John McClane Versus Django!

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2013)

The last time we saw Detective John McClane in "Die Hard," he was a member of the New York Police Department. He flew across country to Los Angeles to patch up his marriage to his wife Holly. After single-handedly thwarting a gang of German gunmen, McClane went to work for the Los Angeles Police Department. In "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" our indestructible protagonist finds himself in Washington, D.C., at Dulles International Airport, on Christmas Day. McClane encounters another group of ruthless villains who want to rescue a South America drug dealer when his plane sets down. Literally, these villains hold an airport hostage and make it impossible for any plane to land. "Cliffhanger" director Renny Harlan delivers some agile violence, and "Die Hard" scribe Steven E. de Souza and "Bad Boys" writer Doug Richardson imitate the original. Actually, they do a pretty good job, including giving several characters a chance to encore. Holly plays a bigger role this time around, while the obnoxious reporter that William Atherton plays gets a couple of scenes. If you look closely, you'll spot Robert Patrick of "Terminator 2," Colin Meany of "Star Trek The Next Generation," and John Leguizamo of "The Rock."
McClane is the last man that renegade soldier Colonel Stuart (William Sadler of "The Shawshank Redemption") counted on when he embarked on his next mission. Stuart's dastardly henchmen have hacked into the airport computers and lowered the land strip so when a plane lands, it crashes. Colonel Stuart makes a good villain, and McClane doesn't have an easy job dealing with one disaster after another. In a sense, Stuart is a more dangerous villain than Hans Gruber was because he orders the death of hundreds aboard a Winsdor Airlines jet. John Amos is good as the secondary villain. Initially, I thought "Die Hard 2" was the worst film of this franchise until I saw "A Good Day to Die Hard." Altogether, this "Die Hard" qualifies as above-average.