Die Hard 2

Yet again, humble detective John McClane (Willis) stumbles into a terrorist plot, this time to hijack a whole airport. Yet again, the authorities dismiss him as a jerk, and he must save the day single-handedly. 'Man, I can't believe this,' he moans. 'How can shit like this happen to the same guy twice?' This kind of self-referential irony, stopping just short of full-blown parody, saves the film; no one carries a one-liner better than Willis. He's also unusual among Hollywood's Action Men in seeming vulnerable at the same time as being invincible. Harlin fails to bring out the claustrophobic tension between the terrorists that made the original a masterpiece among blockbusters, but more than compensates in timing, speed and sheer volume. So what if there are reservations? We're talking action not art, and on that level Die Hard 2 succeeds magnificently.