Bruce Willis, William Atherton and Bonnie Bedelia in the Renny Harlin movie ‘Die Hard 2’

With the theory that movies set with references to Christmas as part of the underpinnings for establishing the story might be Christmas movies, we return to the action thriller sequel to Die Hard (1988) with the Renny Harlin directed movie Die Hard 2 (1990). This movie is set on Christmas Eve with the main context for the movie being Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia.

(From left, Bruce Willis as John McClane and Dennis Franz as Captain Carmine Lorenzo in the Renny Harlin movie Die Hard 2).

With the movie Die Hard 2 having been based on the book 58 Minutes by Walter Wager, we encounter John McClane awaiting the arrival of his wife, Holly, on a flight arriving at the airport. McClane, as portrayed by Bruce Willis, uses his intuition as a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department to act on his suspicions that a pair of men are behaving erratically. In following the men into a restricted space for sorting baggage, a gun fight ensues with just two of the three men in the encounter escaping with their lives. Bonnie Bedelia portrayed Holly, John’s wife.

(From left, William Atherton as Dick Thornburg and Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Gennero McClane in the Renny Harlin movie Die Hard 2).

The men confronted in the restricted area are part of a plan aimed at freeing corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza, who is being extradited to from outside the country by airplane to Dulles International Airport. With the help of Sergeant Al Powell of the LAPD, John McClane learns that the man he killed was an American soldier who supposedly died in a helicopter accident two years previously. Airport police chief, Carmine Lorenzo, and air traffic control director Ed Trudeau find McClane’s suspicions unlikely when he reports what he knows. Franco Nero, Reginald VelJohnson, Dennis Franz and Fred Thompson portrayed Esperanza, Powell, Lorenzo and Trudeau, respectively.

(From left, Reginald VelJohnson as Al Powell, Fred Thompson as Trudeau and John Amos as Major Grant in the Renny Harlin movie Die Hard 2).

Former Colonel William Stuart, meanwhile, works with a group of ex-military sympathizers on the outskirts of the airport in support of causing chaos among the team operating the airport. Thrills, twists and turns follow the initial baggage claim scene with the motivations of Major Grant, Dick Thornburg and others coming into question. The seeds of McClane seizing the initiative, as cultivated with the original Die Hard movie, bears fruit during the blizzard and flight control issues that follow the shenanigans intended by Stuart and the team allied with Ramon Esperanza. William Sadler, John Amos and William Atherton portrayed Stuart, Grant and Thornburg, respectively.

(From left, Franco Nero as General Ramon Esperanza, Vondie Curtis-Hall as Miller and William Sadler as Colonel William Stuart in the Renny Harlin movie Die Hard 2).

The central appeal for the movie Die Hard is first and foremost the action and intrigue. The undercurrent of humor present with the original movie were downplayed with the sequel, though I found the movie did not require the humor to remain engaging. I grant Die Hard 2 as directed by Renny Harlin 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, December 3, 2022

Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and the Ron Howard film ‘Far and Away’

It was late in my junior year in high school, at the age of seventeen, when a Ron Howard directed film produced by Brian Grazer came to movie theaters. Far and Away (1992) tells a story of a young Irish couple portrayed by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman who flee Ireland for the United States in search of a better life.

(Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly in the film Far and Away).

Class, wealth and the rough and tumble 1890s era, lacking as it was for anything like a safety net for Irish in their homeland or immigrants in the United States, made largely pronounced undercurrents through the course of this film. An unforgiving episode of this exact point introduced us to the prominent characters of Far and Away, along with the general character of the personalities that would define the character through the rest of the film. Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly and Nicole Kidman as Shannon Christie would be the unlikely if not readily acknowledged love interest thrown into one another’s universe following the death of Donnelly’s father.

(Nicole Kidman as Shannon Christie in the film Far and Away).

Acting at the behest of the disinterested yet culpable Daniel and Nora Christie, portrayed by Robert Prosky and Barbra Babcock, respectively, Stephen Chase would act harshly in perpetuating an injustice upon Joseph Donnelly that propriety in the world of movies dictates an action of the aggrieved. Daniel Christie comically retaliates to the desired vengeance, garnering the details together that draw the daughter and Daniel and Nora, namely Shannon, to flee to Boston with Donnelly in the hopes of securing land in Oklahoma shortly after arriving in the United States.

(From left, Robert Prosky as Daniel Christie, Barbra Babcock as Nora Christie, Thomas Gibson as Stephen Chase and Colm Meaney as Mike Kelly in the film Far and Away).

It was in Boston, Massachusetts where a bit of calamity occurs befalls Joseph and Shannon, making them spend time and effort repeating some of the unfortunate luck that Joseph Donnelly had been fleeing in Ireland. Boston ward boss and Irish immigrant lends the reluctant couple work and profit in a manner that brings wealth to Donnelly, Kelly, and many others up the corrupt social order in Boston. The exposition here lacks the gritty telling of Gangs of New York (2002), as reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital, but the overtones if not the merciless character of the villain are present in Far and Away.

(From left, movie director Ron Howard and movie producer Brian Grazer on the set of the film Far and Away).

It is after the passage of time, desperation, and an uprising in Ireland that Chase, Daniel Christie, Nora Christie, and Shannon Christie ultimately bring the story of Far and Away full circle in Oklahoma that the narrative points of the movie come together. The villainy of Far and Away comes mostly at the beginning of the film for me, with the decency of a Ron Howard film returning to this narrative through the film without the grit of a movie that was shared ten years later in Gangs of New York. I appreciated the spirit of Far and Away, along with the question of loyalty in love combined with loyalty in family. The other tensions were clear if not presented with the anger and corruption of a Martin Scorsese film. Asking for that here, to be honest, just wouldn’t be fair. I rate Far and Away at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, August 15, 2020