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Overall Rating
3.62

Awesome: 24.14%
Worth A Look37.93%
Average: 22.41%
Pretty Bad: 6.9%
Total Crap: 8.62%

1 review, 52 user ratings


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Die Hard 2
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List Price:   $14.98
Price:   $12.49
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by Ryan Arthur

"Story of my life."
3 stars

Not nearly as good as its predecessor.

The first Die Hard is an action movie classic. It created the sort of everyman hero, where you didn't have to be some musclebound freak to be the good guy. Bruce Willis became a bona fide movie star with the first one, and that was good. But he also decided to very rarely take chances as an actor, and that was bad.

Anyway. Die Hard 2 (subtitled - badly, I might add - Die Harder) opens with John McLane (Willis) in Washington DC, awaiting the arrival of his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). It's Christmas. It's a busy airport. And there are terrorists. This time they want to free a military leader who's going to be landing. So they hijack the computers in the control tower and divert the plane. If anyone tries to stop them, they'll cause the commercial planes, circling above the airport and already low on fuel, to crash. Only one man can stop them.

John McLane.

It's more violent than the first, but it's not necessarily better. William Sadler, as the bad guy, isn't nearly as evilllle as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber was, and the movie seems muddy while the first one was much more crisp in it's look and feel. I attribute that more to the directors (John McTiernan in the first, Renny Harlin in this movie). And McLane loses some of his everyman feel here, and that takes away from the character. He's not the normal average joe who's just in the wrong place in the wrong time. Here, he's supercop. Willis is all right, he's got the action thing down. I just wish we'd see him flex his acting muscle a little more frequently.

It's OK, but the first and third are better movies.

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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=884&reviewer=7
originally posted: 10/10/98 01:52:04
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User Comments

1/01/10 Dane Youssef As good as it's predecessor. Everyone sparkles. A real hot white-knuckle action flick. 5 stars
8/20/09 Jeff Wilder Not bad. But Harlin's direction doesn't keep the suspense going as well as it should. 4 stars
8/13/09 PAUL SHORTT TOO LOUD, TOO MANY EXPLOSIONS, TOO LITTLE INTELLIGENCE 2 stars
12/01/08 Shaun Wallner Friiggin Awesome!! 5 stars
2/08/08 Anthony Feor Just as good as its predecessor. It's exciting and action-packed! 5 stars
8/19/07 Vincent Ebriega It's great entertainment that won't stop until it has enough spark for 2 action flicks. 5/5 5 stars
6/11/07 Indrid Cold A few unspectacular, disjointed action scenes and not much else. 3 stars
6/04/07 Quigley Awesome movie. Just as good as Part 1. These movies would suck without Willis as the star 5 stars
2/26/07 Donny M First and 3rd=WAY better 2 stars
10/20/06 MP Bartley Loses a star for a poor villain. 4 stars
10/01/06 Jeff Anderson The BEST in the series thanks to Harlin's inventive direction & Willis' great performance!! 5 stars
8/06/06 Chris Wilbik It wasn't as good as the other two die hard movies 4 stars
5/11/06 rabdalas The weakest of the 3, but not as bad as I expected. 3 stars
2/24/06 ES How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice? 4 stars
1/03/06 Wiseman Too much like the first one, I really enjoyed the first one and the third one. 1 stars
9/02/05 Eden Boring villians, location, ideas, action - but the plane crash is shocking 2 stars
8/03/05 Brandy Harrington DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 4 stars
6/14/05 E-FUNK Terrible. The original is the perfect action film. This is just... bad. Harlin blows. 1 stars
5/28/05 tony Best movie of the trilogy! a great one 5 stars
4/01/05 Richard Box Not as good as the first. More like a re-run but still excellent. 4 stars
4/07/04 Sig Not Bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 stars
3/27/04 Dr.Lecter The plane crash was blood-curdling 4 stars
11/27/03 John Stuart saves Renny 4 stars
3/09/03 Jack Sommersby Gets the job done, but it's a bit too mechanical. Sadler is unremarkable villian. 4 stars
2/03/03 Turtle Unfortunately, the movie loses its fuel at the end right before the airplanes do. 4 stars
10/27/02 Stefan Halka Despite having a highly unrealistic plot, this film is still good and enjoyable. 4 stars
10/17/02 Charles Tatum Everything the first one was not 1 stars
7/25/02 CVJ the worst of them all but still very good 4 stars
5/29/02 R.W. Welch Pretty much a rehash of the first one but with noticeably less pizzaz. 3 stars
1/25/02 murat good but not excellent harlin would make it better 4 stars
11/24/01 Shams Huque Great action. Very entertaining. 5 stars
10/07/01 jawsboy Awesome action film with a good story and acting. Average photography and ok villan 4 stars
8/09/01 E-Funk Leave it up to Renny Harlin to fuck up a good series. 2 stars
8/07/01 Joe Zappa More violent than the first. It's alright, slightly less enjoyable than the first, too. 3 stars
7/28/01 Henry Ginsberg A bit baoring .Good ending . 4 stars
6/30/01 Geebo First was better, but still very good. The whole works. 5 stars
5/31/01 Ben Donnelly unreal movie, up there with the other installments of the die hard series 5 stars
5/22/01 Monster W. Kung Unwatchable piece of shit. Rent the first one, leave this turd alone. 1 stars
5/04/01 Gracy Lionheart Not nearly as good as the first one...boring by comparison. 3 stars
4/12/01 fifu neat but to much like the last one 4 stars
4/09/01 QUENTIN CONGRESS THIS WAS BETTER THAN THE FIRST "DIE HARD" 5 stars
11/14/00 The EVIL Penguin WWWWWWAAAAAYYYYY better than the original Die Hard 4 stars
3/23/00 Bruce I liked the whole trilogy, especially this one 5 stars
3/04/00 sTEPHEN C. ROBBIE Good Movie, Lots Of Action 3 stars
11/07/99 Anthony Ellis Nowhere near as good as die hard 1 and 3. This movie is really, really BAD!! 1 stars
6/10/99 Homer J. Simpson More action, but not as good of story as the first 3 stars
4/10/99 Shelley good but nothing like the first 4 stars
12/13/98 Carl Excellent action sequences! I was floored when Col. Stewart crashed the passenger plane! 4 stars
11/12/98 Lord Of The Dunce Took the original and moved it to an airport. Sad in a way, but not all bad. Harlin bites. 4 stars
11/10/98 Hugh Jass Tons of amusement. I could use that... 4 stars
10/03/98 Armageddon Bruce Willis is the KING. I know it, you know it. Just admit it and have fun. 5 stars
9/09/98 Badass A lot of fun. 4 stars
IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS FILM, RATE IT!
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  04-Jul-1990 (R)

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