Die Hard 2 (Film Review)

1990 20th Century Fox
Directed by: Renny Harlin; Written by: Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson (base upon "58 Minutes" by Walter Wager)
Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco Nero, William Sadler, and John Amos
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 124 Minutes
The Nicsperiment: 8/10

Two years ago, New York cop, John McClane, had an action-packed Christmas Eve from hell, where he had to rescue his estranged wife and a large group of hostages from terrorists and a bomb-rigged Los Angeles skyscraper. Now, he's an L.A. cop who's reconciled with his wife and is looking forward to a nice, peaceful Christmas with his wife and kids at his in-laws place in Virginia. Unfortunately, a new group of terrorists has other plans. As McClane arrives at the airport to pick up his wife, terrorists highjack the entire air traffic system, holding every plane hostage in the air, until they can get away with an imprisoned Latin American dictator. Now, McClane's has to spend Christmas Eve yet again doing what he does best...playing the reluctant hero who has to save the day.
Die Hard 2's plot is, at its core, unimportant. Bruce Willis' John McClane is placed in a similar, yet bigger situation than he faced in 1988's Die Hard, on the same day of the year. The chances of this happening are so low as to be silly, but director, Renny Harlin, seems quite conscious of this fact, and replies by pumping the film full of steroids. The plot then, simply serves as an action sequence delivery system, and those action sequences are absolutely huge, featuring outrageous stunts, a blizzard of bullets, and enough explosions to heat a small nation all winter. Bruce Willis also seems conscious of the derivative script and that he's going to have to throw himself into the film even more to sell it. He gets so beat up and bloodied by the end of this film, he can barely stand. Willis is absolutely great, even if the film's over-abundance of one-liners lets him down at points. Willis is not the only standout here, though.
No one on Earth can replace Alan Rickman as a villain, but William Sadler does fine as McClane's Die Hard 2 nemesis, a corrupt military leader that's continuously one step...and one karate kick ahead of the earthy, New York cop. Michael Kamen returns to score the film and takes up arms just like Harlin and Willis, presenting even more bombastic music than he did in the previous film. The result is a movie that doesn't touch the 1988 original, but is still so much fun and so enjoyable, it's worth its own "Is Die Hard 2 a Christmas movie?" discussion in its own right.