Tagarchief: Die Hard 2

Dungeon Classics #43: Die Hard with a Vengeance

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….


Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995, USA)

Director: John McTiernan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson
Running Time: 128 mins.

The Die Hard franchise built its reputation on a simple yet gripping premise: a tough, resourceful cop trapped in a confined space under siege by terrorists. This formula worked brilliantly in Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2 (1990). For the third installment, however, the creators sought fresh ground. The script was originally titled ‘Simon Says’ and was considered by Joel Silver as the third sequel to Lethal Weapon (1987). When Twentieth Century Fox refused to sell the rights however, the script was reworked into Die Hard with a Vengeance, recasting the villain Simon as the vengeful brother of Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman’s iconic antagonist from the first film). The result is a high-energy, action-packed thriller, and the best sequel to the brilliant original. John McClane (Bruce Willis) and his reluctant sidekick, Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), race across New York City, completing Simon’s deadly tasks to prevent a series of explosions. The film balances humor and spectacle better than its predecessors, delivering both sharp wit and explosive action. The chemistry between Willis and Jackson is electric, especially with Zeus’s fiery, anti-white rhetoric adding a provocative edge. Their dynamic is further enriched by a clever nod to their previous collaboration in Pulp Fiction (1994), with a humorous reference to “smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.” Die Hard with a Vengeance proves that even within a familiar franchise, innovation can keep the excitement alive.

Beverly Hills Cop Revisited

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

On July 1, Netflix released Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F, exactly 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop III was released. To celebrate, FilmDungeon checked out the original trilogy which was an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984, Martin Brest)

The tune is great, his laugh is a riot, and his inventive tricks to get things done are inspiring. Eddie Murphy stars as the wise-ass Detroit cop who goes to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his friend. He quickly makes new friends, including detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) who both return in the new movie! He makes plenty of enemies too because not everybody loves Axel’s freewheeling style. In Beverly Hills everything is done by the book, which clashes with his street smart ways. This is the basic gimmick of the first movie and it works like a charm. Murphy is in top form here, delivering funny wisecracks rapid fire style. The banana in the tailpipe is still hilarious and the traffic light gag that follows it is even better. If the new movie can capture any of this comedy magic, it will be fantastic. Let’s hope so…

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987, Tony Scott)

The second movie sees many of the cast and crew members return. Only directing duties were taken over by Tony Scott who had just delivered Top Gun (produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who also produced the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies). When his friend Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is shot, Foley returns to Beverly Hills to help solve the so-called Alphabet Crimes, a series of expertly carried out robberies. There is a new Chief of Police, and he is the biggest asshole of all time and arguably the film’s greatest villain. Murphy still has all these ‘types’ he can play to get things done, and they are often pretty funny. Only the script is poor, and some jokes didn’t age particularly well. But the dynamics between Foley, Taggert and Rosewood is still great, and Rosewood’s development to gun-toting, Rambo-style hero, is hilarious. These are the best two things about this sequel.

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994, John Landis)

More bad guys, more guns, more violent kills, but less humor. The third film in the series was written by Steven E. de Souza, the screenplay writer of Die Hard and Die Hard 2, and he turned it into Die Hard in an amusement park. Only since many of the action scenes would be too expensive, they turned the action down and made it more about Axel’s investigation taking place in an amusement park. Boring! Worse still, Murphy told new director John Landis that he preferred to play Axel as a more mature character. Bronson Pinchot, who reprises his role of Serge from the first film here, later said Murphy was pretty depressed during the shoot. It shows on the screen: Murphy’s performance comes across as mostly joyless. The film does deliver the series most dangerous villain with Ellis DeWald, played perfectly by Timothy Carhart. Still, overall this third entry was a letdown, so let’s hope Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F rocks the house again, so the series can conclude on a high note after all.

