I´m not
exactly a huge fan of Die Hard, however I respect its craft and find it quite
enjoyable. The sequel however, instantly falls in the trap of feeling like a
repeat. Again it is John McClane who accidentally end up in a terrorist take
over, this time of a airport, a Christmas times and again he of course beats
the crap out off everyone. The biggest problem of this film is how incredibly
stupid it is. Characters are about as stupid as a rushed Hollywood horror flick
and you find yourself having several things they should do that would make it a
lot easier, but instead they just stand there and get pissed at John McClane.
The
characters are pretty damn flat and while people ignore this saying well it´s
not supposed to win any Oscars, I thought the first one had much more character
while this was just cliché filled, one-dimensional stereotypes. Performances
are passable mostly, but I mean you can´t deny Bruce Willis has got some great
charisma and while he is just Bruce Willis, he is perfect for the role. I think
the actor playing his wife also did a reasonably good job though a bit flat at
times, but was perfectly cast. Then there was the films villain, who was just
awful, but I’m not sure whether it´s the scripts fault or the acting. Col.
Stuart, played by William Sadler, just doesn’t feel threatening at all, even
though there are scenes early on that are obviously supposed to make us fear
him, the only thing I really fear is how ignorant the police is. I think they
try to make Stuart seem very cold-hearted, but he’s just sounds like he is
reading all his lines. What´s maybe the most annoying thing about the villain
is that his motives are just so unclear, which is always a problem because then
it is just a guy who spent all this time planning for very little reason at
all.
Somehow I
felt the special effects were at times less believable then movies from at
least ten years prior and that just seemed lazy. The action however is
generally pretty fun, though of course these terrorists can hit everyone but John
McClane, no problem and M9 guns apparently have around 30 bullets a clip. The
action is still good however and it does have some entertaining and memorable
moments and I mean this is an action film so that is very important.
While the
first Die Hard had a story that did a good job of engaging and having enough
twists to be interesting, this becomes very messy by the end. It starts to
twist left and right, but every time there was a twist, the film sunk a little
lower. Every twist had me saying “oh come on really?!”. The film constantly had
me saying “why… how… but no that’s stupid…. And that doesn’t even make sense”
and I´m a guy who is usually able to overlook plotholes and don’t worry about
these things in a film like this, but this had some awful moments.
Is this a
good film? No, not at all, but I will admit it is entertaining and you will be
laughing at times, though mostly when you´re not supposed to. Despite being a
very bad film it is easy and fun to watch, but that doesn’t change the fact
that it is a clichéd, bad remake of the first one where logic seems to not
exist anymore.
2/5
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