Almost on par with the original as a classic action flick

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2011)

This movie is cool. Poor old John McClaine (Bruce Willis) just doesn't seem to be able to spend a nice quiet Christmas alone. It is as if he is a bad luck magnet. The movie opens with his car being towed away and a smart mouthed airport cop giving him a ticket. Then he finds out that his wife's plane is half an hour late, and then some terrorists take control of the airport, and poor John McClaine just cannot sit still. Okay, his wife is on a plane circling Dulles airport slowly running out of fuel, but still he's a cop that knows how to sniff out trouble and when he sees it, he wants to get to the bottom of it.
Die Hard II takes Die Hard and keeps up the pace. There are plenty of action scenes and the movie keeps you hooked until the end. There are twists in the plot and a few surprises. This movie takes place in an airport where as Die Hard is in a building. The stakes are much higher because the hostages are a number of aeroplanes packed full of people. The reporter form Die Hard makes an appearance and Holly plays a minor role. Bruce Willis crawls through ducts and always tries to get to the head of the terrorists. This is something that is missing form Die Hard: With a Vengeance. My opinion is that it has something to do with the change in directors. Die Hard II is directed by Renny Harlin, who takes the original movie and works with the same idea and gives it new life. John McTiernan returned to do Die Hard: With a Vengeance and thus seemed to treat it as a completely different film. There is more linkages to Die Hard in Die Hard II that there is with the third one.