A sequel that pales in comparison to its incredible predecessor

Rating: 5/10 (9 February 2011)

What are the chances that the same guy could prevent two separate terrorist attacks in a two year span, both of them occurring on Christmas eve? Highly unlikely, right? Well Die Hard 2 banks on this implausibility and practically recreates the first Die Hard. The film is littered with silly lines about how crazy it is that this is happening all over again. And yes, I agree, it is crazy. So why make a movie about it? As you should have guessed by now, Die Hard 2 pits hard boiled cop John McClane against a group of terrorists once again on Christmas eve. These terrorists have taken control over an airport and are threatening to crash the many planes waiting to land unless their demands for a military plane that they may use to fly out of the country are met. McClane won't see these terrorists get away with it and sets out to stop them, against the will of everybody else. His wife is also on one of the planes in danger, so that complicates things a bit. What ensues from here is a pretty ridiculous series of gunfights and explosions, none of which really has any kind of awesome wow factor to it like the first film did.
The character of John McClane from the first Die Hard film was great. He was a mixed of crazy and intensity. He could keep his cool and fight through all sorts of pain while remaining freaking awesome. His hard boiled run-n-gun nature made him a memorable, and also very quotable, 80's action hero. I was glad to see Bruce Willis reprise this great role in Die Hard 2 until I began to realize something horrible. His character had been changed. The raw awesomeness that the original McClane possessed had been tossed aside for a loud mouthed and sort of goofy guy. Instead of taking charge with the intensity and determination the first McClane had, John McClane in this film just has this "why me?" attitude for the entire film. He just sort of runs around killing people in pretty lame action sequences and nothing he does in Die Hard 2 is remotely close to the badass stunts he pulled off in the first movie. Bruce Willis still does a good job, but he feels like a whole new character that I don't like nearly as much as Die Hard's John McClane.
As for the supporting cast, there isn't a whole lot going on either. There are plenty of new characters as well as some returning from the original film. There are multiple obnoxious throwaway characters in this film such as an annoying news reporter who doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose in the film save for one particular scene. There's also Dennis Franz as police Captain Carmine Lorenzo, a cop that has a huge grudge against McClane for some reason. He is extremely annoying and his animosity towards McClane becomes ridiculous and silly when it gets in the way of life or death situations. Then of course there's the villain in Die Hard 2. William Sadler plays Colonel Stuart who leads the terrorist group, but in reality he hardly does anything. He's a wuss who sits back in his hideout and lets everyone else do his dirty work for him. Maybe this villain wouldn't have seemed quite as lame if the villain from Die Hard hadn't been one of the greatest villains of all time. Stuart is a crappy villain by himself, but when compared to Alan Rickman's portrayal of Hans Gruber he might as well be a disgruntled 12 year old with a nerf gun. There was a serious aura of fear and danger surrounding the terrorists in Die Hard, but the terrorists in the sequel pale in comparison and don't feel very threatening at all. It is especially ridiculous to watch them try to shoot. They might as well be wearing blindfolds.
I've spent this entire review comparing this movie to its predecessor, so I will say that as a standalone film Die Hard 2 is an OK action film. It is nothing special, but it's nothing worth hating. I give it kudos for trying so hard to be a Die Hard film, unfortunately it just misses the mark in every category. I can't deny that it has its moments, but overall Die Hard 2 is a very weak sequel that is best left forgotten.