Year: 1990
Directed By: Renny Harlin
Written By: Walter Wager
RYAN’S REVIEW
This is a sequel not unlike many other sequels made quickly after successful movies. The first ones that come to mind being The Hangover 2, Speed 2, and Home Alone 2. These movies don’t continue a story; they just retell the one that already worked. This movie is about a cop who has to single-handedly stop a group of terrorist on Christmas Eve. More or less exactly what the first film is about, a carbon copy of its predecessor. Yet what I am surprised to find out now is that this film, like its predecessor, is based on a novel. The two novels these two films are based on are not connected in any way, but the stories had similar themes. This film is based on a novel called 58 Minutes, by Robert Wager, with obvious changes being made to incorporate the first film.
This is a cool action movie if nothing else, but it is just more of the same. This is Bruce Willis’s go to character and he is able to keep doing it because he is so good at it. He does just about everything he did in the first movie and then some. This is Renny Harlin’s Die Hard, that’s what I think makes it matter. Despite what you might think about Harlin, he has made some pretty cool action films. They aren’t groundbreaking movies but they are all fun features with a lot of action. Many characters from the first film came back for the sequel, even when their presence wasn’t necessary as in the case of William Atherton returning as the reporter Richard Thornberg.
I think this is a cool movie but I don’t think it really garners a lot of effort in a review; it’s just a regurgitated sequel. I will vouch for it though because good action movies are always worth your time when you have some time to kill. It does give us an interesting portrait of how much the world has changed in twenty-two years. There is smoking in the airport, weak security in a major international airport, and John McClane is carrying his gun at all times inside the airport. Granted this is only a movie, but these kinds of exaggerations aren’t done often anymore or ever seriously accepted by an audience.
AMBER’S REVIEW
I would just like to ditto that last post for Die Hard. I promise to re-watch this movie and update this post with my review at a later date.
NEXT MOVIE: Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)
The Movie Snobs 