Almost as good as the original

Rating: 9/10 (18 October 2000)

"Die Hard 2" is the excellent first sequel to my all-time favorite action film "Die Hard". This one doesn't quite top the original film but it comes very close. A few predictable moments keeps this from topping the first film. But hey, why quarrel? Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, now part of the L.A.P.D. instead of the N.Y.P.D. as he was in the first film. As the movie opens McClane is at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. waiting for his wife's plane to land. But he soon finds out that a terrorist plot is developing. Before you know it, he's right. The terrorists (through unusual circumstances) take over the airport in different fashion as these bad guys try to free the world's biggest drug dealer who's on his way to the nation's capital. Willis is in fine form here as are the action scenes. Giving "Die Hard 2" a new setting, a somewhat different plot, and new characters is a major plus. Some of the other characters from the original are back: Bonnie Bedelia as Holly, McClane's wife, who spends almost the entire movie on an airplane; Reginald VelJohnson (briefly) as Powell, the L.A.P.D. cop who helped McClane in the first film; and William Atherton as Thornberg, the sleazy TV reporter who just happens to be on the same plane as Mrs. McClane. New characters this time around include William Sadler as Col. Stuart, the lead terrorist; John Amos as Grant, the hard-headed commander of an army's anti-terrorist squad that takes on Stuart and his men; Franco Nero as Esperanza, the drug lord; Dennis Franz in a stupidly hilarious performance as the incompetent airport police chief (to match the incompetent police chief of the first film); Sheila McCarthy as a local TV reporter; and Fred Dalton Thompson as the man in charge of the airport tower. "Die Hard 2" is exciting, funny, and very entertaining. An exceptional sequel.
***1/2 (out of four)