From 5 stars to 3 in 124 minutes.

Fuck you, Mr. Harlin. Fuck you.

Maybe the most disapointing sequel in history starts out with a sputter then fizzles out altogether. In all honesty, it's much better than I remembered, but that's only because I remembered it being nearly unwatchable.

In case you've been living on the moon for the last 25 years, don't worry, the series is rescued by the third film, but that only serves this film in further highlighting it's weaknesses.

There's virtually nothing compelling about any of it. The "twists" such as they are, end up more stupid than anything and they don't play nearly as powerfully as they were intended. The action is silly and not in a good way.

Even the classic McClane character is so bogged down by half-assed writing that it's hard to watch Willis struggle to make it passable.

Writing that's too bad for Bruce Willis? That's gotta be a first. I'll say that much for this film.

Die Hard 2 is the one everyone likes to hate on, but is it really that bad?

Yes. Yes it is.

All this movie has going for it is an awesome explosion at the end, and I know there's a dirty joke somewhere in there.

What's not to love?

You got Franco Nero being a mean motherfucker, you got bare-ass William Sadler doing kung-fu or tai-chi or some shit and you got the ice-pick in the eye. If that ain't a merry christmas, I don't know what is.

Como de este clasicazo impepinable del cine de acción ya se ha hablado mucho y muy bien por aquí, poco más me atrevo a añadir. Sólo señalar cuánto me gusta que tanto La Jungla de Cristal original como esta secuela terminen ambas a la manera de un film de tortas hongkonés: a los pocos segundos de su clímax, sin más mandanga. Aquí ya no queda nada que ver, señora. Después de que el malo maloso haya volado -de un rascacielos o en pedazos desde un avión en llamas- un beso con la chica, mantita para John McClane y créditos. Todo el mundo a la calle. Cierres redondos, impensables hoy en día en donde una desaceleración antes de salir de la sala parece innegociable.

What a bummer for John McClane. Terrorists ruin another Christmas for him and this time it's not even exciting!

Esta es la más floja de todas. Hay escenas que están de más y eso la hace un poco aburrida, además de tener menos acción que la primera. De resto entretiene por las escenas cómicas con John McClane y su villano que es un coño e su madre.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

America.

finlandia

Die Hard and Die Hard With a Vengeance are two of my favorite movies, and although I still like Die Hard 2, it was always the odd one out for me (that is, until Die Hard 4 and 5). It's still a fun action movie with a great Bruce Willis performance, but I find the villains to be lacking. I'm also not a big fan of the setting of the film, but that's more just a personal thing, I guess. I'll take 1 or 3 any day over this, but at least it's still good.

It's interesting to see how hard they're trying to make this a Die Hard sequel, down to adding Al Powell and Dick Thornberg for no apparent reason other than having them around. It's to the detriment of the new characters they try to add to the proceedings, such as the blonde reporter and the janitor (it's kind of embarrassing that I don't remember the character names, I watched it yesterday. Whether it's embarrassing for me or the movie is for you to decide). Really the only new character that leaves an impression is Dennis Franz's asshole cop.

The action scenes are also far less impressive than the ones in the original. McClane's inherent scrappiness remains, but the film's need to go bigger only results in more violent deaths for the villains, which seem out of character for McClane.

It does have two inspired moments: McClane shooting out of the exploding airplane and him laughing manically at the end.

Not as good as the first. Villains weren't as cool and a bit more outlandish, and it wasn't nearly as funny. Too much of the humor came from pointing out how similar McClane's situation was to the first film. Still a solid action flick though.