Best 'Die Hard' Film - Other than the 'Die Hard (1988)

[TheDevilIsMe]

Simple as that; Which 'Die Hard' film after the original is the best?

And please feel free to post your rankings/ratings in a comment.

 

[Drizzle]

Die Hard With A Vengeance. There is no other acceptable choice.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Agreed, Vengeance is the only way to answer this question.

After that, it's 2. Even though it's unnecessarily violent and mean-spirited, it still feels like Die Hard.

Then 4, the big problem with this is it doesn't feel like it has anything to do with the rest of the franchise. McClane's a superhero in it and the usually excellent Timothy Oliphant is just a dud as the bad guy.

Haven't seen 5. Can't say I'm particularly interested.

 

[Tanin]

Since most of the 'Die Hard' movies are just generic action films they slapped the 'Die Hard' name to last minute I am going to say:

Under Siege

As for the poll I voted Die Hard: With A Vengeance

 

[TheDevilIsMe]

My only issue with 'Vengeance' is that it's just a wild goose chase of cat and mouse, no real action in it really when compared to the others.

If any of you guys feel a lack of cohesion in the sequels, that's because all of them other than 'Live Free Or Die Hard' are based on either a novel or another story. None of these films other than LFODH came from a script written specifically to be a Die Hard film.

'Vengeance' completely changes after the first hour because it was originally a film called 'Simon Says' which was to be the next Lethal Weapon and the second hour of the film was re-written when it became Die Hard III and the first half is virtually untouched from its original script.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Die Hard 2. It is close between it and Vengeance. However, there are some things that I prefer about Die Hard 2.

1) The ending is substantially better. Die Hard 2 has the best ending in the entire series with the fight on the wing of the airplane. Vegeance's ending seems almost like an epilogue tacked onto the rest of the film.

2) I like it better when McClane is on his own. He can get support from allies, but ultimately he is the hero. Samuel L Jackson is great, but I'm not a fan of McClane having a sidekick.

3) Simon's plot is pretty much exactly the same as his brother's. While it was intentional, I couldn't help but feel the series was getting repetitive. The villains in DH2 were completely different and far more threatening.

4) The action scenes are just better in nearly every way. It starts early with the fight in the baggage area and never lets up. A good part of it is due to Vengeance being more psychological in nature which isn't a problem, but even when it switches over to action in the third act it just doesn't compare to what we see in DH2. For a good example, just compare the big fight in Vengeance (McClane/Targo) to the ones in the previous films (McClane/Karl and McClane/Stuart). It isn't even in the same league.

 

[flickchick85]

Definitely With A Vengeance. None of the other sequels even come close for me. I like them all well enough, though (except for #5, which I'm afraid to even see at this point, lol).

 

[-JKR-]

My only issue with 'Vengeance' is that it's just a wild goose chase of cat and mouse, no real action in it really when compared to the others.

If any of you guys feel a lack of cohesion in the sequels, that's because all of them other than 'Live Free Or Die Hard' are based on either a novel or another story. None of these films other than LFODH came from a script written specifically to be a Die Hard film.

'Vengeance' completely changes after the first hour because it was originally a film called 'Simon Says' which was to be the next Lethal Weapon and the second hour of the film was re-written when it became Die Hard III and the first half is virtually untouched from its original script.

That's a rumor that has been out for long, and maybe it was considered for a while to use it as template for a Lethal Weapon movie, but it was never really bought by Warner Bros. "Simon Says" was an original spec script Jonathan Hensleigh wrote. At the time he was working on something else with John McTiernan, who read it and thought it'd be a great idea for a new "Die Hard" movie.

And not even the original "Die Hard" was conceived as that. It is based on a novel called "Nothing Lasts Forever," which is a sequel to the novel "The Detective," which was actually filmed with Frank Sinatra. They tried to make it as a sequel to "Commando" (which Schwarzenegger turned down), before they made a standalone movie out of it.

"Live Free or Die Hard," as well, wasn't conceived as a "Die Hard" movie. They had Mark Bomback rewrite David Marconi's (writer of "Enemy of the State") screenplay "WorldWar3.com," which itself was based on the WIRED article "Farewell to arms."

"Die Hard 2" is based on the novel "58 minutes" (the movie itself was released as "58 minuti per morire - Die Harder" - transl. "58 minutes to Die - Die Harder" in Italy, by the way):

P.S.: Die Hard with a Vengeance !

 

[Gianakin_]

With a Vengeance





Die Hard 4
Die Hard 2

 

[Octoberist]

With a Vengeance.

That's all.

 

[<(o_o)>]

Die Hard With A Vengeance. There is no other acceptable choice.

And it is all because he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson.

 

[TheDevilIsMe]

And it is all because he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson.

I sometimes wonder if that's the main reason this film is remembered as good as it is remembered by some.

 

[Gianakin_]

Probably because of its amazing direction, great villain, excellent McClane (and general) characterization, exemplary editing etc etc.

 

[nouan]

Funny, as the character has become more and more supermanly in the movies, they started to picture him from a lower angle in the posters. Mainly in 4 and 5, of course.

 

[GeoMFilms]

Without the hair he's no longer John McClain. Now i just see bruce willis being a superhero. I dont understand why he doesn't wear a wig? Thats McClains look. He wears wigs for other movies.

Anyway... yeah Die Hard 3 is the best besides the original.

 

[Jick]

Live Free or Die Hard. I just had so much fun watching this, specially when the Creedence song played.

I thought the second was cool but I didn't really care for the third. I don't plan to watch the 5th movie.

 

[Jick]

Edit

 

[jacobed]

I'd say number 4. I liked Olyphant, I thought their villainous plot was interesting. But what made it for me was the cool action and the phenomenal chemistry between Long and Willis. They were great together.

 

[Doctor Jones]

With A Vengeance without a question for me. Plus it's my favorite Die Hard film in general. Willis and Jackson together are fantastic.

 

[kedrell]

With A Vengance for sure. Nobody beats McTiernan in the series he created.

 

[culver3vlr22]

For me it's a tie. Between 2 and 4

 

[The Englishman]

With A Vengence for sure. I love McClane in this (He's got a bad ****ing headache), McTiernan's back, it's in New York (McClane's home turf), Good Villain, it feels like a sequel to Die Hard and I love the chemistry between Willis and Samual L Jackson.

My problems with Die Hard 2 are it's unnecessarily Violent and mean-spirited and when the Winsor flight crashes it leaves a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the film. But I do like Die Hard 2 for the most part....

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I never thought I'd see the day when people on the internet complained about a Die Hard movie being too violent. It is Die Hard! It is supposed to be violent! McClane stabbing a terrorist through the eye with an icicle is the type of thing I want to see.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Not explicit 'Horror Movie' violent though. Which bits of Die Hard 2 undoubtedly are.

 

[culver3vlr22]

That may be way I love Die Hard 2 so much is its dark tone. And violence.