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SEQUEL: DIE HARD 2, GREMLINS 2

© Sean Gallagher

Sequels certainly aren't a modern Hollywood phenomenon. After all, remember all of the Tarzan movies of the 30's, or the THIN MAN sequels? But it's certainly true they never seemed so prevalent as in the 70's, 80's, and early 90's. It's obvious why sequels are still in existence; Hollywood makes them because they're trying to recapture the past magic of a hit, actors make them because they need, or want, the money, or the movies help maintain their image, and audiences keep lapping them up because - well, in my opinion, they're stupid. Or were stupid, anyway. One of the more welcome trends of the 90's is while sequels didn't die, they did become less prevalent, as audiences gradually wised up to the fact that sequels, almost without exception, were by definition inferior to their original (assuming, of course, the original was any good in the first place). After all, while the original sometimes was created with thought in mind, sequels almost never were. They were just dictated by an eye for the box office, and movies should never fall into that trap.

DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER certainly is typical of most sequels in that respect. The original film was certainly flawed, but it was an exciting story, it had a memorable villain, and it had a compelling hero in Bruce Willis, playing someone flawed. It also had a strong woman character in his wife, played by Bonnie Bedelia, and you rarely see that in an action film. So what did director Renny Harlin and writers Steven E. de Souza (who wrote the first DIE HARD) and Doug Richardson do for the sequel? They make it loud, obnoxious, and annoying.

Once again, it's Christmas Eve, though this time, we're in Washington D.C., and John McClane (Willis) is at the airport waiting for his wife Holly (Bedelia) to come home for Christmas. While there, he gets wind of a plot by Colonel Stuart (William Sadler), a an ex-commando, to take over the airport to force them to land a plane containing right-wing fanatic General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), who's been incarcerated. Since the terrorists have taken over the airport, and it's computer systems, McClane must work to stop them and to get his wife's plane to land safely. Now, of course, today, some might cringe at watching a movie with terrorists and airports, but the reason you should be cringing is this is lousy.

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