Monday

You may remember that in preparation for Die Hard 4.0 I was trying to watch its three prequels, but was hindered by ITV not showing Die Hard 2 when it promised to. On Saturday, however, Alex lent/gave me the films on DVD. In discussion about them, the consensus was that Die Hard 2 was the worst of the franchise. Bruce Willis too, in the interviews he's been giving, says that he didn't enjoy it (although, as Alex pointed out, this may be because he didn't like the atmosphere in which it was made rather than because it was a bad film). Watching it today, though, I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. I don't think I'd rate it as the worst. The first hour, certainly, is as good as any of the other movies. People say it's dated more than the rest, but I think that's a marginal point. I think a bigger problem was the violence. After a while all the gunfights become a little tiresome. Also, I think too many innocent people die cruelly (something I'll post about tomorrow), and even the death of the bad guys is rather gruesome. Some of the dialogue is terrible, but some of it is classic (indeed, this may be because Bruce Willis was given much more rein to ad-lib in this movie). Undoubtedly, though, it contains the defining line for the whole franchise: 'Oh man, I can't f**king believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice?'.