Christmas Movie #13: Die Hard 2: Die Harder

How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice? 

No, seriously. How? I've never once been trapped in a building over Christmas, and it's happened to John McClane twice? Seriously, he must go looking for trouble.

Firstly, before this blog, sorry for the wait. I've still been watching the films, daily, but my laptop decided to have a little fit and you can't go to PC World and tell them that your laptop is an emergency because you're taking part in a self-invented Christmas film challenge. I realise this now.

So, to Die Hard 2. Or the Die Hard Film Which Everyone Thought Was The Weakest Until 4 And 5 Were Made And We Realised How Good It Was. 

Die Hard 2 (I refuse to actually add Die Harder cos, well, it's really stupid), is a curious sequel. Having only a few days ago watched Home Alone 2, you see how much of a reinvention Die Hard 2 is. The villains have different motivations (although, ironically, these guys are terrorists unlike Grubers gang, who were just pretending) and the airport still feels confined but has enough new places to go (this was before they gave John McClane too much freedom). They do squeeze in some of the characters from number 1 (Powell gets a fairly pointless cameo, sleazy hack Thornburg is contrived into the situation) but there good characters so it's hardly something to complain about. Also, some much needed love should go to Bonnie Bedelia. She never gets any credit in the first two Die Hards successes. She's a strong an interesting female character, that rarely gets seen in action cinema, and she is a key element that is missing from the latest films. The violence is brutal still (12A for the latest sequels, they've pretty much neutered this franchise) and the swearing still intact. Yes, Die Hard 2 isn't as good as Die Hard, but then few things are. 

But do I feel Christmassy at the end? Well no, probably not. But Bruce Willis has just killed people. That's the gift that keeps on giving. Well until 2013 when he decided to be in Die Hard 5. Then the gift stopped giving. Fucking Die Hard 5. I'm rambling cos it made me angry.