I read your Die Hard thread, so I gotta ask, why all the hate for Die Hard 2? I watched it again the other night and thought it was pretty good. Not as good as Die Hard with a Vengence, but easily better than Live Free or Die Hard.
One thing I realized more as I watched the film was the extreme amount of violence. I remember I read an article stating that Renny Harlin had to cut the film down just to warrant an R rating. I was reading a review on the fourth installment and it mentioned only two scenes where blood is shown...that's a far cry from Die Hard 2.
I thought my review made it clear, but if not:
The reasons why I really can't stand DIE HARD 2 at all are:
CHANGE IN CHARACTER - John McClane in DIE HARD and DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE is a charming wiseass of an incredibly tough bastard Irishman...who also is a complete asshole when outside of his comfort zone. He gets incredibly pulled into insane shit that just hits the fan.
He alienates everyone around him. Yeah he was a hero in LA with the events of DIE HARD, but that was 7 years ago. Since then, his wife left him again, nobody in his NYPD precinct wants anything to do with him, he probably smarted off way too many times against his superiors, and oh yeah...he's a damn alcoholic.
Sure you had Al the LAPD cop in DIE HARD being charmed by him, but imagined after awhile of McClane's behavior...even he would get tired of this jackass.
In DIE HARD 2, John McClane is reformed into this ready-go yuppie LAPD copper who is proactive. In DIE HARD and DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, he tries his best to let other (better) people over the job for him, but he's always reactive against the threat, never proactive. Did he bomb the building to stop the baddies?
No, he bombed the building in DIE HARD because Alan Rickman's character was continuing to overkill the hell out of the downed-SWAT team, and McClane was fucking pissed. He's REACTIVE, not PROACTIVE.
In DIE HARD 2, he becomes this indestructable superhero. Willis in DIE HARD and even DHWAV was brilliant because he played McClane as a very vulnerable, yet tough, action figure. If it was Arnold or Stallone leaping off a building tied with only a firehose, we wouldn't be impressed.
But we saw McClane in pain, struggling in his epic guerilla war, and when he prays to God for him to survive this insane shit, and he does somehow escape the explosion, its thrilling and incredibly...we don't take the action heroics for granted.
In DIE HARD 2, he falls off a fucking AIRPLANE at full speed during take-off, hits the ground...and walks away from it. Renny Harlin, and Wiseman would do with LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, never shows McClane get the shit kicked out of him or in actual pain or anything to make us wonder if he will survive or not. Whatever.
With LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, you see McClane break/seperate his shoulder, get shot hard once, but otherwise indestructable.
CONTRIVED OBSTACLES - Back to my REACTIVE/PROACTIVE point, The difference between the bureaucratical obstacles in DIE HARD/DHWAV and that of DIE HARD 2 is that for the vast most part, the bureaucratical police actually are doing their job.
Its just they're uncreative, arrogant in assuming the dumbest of criminals they're dealing with, and ultimately asskicked by the smarter-baddies. But otherwise, they try to do their job.
In DIE HARD 2, the bureaucratical police get in McClane's way for....well, for no reason, except to create contrived drama as McClane is having to save the day. Nobody does their job, everyone is fucking useless, nobody is noble in their professions, just unprepared for the task at hand.
I mean, you have this guy that defeated terrorists a year ago telling YOU the head of Airport security that he saw something suspicious at the terminal. Wouldn't you at least check it out as part of your responsibility?
Thats why I give some break to LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. The Feds do their jobs, they try...its just they're dealing with a smarter villain. Besides, unlike DIE HARD 2, the police listen to McClane.
DIRECT SEQUEL - DIE HARD 2 brings back characters from DIE HARD that don't matter at all. Al the cop, the asshole reporter....who cares? They're dead weight and artificial (unlike in the first film.)
Especially the reporter. In DIE HARD, he was like a reporter in our current media culture: Threading a very thin line between Real Hard news and Sensationalism, with a touch of irresponsibility.
In DIE HARD 2, he sets off a panic for no reason except to give the hero's woman a chance to kick his ass again. WHATEVER.
Though that begs a question....the airport has explosions, gunfire, and insanity going on but most people at the airport don't realize that something wrong is happening until the asshole reporter leaks it? HUH?
Plus, DIE HARD 2 ends exactly in coda like the first movie. This is the Coca Cola franchise effect, to quote Francis Ford Coppola.
VILLAIN'S MOTIVATIONS - LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD tows the line of DIE HARD and DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE in that we accept the villains causing mass chaos, killing innocent civilians, and hiring/investing in these complex schemes simply for one massive shitload of cash.
With DIE HARD 2, it makes a critical mistake like Michael Bay's turkey THE ROCK commits.
William Sadler (a good actor mind you) plays this ultra-patriotic American war hero who, with his spooks, try to fear an imprisoned Latin American coke dealing-Commie fighting Dictator (Noriega!) for the greater good of fighting the Soviet Union.
But like THE ROCK, as much as we want to believe such uber-patriots would go to great lengths to go against their nature and country for whatever their motivations are...
...the audience doesn't buy his or his fellow American henchmen the willingness to kill civilians or crash passenger planes into the ground.
People have and will continue to kill people for materialistic progress.
