Die Hard 2

Great fun re-watching this after checking out the original for the first time. One of the very best filmic franchises out there, to be sure.

I was 10 in 1990, I loved Die Hard, and I hated Die Hard 2. Now I'm 40 and I am rewatching this and.... compared to movies today it is pretty good. If this was made in 2020 it would be a 10 out of 10 star smash blockbusting hit that all of America raves about except the "everything is political all the time crowd." But it didn't, it came out in 1990 and because of that it was a subpar sort of BS action movie that in no way lived up to the first one. The thing is... I'm writing the review in 2020. Today it's a good movie if you compare it to most everything in the theaters today and…

If anyone were ever to need to write a training manual for terrorists that demonstrated how to maximise the chaos and destruction at a facility; then they could do a great deal worse than engage the services of Bruce Willis. In this cracking action adventure film, he is "Lt. John McClane" who finds himself amidst a hijacking - but this time it's not the plane that's being hijacked, it's the whole airport - and all so a drug-dealing general can escape justice with the help of some rogue highly trained military types. Willis has bags of charisma, and he needs it as he has to persuade sceptical…

Die Hard 2 (1990) is a solid action movie that delivers high-energy sequences and a familiar setup, but it lacks the magic that made the first one a classic. The plot follows a similar structure, with John McClane once again caught in a high-stakes situation, but the tension does not feel as sharp this time. The script has its moments, keeping McClane’s signature humor and attitude intact, but it leans more on spectacle than smart problem-solving. The airport setting feels expansive, but it does not create the same sense of claustrophobic intensity as Nakatomi Plaza, making the action feel…