#60: DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER

STARRING: Bruce Willis, William Sadler, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, Robert Patrick and John Amos. Screenplay by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson. Directed by Renny Harlin. Budget $60-70 million. Running time 124 minutes. 

It's Christmas Eve and John McClane (Bruce Willis) is at Dulles airport to pick up his wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia)who's flying in just ahead of a really big storm. Unfortunately for them, and all the passengers and crew of the Air Windsor flight, US Colonel William Stuart (William Sadler) has other ideas. He and his private personal army of ex-marines have taken over the airport's air traffic control to facilitate the rescue of corrupt South American military leader, General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), who's being flown in to face drug charges. Now it's up to one plucky, NYPD cop to save the day.

What follows is a bombastic, loud, furious, action-packed and deeply violent action film of the sort that Hollywood used to do with great aplomb. Originally released in 1990 when action films weren't the shaky-cam blurs of frantic editing they sadly became. It was fantastically successful at the boxoffice, earning over $240 million worldwide, almost twice as much as the original film.

This is an utterly un-apologetic, un-reconstructed two-gun action film whose only crime was being a sequel, because while it's clearly not as good as the note-perfect 1988 Die Hard directed by John McTierran it's never-the-less a bloody good thrill ride.

Directed by Renny Harlin who made a name for himself with Prison and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 before making this, and then rising to prominence thanks to Cliffhanger before crash and burning his bridges with one of the biggest boxoffice bombs of all times - Cutthroat Island. He'd go on to make both The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea before a slow gradual decline into mediocrity with a series of low budget action films.

With fantastic action sequences, the Skybridge shoot-out being the standout. Die Hard 2 upped the violence but sadly lost the humanity of McClane. Bullets are spewed at a rate that would humble John Wick, and blood squibs explode with glee in slow motion that would shame Zack Snyder. William Sadler makes a fantastic foil for McClane and his nude introduction is legendary. At the end of the day this was just an absolutely fun and very satisfying and visceral romp that delivered in spades. 

1990 was a great year for action films. Tremors, Hard to Kill, Revenge, The Hunt for Red October, Blind Fury, Blue Steel, Nuns on the Run, Total Recall, Another 48 Hours, Dick Tracy, Gremlins 2, Robocop 2, Wild at Heart, Darkman, I Come in Peace, King of New York, Marked for Death, Predator 2, and Robo Jox to name but a handful. It's sad to read a list of the films released in that year and compare them to the dreck we get these days, there was so much variety back then, and not just in action films. 

8/10