Easily the most boring film of the series.

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2004)

* 1/2 out of ****
I tried. Honestly, I tried my best to enjoy this film, the sequel to the slightly overrated but still exciting Die Hard. And this film's sequel, Die Hard With a Vengeance, was simply one of the best action thrillers of the 90's. But Die Hard 2 is the weak link of the trilogy, stupid and silly without the thrills to compensate.
Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, the world's unluckiest cop who's relocated to L.A. after the Nakatomi incident (which apparently brought him closer to his wife). Anyway, it's Christmas and he's waiting for the arrival of his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) at Washington Airport, but all hell breaks loose when a team of ex-commandos led by the renegade Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) places the airport under siege, forcing all the approaching passenger airliners to circle around the city until the terrorists' demands are met. Naturally, McClane's going to take the situation into his own hands, especially since his wife is in one of the circling planes that's running low on fuel.
All things considered, Die Hard 2's premise isn't half bad; it could make for one really nifty thrill ride if crafted with a better hand. But it's directed by Renny Harlin, who while being technically proficient as an action filmmaker, fails to put any of the extra flair or juice that separates the classics (Raiders of the Lost Ark, for instance) from the pretenders (this film, as a perfect example).
There are three major action sequences in Die Hard 2, and they're all relatively small scale and a little underwhelming. The first, a fight in the baggage area between McClane and two of the ex-commandos, is well-choreographed and filmed, but the foley guys must have had an off day. The sound effects for the kicks and punches are only a tad better than what you'd expect from a late 70's chop-socky flick, and this is coming from a film that reportedly cost $70M to make.
The other two action scenes are solid enough, a bloody shootout in a terminal that results in quite a massacre, and the climactic setpiece, a fight set on board the wing of a moving airliner, is terrific and the only totally satisfying scene in the whole picture.
Thpse two action sequences aside, Die Hard 2 is virtually without thrills. Hindering the film is Steven E. de Souza's script, which calls upon McClane to utter terrible one-liners ("What is this, a tag team?!" "Just the fax, ma'am.") and pits him agains the airport's own chief-of-security, yet again employing the whole "hero clashing against superior officers" cliché that marred much of the original Die Hard, but is actually even worse here.
That's because the chief of security is played by Dennis Franz, one of the most grating actors on the big screen (surprisingly enough, he's bearable on NYPD Blue). The screenplay sets him up as a lazy, incompetent idiot who can't accomplish one aspect of his occupation with any efficiency. The film, in fact, builds so much tension for the audience against this character that we expect and demand an even worse comeuppance for him than the villains. But the script actually has the cajones to overlook the stupidity of this slob and make him into a requisite good guy at the end.
While Bruce Willis is fine as John McClane, it's the supporting cast that irks me. Almost everybody outside the lead role is completely unmemorable or stupendously awful. The former applies to William Sadler and Fred Dalton Thompson and the latter is exemplified by Art Evans, whose acting skills have convinced me that I can also appear in over fifty films by uttering dialogue as if though I'm reading it off a cue card. This is one of the worst performances I've seen, period.
With little in the way of exciting action or plot, Die Hard 2 is clearly the worst of the much vaunted action trilogy, and will probably still retain that dubious honor when Die Hard 4 is eventually released.