DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE is really good, but better than DIE HARD? no.
DIE HARD is the best because it could have been another retarded Joel Silver/Lawrence Gordon-produced action flick that was expected of the Arnold/Stallone era. Yet instead, elements brought in gave the movie such an incredible fresh taste that revitalized the action genre(which in fashion Hollywood did what was expected, copying DIE HARD instead of being inspired by it.)
In fact, the only post-DIE HARD-inspired-yet-fresh Hollywood action movie was SPEED in 1994...but that was directed by Jan DeBont, who was the DP of DIE HARD.
Elements include...
(1) "REGULAR JOE" PROTAGONIST - Even that new release SHOOTER had to make sure that its hero is common like the inbred rednecks in the midwest, south, and the white trash up in New England and in California. Yet everyone forgot that while they're condenscending normal people with such contrived nonsense, Bruce Willis himself was the regular joe. Former bartender-turned actor, he could have become another Jersey truck driver.
And he basically plays himself, a New Jersey middle-aged guy that took his shoes off, only wearing his wife-beater shirt, when terrorists open fire. Hell, who can even say he actually ever had fired any of those automatic weapons?
As a cop, maybe he only as training for his service revolver, and hes having to improvise like hell on the fly(which explains why he overdoes the explosives when he detonates the plastic bomb). He is a guerilla warefare action character, not an one-man exterminating genocide force.
(2) THE PAIN - Which is when his character had to face dangers that Arnold and Sly would have solved without a scratch, we actually feel Willis' pain. John McClane is human, and hes as easy to wreck as the rest of us. A gunshot rips his shoulder, blood flies on the wall, and we wence. He has to walk through a floor of broken glass, and his feet are mauled. Ouch.
But its even a simple scene like Willis falling down the shafts when his gunstrap snaps. It scares the hell out of him, and we don't blame him. Its especially funny when he ties that firehose to his waist, about to jump from a roof about to explode....him praying to God that he'll never go up another tall building ever.
Few action movies afterwards made us this concerned for a action hero's concern. A few exceptions occur when the audience actually go "ohhhh!" like SIN CITY when a certain character gets his "second weapon" taken from him.
(3) TERRORIST MOTIVATION - The 1970s inspired Hollywood for YEARS that such terrorists fought only for ideology, yet with DIE HARD, we have baddies that simply want the damn money.
(4) SMARTASS - Willis was a sitcom star before DIE HARD with MOONLIGHTING, and he was a comedian. This made him a natural smartass in the dialogue.
"You listen to me asshole-" "Asshole? I wasn't the one that got butt fucked on live TV, DWAYNE!"
(5) BASTARD - I've written about this before, but John McClaine in DH and in DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE is in reality a bastard in peacetime. His wife hates him, his co-workers can't stand him, his boss has him on suspension, and while he is charming and decent in short doses....surely all his friends don't want to bother with his alcoholic asshole personality in the long term.
Yet shit hits the fan, he goes Jack Bauer on ya immediately. Hell, DHWAV was funny when he's having to do all that insanity while having a hangover.
