Die Hard 2 Dies Harder, But is That a Good Thing?

Die Hard 2: Die Harder review.

Making a sequel to Die Hard is a tall order. I mean what are the odds that off-duty police officer John McClain is going to run into terrorists twice in his life? Well they didn't go with the obvious and come back for revenge in Die Hard 2, instead he runs into all new terrorists, coincidentally also at Christmastime. But the coincidences don't stop there. Again his wife Holly is in danger as the terrorists have disabled the airport where her flight is supposed to land, and guess who else happens to be on the flight? Richard Thornberg, the pain in the ass reporter from Die Hard 1.

O.K., so let's forget about all that and just try to go with it. The movie pokes fun at itself a bunch for the incredible coincidences. But there's another problem here - the characters makes a bunch of leaps in time and knowledge for plot expediency. For example, at one point McClain and an ally discover that the bad guys are holed up in a neighborhood adjacent to the airport. The whole film involves a deadline because planes are circling the disabled airport and running out of fuel. Somehow seconds later McClain and friend have searched 12 houses and narrowed down the place the bad guys are holed up - by themselves. They phone the airport tower and the police captain there doesn't say anything about who he's talking to or what about, but the army major who's in charge automatically knows and takes the address from his hand. Seconds later the soldiers who were in camouflage fatigues, are now in winter gear and on their way. I could go on, but you get the idea.

There are also, of course the usual physics-defying stuff, but thankfully most of it is believable... until the final end of the bad guys which really stretches credibility.

All of this may sound like Die Hard 2 is a terrible movie. It's not. In fact by early 90s action movie standards, it's actually pretty good. All the believe-ability issues are with the situation, not with the actual conflict. This is probably because rather than write a made-for-Die-Hard screenplay, they adapted an existing thriller novel, 58 Minutes, for the screenplay.

Die Hard was a truly unique action movie, and in some ways almost 30 years later it has yet to be equaled, so we have to cut any potential sequel some slack. But if you just want an escapist shoot-em-up with some characters you already know and love, Die Hard 2 fits the bill. And c'mon, how many Christmases in a row can you just watch the original Die Hard? Maybe Die Hard 2 deserves an occasional holiday viewing too.

Because... why not?

Who would've thought that an Elvis-like film vehicle for the Rat Pack would spawn one of the most successful film franchises more than 40 years later?

Nobody, least of all director Stephen Soderbergh, is ever likely to claim that the Ocean's Trilogy is some grand artistic achievement. It's a series of heist films driven more by the charismatic stars than by the story lines.

So why see Ocean's Thirteen? Well if you didn't particularly care for the previous films, there really isn't a reason to. If, however, you like the formula of the last two, you'll like this one too. In fact, Ocean's Thirteen is actually a tad better than the previous film, Ocean's Twelve in that that film just upped the ante by adding more heists, but this film instead doesn't try to add more heists, but downplays heists altogether. Yes, there is a diamond heist, but it really isn't the focus of the film - instead Danny Ocean's cohorts this time are out to avenge a wrong done to their friend Reuben by ruining the opening night of a casino owned by the hotel mogul that ripped Reuben off which precipitated a debilitating heart attack for poor Reuben.

As usual Ocean's plan is needlessly complicated, and overly reliant on luck, but really it's not the kind of film that's meant to be overly scrutinized either. You either like the slick, melodramatic, crime dramas, or you don't. If you do, you won't be disappointed with Ocean's Thirteen.

Get Santa

Get Santa

Once upon a time it seemed like there wasn't a lot of choice when it came to Christmas movies. You took your pick between watching Miracle on 34th Street, It's A Wonderful Life, or some version of A Christmas Carol. And for genre fiction fans, it's not like there was a derth of fantasy films when you consider that any film involving Santa and "elves", is by definition a fantasy film. It's just that the best holiday films were the ones that left out the fantasy elements entirely and focused on action and drama. Films like A Christmas Story, for example.

Beginning in the 1980s with films like Die Hard, Hollywood almost accidentally discovered that with the rise of home video, the perennial returns on holiday-themed films were a good investment. Now we get one or two good films every couple years. So it's easy to overlook some of the smaller genre films. In the past we've reviewed Black Christmas, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Rare Exports. This year we take a look at a far more mainstream film that you may have missed: Get Santa.

Get Santa is an apologetically family film ala Home Alone or Jumanji. You know exactly what you're getting with a plot that can be summed up like this: Santa crashes his sled and winds up in jail. It's up to one little boy and his ex-con dad to break him out and save Christmas. Wacky high-jinks of course ensue. But unlike a lot of holiday fare, the sentimentality is tempered with an offbeat sense of humor  (at one point Santa shoots a semiautomatic poop-gun at the pursuing police).

It's sad that a film that was meant to console and comfort was the last film Tony Scott produced before he tragically took his own life in 2012. And, while some jokes fall flat, there's still more hits than misses, and the misses can be more easily forgiven because the film genuinely has a warmth to it that a lot of pre-fab Christmas films just don't.

Dark Skies

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was perhaps the first film to deal seriously with the U.F.O.  / alien abduction phenomenon. That film had a strong dose of thriller-suspense to it. So it was only a matter of time before someone came along and took the next logical step: taking the same premise and making an outright horror movie out of it.

Enter: 2013's Dark Skies. Dark Skies takes the haunted house concept and substitutes aliens for ghosts or demons. In fact if you took Dark Skies and swapped the alien manipulation for demonic possession, there would be little to distinguish it from Paranormal Activity.

The film effectively builds an eerie tension throughout, and all four principal actors (Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, and Kadan Rockett) do an excellent job at portraying a family legitimately being terrorized by an unknown enemy.

The only problem is that Dark Skies spends an hour and fifteen minutes of its hour and thirty seven minute run time building the suspense and then less than fifteen minutes trying to pay that off in the final fifteen. It can't help but feel like a bit of a letdown.

If all you are looking for is scares, Dark Skies is there for you. If on the other hand you're hoping for a film that finishes as strong or it began, you're likely going to be disappointed.

Duck, You Sucker, Sergio Leone's Forgotten Film 

Most people know Sergio Leone for his "Dollars Trilogy", three films that starred Clint Eastwood, A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Fewer people are familiar with his "Once Upon A Time Trilogy": Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time... Revolution, and Once Upon a Time in America.

Of all his films, the middle film of the Once Upon a Time series, Once Upon a Time... Revolution, released in the U.S. as A Fistful of Dynamite, before being given the title Leone preferred, Duck, You Sucker. Is perhaps the most overlooked Leone film. Set in 1913 Mexico, it tells the story of I.R.A. terrorist John Mallory and Mexican Bandito Juan Miranda, who team up to pull a bank job and become unlikely players in the Mexican Revolution.

While the narrative is far murkier than previous and subsequent Leone films, that's part of the film's charm. Whereas Leone films (and Spaghetti Westerns in general) tend to have characters whose motivations are somewhat concealed, Duck, You Sucker takes things a step further as the John and Juan's paths cross, diverge, and recross through a story where not everything is explained, making it feel much more like real history than mere popcorn theater.

If you really want to sink your teeth into a prime Spaghetti Western that doesn't star Clint Eastwood, this would be a good film to check out.