Die Harder--And More Violently

Rating: 7/10 (2 October 2002)

The 1988 action thriller DIE HARD was such a huge critical, commercial, and artistic success that it was probably inevitable, given Hollywood's mentality that there is never too much of a good thing, that a sequel would follow. The result, thus, is DIE HARD 2.
Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, who on this Christmas Eve is at Dulles International Airport in Washington awaiting the arrival of his wife (Bonnie Bedelia) from Los Angeles. Flights, however, are being delayed all across the board into D.C. by one of the biggest blizzards on record. And when Willis spots Army mercenaries in sensitive areas of the airport where nobody is supposed to go, his cop instincts take hold. As it turns out, these mercenaries are led by a hard-nosed right-wing colonel (William Sadler) whose aim is to snatch a known Latin-American drug dealer (Franco Nero) from the hands of U.S. justice agents. Their reason, as Sadler puts it, is because he had "the guts to stand up against Communist aggression." To prove his point, Sadler and his minions shut the entire airport down, putting all those planes in the snowbound skies over the nation's capital in mortal peril, until Nero's military plane arrives. The result is a battle in more ways than one, as Willis must not only tangle with Sadler's gang, but also with an incompetent airport cop (Dennis Franz) who thinks Willis is a lunatic.
Very solid acting from Willis, as well as Fred Dalton Thompson and Art Evans, who portray the two sympathetic airport officials, helps DIE HARD 2 remain leagues ahead of the majority of testosterone-laden action flicks. But many of the same flaws that were in DIE HARD 1 creep up here again. To paint the airport cops as incompetent buffoons just so that Willis can be the hero of the piece is grossly inaccurate and offensive. Even the media, in the guise of the ultra-obnoxious Dick Thornberg (William Atherton), gets slammed, and not in a very fair or accurate fashion. And the violence and language in DIE HARD 2 are far more pervasive than the original, with at least two scenes (the icepick to the eye; and Sadler's ex-commander [John Amos] getting sucked into the engine of the getaway 747 at the end) approaching extreme in terms of bloodshed, and the use of the 'F' word approaching SCARFACE in terms of occasions when it is used.
Still, there is plenty of suspense and tension to be had here, with the direction of Renny Harlin evincing, at times, the feel of a Spielberg or Peckinpah at their edge-of-the-seat best. Michael Kamen's score, which interpolates Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" at the end, is also a plus.
The verdict is that DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER is not an unflawed film, but one can certainly do much worse.