I'll Be Damned If I'm Gonna Clean Up This Mess ! (Die Hard 2 (Special Edition, DVD))

Member Name: SRowlands

Product:	Die Hard 2 (Special Edition, DVD)
Date:	17/12/05 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A worthy sequel to a great original movie

Disadvantages: How can the same s**t happen to the same guy ??

A year has passed since the siege at Nakatomi Plaza, in which L.A. cop John McClane single handedly stopped Hans Gruber and his gang from stealing in negotiable bearer bonds.
lt's Christmas, and John McClane is looking forward to a nice peaceful time with his children and his wife, Holly. Unfortunately, as McClane arrives at Washington's Dulles Airport to meet his wife, it becomes clear that his hopes for a peaceful Christmas could not be further from the truth.

Meanwhile, at the Escelan Airport in the Republic of Valverde, General Ramon Esperanza is about to be extradited to the U.S. to face charges of drug dealing and war crimes.

Due to heavy snow and ice, Washington D.C. International Airport has been forced to close, diverting their inbound traffic to Dulles - increasing their already overloaded capacity. Dulles Airport is packed with people awaiting arrivals, when John's "cop instinct" notices some suspicious characters.

As the Air Traffic Control staff battle to safely land the stream of incoming aircraft, their communication systems are suddenly disabled, leaving them no way of contacting the planes. As panic sets in, they receive a call from Colonel Stuart stating that he is now in control of all of their systems and unless they do exactly as he says, "planes will soon start dropping from the sky" as they run out of fuel.
They demand that they arrange for the incoming aircraft carrying Esperanza is allowed to land without interception at Dulles.

As the aircraft hold at the outer beacons, the passengers become increasingly concerned. One passenger, who happens to be on board the same plane as Holly, is Richard "Dick" Thornburg - the television reporter from the first Die Hard movie. As the tension grows, he patches into the newsroom to give an "eyewitness report" on the unfolding events, causing panic on the ground.

As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Colonel Stuart, Esperanza, the holding aircraft and, of course, John McClane are all on headings for a turbulent ride on the ground and in the air above Dulles.

This sequel to the original Die Hard movie was highly anticipated, and when released actually became the highest grossing sequel in box office history - (although was beaten the following year when Terminator 2: Judgement Day was released).
Many of the original characters make a welcome return, including John McClane, his wife Holly, slimy reporter Richard Thornburg and Sgt. Al Powell.
Richard "Dick" Thornburg's character, (played by William Atherton), is expanded upon in this film. You really get to despise his willingness to sacrifice anything that gets in the way of a good story.
Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) also has more of a role to play in the sequel, and the role is played perfectly.
Of course, most of the action takes place on the ground, headed up by Bruce Willis - back in the role that set his movie career rolling. The quick one liners also make a welcome return, as Willis was given freedom to ad-lib much of the humor in the film following the success of the occasional ad-lib in the original.
The role of the lead "baddie" falls to William Sadler this time round, who plays Colonel Stuart. Amazingly, breaking tradition with action movie baddies, he is not British !! Despite this, he comes across believable, and determined to get what he wants.

"Die Hard 2: Die Harder" was directed by Renny Harlin, after John McTiernan had to pull out due to prior commitments. Prior to this movie, Harlin had little experience as director, with "A Nightmare On Elm Street 4" his biggest movie. Fortunately, this film allowed him to show what he was capable of acheiving, and proved a huge success. Following this movie, he then went on to direct hits such as "The Long Kiss Goodnight", "Deep Blue Sea" and "Cliffhanger".
The movie was based upon a book called "58 Miuntes", by Walter Wager. Originally, it is rumored that this screenplay was to be a sequel to "Commando", starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is backed up by the fact that General Esperanza came from Valverde - a fictious Latin-American country used in Commando.


The DVD:

This DVD is presented in a cardboard outer sleeve, and contains two discs. The outer package is well designed and has an image of Bruce Willis as John Mclane, making it instantly recognisable as a Die Hard movie.
Upon inserting each disc, you are presented with an external image of Dulles Tower. This then zooms into the control room where menu options appear on various radars and equipment.

Special Features:

This Special Edition of "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" comes on two discs. The first disc contains the movie, along with a commentary by director Renny Harlin. This commentary gives a better insight of how Harlin translated the story from script to screen, and is very interesting. Die Hard fans (excuse the pun !) will gain a lot of information from watching the movie with the commentary turned on.

The bulk of the special features are contained on the second disc. These include -

- "The Making of Die Hard 2" -

With a running time of 23:05, this feature takes a look at the creation of the film. It gives a good insight into all the effort and work involved in making a movie of this scale. Again, quite interesting, but will appeal more to the die hard fans.
There is also a shorter featurette "making of", lasting just four minutes.

- Trailers -

There are four trailers for the movie on this DVD. In my opinion, whilst I do enjoy watching trailers, it seems a but pointless putting them onto DVD's, afterall you already like the movie so much that you've bought the DVD !

- Interview -

There is an in-depth interview with the Director, Renny Harlin. Again, this is interesting for fans, but you probably gain more from watching the movie with the commentary.

- Villain Profile -

A short look at the main villains in the Die Hard movie, which gives you a bit more information about them.

- Deleted Scenes -

There are four deleted scenes from the movie included on the disc, ranging from a few seconds to over four minutes.
The removal of these scenes obviously do not affect the storyline, but can be quite relevant. One, for example, gives a much better interaction between McClane and Marvin when they first meet. Others, such as "Choir Singing" have no relevance whatsoever.

- Behind The Scenes -

In this section you can go behind the scenes on two of the movies action scenes - the snowmobile chase and the conveyer belt fight sequence.
There is also a storyboard comparison which shows the original hand drawn storyboard images with the soundtrack from the film.

- Visual Effects -

Special and post-production effects enable the film-makers to create scenes that would be impossible, expensive or, at the very least, dangerous to make. These two short documentaries look at two scenes - the ejector seat and the airport landing sequence - and show both pre and post production.


= Overall Opinion =

"Die Hard 2: Die harder" is an excellent movie, and a worthy sequel. Whilst the original "Die Hard" movie is confined to a high rise office block, this film has many locations throughout a whole airport. This allows more action, more stunts and more explosions.
There is a great deal of debate amongst Die Hard fans as to which is the best Die Hard movie, with this one often coming in first or second. In my opinion, it is as good as the original film.
There are a few flaws in the film - as there are in most major productions - however these will not be noticable to most unless they are pointed out to you.

The DVD features add interest to the movie, although after watching them once will probably not be viewed again.
Overall, I would highly recommend adding this DVD to your collection.

Summary: An excellent sequel to the original Die Hard movie.