This Time, Nothing Can Mute the Greatness

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2008)

In 1988, "Die Hard" became a surprising success with only a 28 million dollar budget. Less money was spent on Timothy Dalton's two Bond movies, and they are not as daring as their immediate predecessors. With more money and confidence from 20th Century Fox, the writers and producers went to work on the sequel. "Die Hard 2" is bigger and better. It is not better because it is bigger, but because Renny Harlin is the director and writer Steven E. de Souza shows more self-discipline.
"Die Hard" is well-made with far above average action, snappy dialogue, a top-echelon villain, sets that augment the mood, and Michael Kamen's helpful music. It would receive an instant recommendation if not for the gathering of idiotic characters (my review mentions eight) led by Paul Gleason's police chief. Here, we only have two: police Captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) and returning news reporter Dick Thornburg. Lorenzo is not as omnipresent as Gleason's Dwayne T. Robinson. de Souza exerts more control over Thornburg's interfering powers and makes his actions slightly more reasonable.
Intrepid Los Angeles policeman John McClane (Bruce Willis) is in Washington D.C. spending the Christmas Holiday with his wife Holly's (Bonnie Bedelia) family. He arrived before Holly and awaits her arrival at Dulles Airport. When a group of outlaws plays havoc with the flight tower, McClane once finds himself in the center of deadly standoff. He sees the repeat situation as atrocious luck, but his misfortune turns out to be the good luck everybody else needs that night.
Harlin explains the situation to the audience over a news broadcast, but the crux is that former South American ruler Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero) has been extradited to face drug trafficking charges. His plane is to land at Dulles that night. Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) sees the situation differently and demands that Esperanza be handed to him in exchange for control of the tower. Holly is on one of the planes lacking enough fuel to go to another airport, so John places himself "on the playing field." John McTiernan photographed the action in the first movie well. Against Renny Harlin, however, he loses. Harlin is one of the most adept action directors in history. There is not one bad second during the six action scenes. Harlin uses zoomed out angles to best exhibit the spatial relations between the combatants and the environment. When they are firmly in our minds, he combines close-ups with his longer distance shots for maximum effect. Next, he incorporates even wider shots to complete his masterful presentation. When Stuart and his men are throwing several grenades, Harlin accomplishes with one angle what most directors need three or more to equal.
He utilizes only one jump scene. Most often, he allows us to see what likely will happen before it does and builds our anticipation by waiting a few more seconds to finish his trick. The brawl outside a church is a prime example, as are McClane's lethal finishers in the luggage room and skywalk shootouts. Harlin also takes his time during Colonel Stuart's "lesson" to the control tower. That particular scene will shock anybody who does not know about it before their first viewing. Sadly, I am not a member of that group. All of the other scenes provide a prelude to the finale, which is not very long, but showcases Stuart like never before. I was so impressed when I first saw that I went back and watched it twice more after the movie finished.
William Sadler uses his large eyes and prominently boned face to help give Stuart a chilling countenance. Few can look stern as well as Sadler can, and he can convincingly shout without yelling. Stuart ranks third on the Die Hard villain list, but not because Sadler or the written character are weak. Thomas Gabriel and Hans Gruber are simply exceptional villains played by two good actors giving career performances.
If one argued that nobody could have played McClane better than Willis, I would agree. He is not distressed if only his wife is hurt. He treats any loss of innocent life as failure, and Willis lets us see the anguish and fury when it happens. Willis carries an innate toughness and common man charm, so he does not need to act for those traits to shine. Bedelia does not have quite as much time as before, but as soon as we learned that their marital problems have been fixed, it becomes much easier to for her to sell us the character.
Most importantly, Franz is not featured as prominently as Gleason was. Lorenzo is still an idiot, but not to the extent of Dwayne Robinson. I do not like Franz because his parts here and in "NYPD Blue" reflect disgracefully on the 98% of good policemen in our country. Lorenzo cost this movie its ninth star, and it would have cost it more if the character had more screen time. Fred Dalton Thompson is good as usual playing Lorenzo's boss and watching Art Evans is fun.
The overall cast performs better here than in any of the other three John McClane movies. de Souza has a poor resume but would have a far better career if he had replicated this success. "Die Hard 2" is action at its core, but the other elements such as lighting, set design, plot and, of course, acting which transcends the genre, are in full force. Give Harlin talent, money and anything resembling a good script and he can make a most superior product for anybody who can handle the content. I hope another "Die Hard 2" is in his future.