Double Bill #08: Die Hard & Die Hard 2

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The greatest Christmas Double Bill in history! Bruce Willis stars in the role that made him a super star: John McClane is an old style hero: smoking cigarettes, cracking jokes and killing bad guys. The first Die Hard (1988) is considered the greatest action film of all time. Why is that so? I tried to analyze it and came up with this. First of all; it is really, really tense. John McClane (Willis) is locked up in a building with a bunch of heavily armed and completely ruthless German terrorists. What are the odds of survival? Minimal. This is survival action optimally done. It is fun to watch a guy – who is not really scared of death, but definitely no narcissistic psychopath either – face impossible odds. Secondly, the screenplay is intelligent and the casting is terrifically done. Part 2 is off course (this is the sequel after all) BIGGER! It takes place at an airport, which is taken over by terrorists who want to free a South American dictator (Franco Nero) who is landing soon. Groovy! In a magazine article on an airplane read by one of the characters, a picture is shown of Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) in Lethal Weapon 2. This is a sequel that was indeed even better than the original. Die Hard 2 is not, although you could argue for it. Film critic Roger Ebert thought so and wrote a terrific review about the sequel (he curiously gave the first movie only two stars out of four). I understand his point of view about the sequel, although the story is even more unbelievable than the first, Finish director Renny Harlin, who took over from John McTiernan from the first, did a great job. It misses the claustrophobia of the first one, taking place at an airport rather than a high-rise office building. However, this creates new tense situations as the terrorists can take down airplanes and do so. The horror of a plane crash is captured perfectly in the second one as the terrorists purposefully let a passenger airplane crash. Thereby, they make the main baddie – William Sadler – even worse than Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) in the first one. Still, Die Hard 2 loses momentum a little bit during the second half (especially after the clever plot twist) and therefore I still think the first movie is superior. The endings of both movies give you this very warm Christmas feeling indeed. In part 1, John meets his pal Al for the first time, and then Al kills Karl and proves he is ready again for joining the force (he got a desk job after accidentally shooting a thirteen-year old kid with a fake gun). In the second movie, John blows up the plane with terrorists and thereby creates landing lights for all the other planes that were close to crashing, including the one that carries his wife. Then he tells her he loves her so much and they carry off in a modern sledge accompanied by Frank Sinatra’s ‘Let It Snow’. It makes me all warm inside and the same goes for the fantastic first part ending.Therefore, Die Hard is just the greatest Christmas movie ever. Die Hard 2 adds to the fun.

De 10 beste films om tijdens kerst te kijken

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Beste Kerstfilms 1

10. The Lord of the Rings trilogie
Een episch spektakel met alle elementen van geweldige cinema. Het is dan wel geen kerstfilm, maar omdat de LOTR films (en Hobbit films) altijd rond kerst uitkwamen hangt er de warme gloed van kerstmis omheen. Bovendien zijn het films waar je je goed door gaat voelen, en daar gaat het uiteindelijk om met kerstmis, niet?

9. Star Wars trilogie
Hetzelfde als hierboven. Luke Skywalker’s epische strijd tegen het slechte keizerrijk zal je een warme en geïnspireerde kerst bezorgen. Misschien dat je zelfs een traantje moet wegpinken op het einde.

8. Scrooged
Ik heb het dan over de versie van Richard Donner uit 1988. Wie kan beter de cynische rol van Scrooged vertolken dan Bill Murray, de held? Deze verfilming van het klassieke kerstverhaal ‘Scrooge’ is de moeite meer dan waard.

7. Jingle All the Way
Beste kritieken heeft deze kerstfilm met Arnold Schwarzenegger nooit gekregen (hij krijgt een 5.4 op IMDb), maar hij is echt wel vermakelijk. Vader Schwarzenegger is vergeten een populaire Turbo Man te kopen voor zijn zoontje en moet nu op jacht naar een exemplaar van deze uitverkochte superheld.

6. Lethal Weapon
Een van de beste actiefilms van de jaren 90′ en hij speelt zich af tijdens kerst. Een suïcidale agent (Mel Gibson) moet samen met zijn nieuwe partner (Danny Glover) op jacht naar een bende drugsdealers.

5. Home Alone
Een absolute klassieker voor de jeugd. Een inventief jongetje blijft per ongeluk achter als zijn familie op vakantie gaat, maar hij maakt er toch een geweldige kerst van. Hij moet alleen twee inbrekers tegenhouden die het op de inboedel van zijn ouderlijk huis voorzien hebben.

4. Die Hard
Niet alleen de beste actiefilm ooit gemaakt, maar ook de beste kerstfilm. Bruce Willis maakt Duitse terroristen koud tijdens een kerstfeestje in een Los Angeles wolkenkrabber. Hij doet dit volledig in stijl: ‘Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.’

3. Die Hard 2
Een exacte kopie van deel 1, maar nu speelt het zich op een vliegveld af. Gelukkig hebben ze ook de goede elementen gekopieerd: geweldige bad guys, strak geregisseerde actiescènes, humor en een perfecte Bruce Willis in de hoofdrol. ‘Just once, I’d like a regular, normal Christmas. Eggnog, a fuckin’ Christmas tree, a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin’ tin can.’

2. Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel
Deze was gedurende mijn jeugd altijd op televisie rond Kerstmis. Het is een echte tranentrekker en nostalgie ten top. Het tragische verhaal van de draak Zwelgje en heer Ollie B. Bommel blijft een klassiek verhaal dat zich perfect leent voor een warme kerstavond.

1. Gremlins
Op nummer 1 staat deze ultieme kerstfilm. Billy Peltzer krijgt voor kerstmis de schattige Gizmo, een mogwai (wat Chinees is voor ‘kwaadaardige geest’). Er wordt bij verteld dat als hij de regels naleeft, het helemaal goed komt, maar als hij dat niet doet de mogwai zal transformeren tot monsterachtige gremlin. Er gaat niks boven een beetje horror en chaos op kerstavond. Het komt toch altijd weer goed.

Fijne feestdagen en tot volgend jaar!