Fun and Fast Sequel

Rating: Null/10 (10 February 2013)

Die Hard 2 (1990)
*** (out of 4)
John McClane (Bruce Willis) is at a Washington D.C. airport to pick up his wife when a terrorist (William Sadler) and his men take control so that they can free Gen. Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), a powerful dictator. DIE HARD 2 pretty much delivers all the fun, action and humor from the first film but this here takes it a step further and really delivers the goods. It's always hard making a good sequel to a good movie but this one here succeeds in large part because we've got a pretty strong story, a great action director and of course the terrific cast who helps keep it moving. What really stands out about this second film is just the fact that every action scene is really magnified and this starts from the very first one and it doesn't let up until the very end. Like the first film this one here has one action scene after another and they all manage to work. Some of the more memorable ones including the tense ending but there's also a great sequence where a group of soldiers are pretty much caught in a crossfire during a set-up. Willis is certainly in good form here as he handles the action scenes without a problem and best of all is that dry humor that is used perfectly here. He not only gets some good one-liners but you can't help but enjoy this character and the life Willis brings to it. The supporting cast here is terrific with Sadler making for an excellent villain and it's always fun to see Nero even though he's not in too much of the film. Bonnie Bedella, William Atherton and Reginald VelJohnson make appearances and are fine. We also get some great work from John Amos, Dennis Franz and Fred Dalton Thompson. Another terrific supporting character is the snow. Yes, there's so much snow here that you can't help but enjoy the added winter touch and it certainly adds some extra tension to all the stuff going on. The stuff dealing with the planes running out of fuel is certainly very intense at times and director Renny Harlin really manages to keep things moving at a nice pace. DIE HARD 2 is about as good a sequel as one can hope for and is a worthy follow-up.