DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER (1990) *1/2 For whatever reasons ($$?), the success of the first film made the Die Hard team less confident and more desperate to please. So they take themselves entirely too seriously, start the shootouts immediately, and give us non-stop violence and suspense to such an extent that it's neither entertaining nor traumatic. Where Bruce Willis was witty in the original, here he's just bloody and embattled. William Sadler is credible enough as a bad guy, but then they never do anything funny about it. Surely he deserves to be mocked. The appearance of John Amos adds a charge to the proceedings, but it's not long before you're lost in reverie, remembering how great "Good Times" was. The plot, such as it is, is borrowed from newspaper stories on Manuel Noriega, but rather than developing its message (see The Tailor of Panama if that's what you want) the film satisfies itself with deciding that there are elements of the U.S. Army that are so anti-communistic that they're actually....well, fascists willing to tolerate drug dealers or something. Might have been news in '71. Renny Harlin gives up some nice snow shots but what do you expect, he's from Finland!
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