Solid action movie but never really becomes excellent.

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2005)

"Die Hard 2" is a professionally made action movie. There is nothing wrong with any of the action sequences and the movie is filled with some hard action with lots of explosions and a delicious waste of ammunition. There is much to enjoy for the action movie fans here. In a way Renny Harlin is a kind of Finnish Paul Verhoeven, he manages to put some hard graphic violence and killings in the movie, without making it look overdone or over-the-top.
Yet the movie is nothing more than a solid action flick. The story is simply too weak and the villains are too uninteresting to make this a real must see. Also the movie recycles a bit too many things from the first "Die Hard" movie to be considered really original.
Bruce Willis really is in his element again as John McClane. He truly was born to play the character. Willis and his character is what makes this movie better than your average action movie. Dennis Franz plays a typical Dennis Franz role and his fans will be delighted. Art Evans however played a really irritating character. There are some small roles for Colm Meaney, Robert Patrick, John Leguizamo and Vondie Curtis-Hall. Most of them were fairly unknown at the time.
"Die Hard 2" is still a better movie than most of the other action movies made the past decades but the story is too weak and unoriginal to make this a real must see. Still action movie fans will not be disappointed by this.
7/10
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