits then are a full orchestral performance of "Finlandia." It sounds
mighty good in Dolby Surroundsound. That's worth fifty cents of the
admission price all by itself.
This is an enjoyable action film: nothing requiring great thought, but
certainly enjoyable. I would give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzx!leeper
leeper@mtgzx.att.com