Die Hard 2 (1990)
Directed by Renny Harlin
One year after his heroics in Los Angeles, John McClane is an off-duty cop who is the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a snowy Christmas Eve, as he waits for his wife's plane to land at Washington Dulles International Airport, terrorists take over the air traffic control system in a plot to free a South American army general and drug smuggler being flown into the US to face drug charges. It's now up to McClane to take on the terrorists, while coping with an inept airport police chief, an uncooperative anti-terrorist squad, and the life of his wife and everyone else trapped in planes circling overhead.
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What critics compared Die Hard 2 to
With its confined setting and Christmas trimmings, Carry-On’s obvious genre reference point is the Die Hard franchise, though its slack pacing means that even Renny Harlin’s workmanlike yet enjoyable Die Hard 2 looks like a masterpiece by comparison.
Even Die Hard’s initial sequels were born of the same lineage: Die Hard 2, adapted from a novel that had nothing to do with the Die Hard franchise, was just Die Hard at an airport.
A few years later, "Die Hard 2" was released, and I wasn't terribly off the mark, at least in terms of geography as that tale took place at Dulles Airport, less than thirty miles away.
Jumanji: The Next Level joins the ranks of Die Hard 2, Home Alone 2, and The Hangover Part II as a sequel that clones the structure, story beats, jokes and popular moments of the box-office hit that preceded it.
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Director Jaume Collet-Serra and veteran producer Joel Silver (" The Matrix " franchise, " Die Hard " and " Die Hard 2 "), who both previously teamed with Neeson on 2011’s " Unknown ", happily settle for economy-class storytelling.
The movie is a skillful thriller directed by Renny Harlin , who made "Die Hard 2'' and "Cutthroat Island,'' and here assembles a neat package of terror, sharks and special effects.
As is his trademark, Harlin (who, after successfully directing Die Hard 2, was regarded as an A-list action filmmaker) proves capable of generating high voltage suspense when the script calls for it.
Unlike most music video-trainedwannabes, veteran pop-junk director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2,Cliffhanger) brings in a crisp, unpretentious flick.
In any case, it's no wonder this movie did poorly at the box office, despite its high-profile cast--Val Kilmer, Christian Slater, LL Cool J--and its veteran action director, Renny Harlin ("Nightmare on Elm Street 4," "Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger," "Cutthroat Island," "Deep Blue Sea," "Driven," "Exorcist: The Beginning").
Not that Finish director Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger") and South African writer Wayne Kramer (the excellent "The Cooler" ) don't give it a responsible try.
But he's not the type of nutcase who usually turns up in these movies (see "Die Hard 2").