Die Hard 2: Die Harder: Special Edition (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Featurette-Making Of-Die Harder: The Making Of Die Hard 2 Featurette-Making Of-EPK Theatrical Trailer-4 Deleted Scenes-4 Interviews-Crew-Renny Harlin Featurette-Villain's Profile Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Breaking The Ice Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Chaos On The Conveyor Belt Storyboard Comparisons Featurette-Visual Effects Breakdowns (2) Featurette-Visual Effects - Side-By-Side Comparisons (3)
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	118:18 (Case: 123)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (65:37) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Renny Harlin
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Bruce Willis Bonnie Bedelia Richard Atherton William Sadler John Amos Denis Franz
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp-Dual v2
RPI	$44.95	Music	Michael Kamen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Czech Danish Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish	Smoking	Yes, almost as much as in Die Hard
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Pacific Bell among others
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Credits begin over final shot

    The areas in which this movie falls down the most are those in which it more obviously copies the first film. We have the standard array of stereotypes straight from the first - the token black guy, the idiot cops, the very bad Bad Guys, and the Big Hero - augmented by a few new ones, such as the bumbling-but-well-intentioned bureaucrat, the crazy old janitor with a heart of gold, and a second token black guy. Also straight out of the first film is the timing (it's Christmas again), and the presence of nasty terrorists. This time however, the terrorists are all-American military types, and this time they really are terrorists.

    So to the plot, and once again it pales in comparison to the first film. What Die Hard did that so many action films forget to do is give a reasonable explanation for each step along the road to the destruction of the Bad Guys. In the first movie, John McClane was trapped with the terrorists - he had to put life and limb on the line in order to escape himself. This time round he is gleefully throwing himself into harm's way, and loving it. Strangely enough, this becomes much more of a boy's own fantasy and takes significantly away from the strange sense of realism the first film provided. In this second instalment, we have John McClane (Bruce Willis) waiting at Dulles international airport (which is actually the Washington DC airport) for his wife's (Bonnie Bedelia) arrival so they can spend Christmas with her parents. Unfortunately for John, a large snowstorm and a group of terrorists led by ex-army man Colonel Stuart (an appropriately one-dimensional William Sadler) are conspiring against him having a good Christmas. The terrorists take over the airport control tower and disable all communications. All this is in an effort to secure the freedom of a former dictator of a tin-pot South American country who is supposedly a hero the US government abandoned. As this line of the plot gets about three whole sentences of dialogue in the way of explanation, the real reason why they are doing what they are doing is somewhat unclear. Needless to say, John does a lot of beating, the terrorists do a lot of dying (as well as an assortment of appropriately evil things), and there are lots of big explosions. Sure, there's plenty of fun to be had, but it holds nowhere near the interest of the first film.

    There is one aspect to Die Hard 2 that I think works better than the original - the dynamic between the Big Hero and the Big Baddie. This time Bruce Willis is not over-matched by at all by William Sadler which leads to a far more satisfying conclusion, and really fills out the hero role to be the true champion.

Video

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    This transfer is very sharp, showing very good detail. While it is still not the sharpest transfer I have seen, it is extremely good for a movie that is now 12 years old, and compares quite favourably to its predecessor. There are a few instances of minor grain, but more annoying is the slightly "hazy" appearance the image takes on at times, such as at 18:49. This is not frequent however, and is only a minor detraction. The shadow detail is also very good, showing very clearly the action taking place in darker conditions. As a large portion of the movie occurs in less than well-lit places, this is quite important. There was no low level noise detected in the transfer.

    Colours are good, although there is nothing spectacular in this department. They do the job, but could easily have been more vibrant and defined. To be fair however, when a large portion of the movie takes place in a snow storm at night, there really is not that much in the way of colour to work with.

    MPEG artefacts are restricted to a single sequence at 108:12 to 108:16 where drifting fog becomes slightly pixelated. There is some aliasing present (such as on the blinds at 19:02), but for the most part it is thankfully absent. This is a marked improvement from the transfer of the first film - as is the lack of film artefacts.

    The English subtitles were well paced and easy to read. They only strayed from the spoken dialogue on rare occasions, and never lost the dialogue's impact.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc and represents what is possibly the worst layer change placement I have encountered. The change is placed at 65:37 during Chapter 15, and comes mid-scene just as Colonel Stuart begins a sentence. It could be worse I guess - at least it comes just after he finishes the first word, instead of during the word.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks present on this disc, being the English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 384 Kbps) and DTS 5.1 (at 768 Kbps), and an English audio commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0 (at 96 Kbps).

    Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand. There is never a problem making out spoken words above effects noises or score, and the accents of the terrorists this time round are (mostly) American, and are generally quite clear and well spoken.

    Audio sync is never a problem during this transfer.

    As with the first movie in this series, the score is provided by Michael Kamen. Unlike the first score, this one is more typically standard action fare, and has far fewer repeated themes, resulting in a score that is quite forgettable. About all that can be said about this score is that it gets the job done.

    Where surround activity is concerned, we are presented with what are both the best and worst aspects of this audio transfer. On the positive side, we are presented with a very aggressive surround mix that really places the viewer in the middle of the action. Admittedly, when the action stops, the surrounds tend to go a little quiet, but for the most part the surround mix is very good. The major negative however is that the surround channels often produce a very intrusive "hiss", such as at 43:26 to 43:50, and 45:50 to 46:58. These times are the most noticeable, but the hiss is present on many more occasions. It is very noticeable, and for those who like to listen to their movies at high volumes, could well become extremely distracting.

    The subwoofer is well used, providing a decent punch to any of the more action-oriented scenes. While its use could have been a little more even, that is a quibble, and there is really nothing to complain about here.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Disc 1

Audio Commentary - Renny Harlin (Director)

Disc 2

Die Harder: The Making Of Die Hard 2 (23:09)

Featurette: Making Of (4:08)

Trailers (6:21)

Deleted Scenes

• Merry Christmas (0:45) - a children's choir sings over McClane's entrance to the airport.
• Down The Rabbit Hole (0:59) - Robert Patrick's terrorist informs the skywalk workers of their termination.
• Marvin (2:54) - Extended sequence covering the introduction of the "Marvin" character.
• The Boiler Room (3:51) - Further explanation as to how McClane makes it to the skywalk ambush.

Interview with Renny Harlin (6:45)

Villains Profile (6:40)

Breaking The Ice (4:11)

Chaos on the Conveyor Belt (7:54)

Story Board Sequence (2:59)

Visual Effects Featurettes

• Ejector Seat (3:20)
• Airport Runway (1:59)
• Chopper (1:19) - John jumps from the helicopter to the wing of the terrorists' plane.
• Airplane Models (3:13)
• Wing Fight (1:44)

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• TV Spot

• Multi-language subtitles

    The video quality is excellent, and has none of the problems of Die Hard to hold it back.

    The audio quality is, for the most part, very good, but the hiss present on occasion from the surround channels is very distracting and quite a drawback.

    The extras are extensive, and while not as focused on interactivity as those for Die Hard, they do provide over an hour of viewing in addition to the movie.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall