Hey, I gotta admit, Thunderdome is a guilty pleasure. Also, we’ve gotten quite off topic.
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Great theme from The Turner!
Nice to see all the DH love around here. My apologies for my tale of “production mis-direction” taking us off topic. Then again, as we countdown to Bond 25 rolling, it’s not like there’s much to spin on about beyond more speculation.
DH gave us a twist on the action genre by utilizing a large set single location creating an isolated situation with a lone hero but it also had a bit of Bond polish and certainly a Bond stylized villain. Also, some of the best and still quoted lines ever.
Another bit of trivia is that they were patterned after the great Irwin Allen disaster movies. DH was the Towering Inferno (with guns). DH2 was Airport (with guns). DH3 was supposed to be the Poseidon Adventure (with guns), but was abandoned after Under Siege came out even though it was set on a battleship.
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I thought I saw the cruise ship script for Die Hard 3 being rejected because Bruce Willis didn’t want to do a second sequel that was just another rehashed Die Hard 1, which the cruise ship script was. Instead they went with a spec script called “Simon Says” that was then retooled into Die Hard with a Vengeance. The cruise ship script was then retooled into Speed 2, which was a rehash of Speed, itself another Die Hard clone.
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Remember David Walliams on the red carpet, at the Spectre premiere in London?
“We all know that Blofeld is in the movie”
…and Babs give him the evil eye!
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Thank God, I thought I was the only one! 
Nice read my friend Bryce 
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As one of the (extremely small) minority of people that actually thinks that Die Hard 2 is the best of the series (I know, there’s like 3 of us, and that’s on a good day)
Thank God, I thought I was the only one!
Make that 5.
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Die Hard 2 was actually on Epix Drive In last night and I watched the second half. I love it. It may be a sideways rehash of the first, but it has always worked for me. I personally prefer it to the third by a wide margin as I feel the third becomes too outlandish at times and I always really disliked the fact that he and his wife have split up after all they’d been through in the first 2 movies. It felt kind of like killing Newt off at the beginning of Alien 3.
I think an argument can be made for it being Renny Harlin’s best movie. I think it passes the sequel test of being good enough that it stands on its own and would have been deserving of a sequel had it not been a sequel itself.
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I feel the same way. While I liked the differences the third part established (wide open space, Summer setting) I always felt that McClane should remain a loner. And the pairing with Jackson seemed to be a too obvious nod to “Pulp Fiction” (“look, we’re a big studio film, yet so hip that we bring these guys back together”).
However, I think the action sequences in Part 2 are already outlandish (the ejector seat-sequence, for example). And to destroy a plane full of people just to illustrate a bad guy´s nonchalance left a very bad aftertaste for me.
The first one will always be the best IMO since it focussed on one guy in a desperate situation, suffering, full of fear and succeeding only with chuzpe and good luck.
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His best movies is a very short list. However, he did do a very good job of DH2. But i’d say it’s his 2nd best movie.
For me The Long Kiss Goodnight is not only his best movie by quite some stretch, but has a place in the all time top tier of action movies. In the main it’s down to Shane Black’s sharp script and pacing, but Renny guides it with a sure hand and some aplomb.
Btw, fans of that movie should check out Black’s other under the radar 80’s action classic The Last Boy Scout.
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We’re getting off-topic…
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To be fair, Joel Silver-produced action movies did hurt LTK at the US box office… 
Just finished reading the latest issue of Empire magazine. There is a big feature on Danny Boyle and his films, and a section where he answers readers’ questions.
He is asked: “Which of your projects that have fallen by the wayside do you regret not doing?”
Response: “The Bowie film we talked about, and the Bond, actually, because our version of it was good. Those are the two which kind of haunt you. They could have been really good”
Ahhh I was so excited when he was initially announced as director. He refuses to say what his and Hodge’s idea was, out of respect to Cary.
I’m just counting down the days til the presser. Whenever that may be!
Discussion on this started a while ago, before the thread derailed into a Die Hard appraisal…
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And GoldenEye did rip-off Die Hard 2’s ejector seat stunt!
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Which TND used once again in its PTS. But it gets a pass because it cleverly inverted the stunt by turning it into a weapon.
I find it interesting that more light is being shed on the Boyle situation right as production is set to begin. From what tidbits I’ve caught up on, I’m sensing a faint odor of sour grapes.
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As in, Boyle being upset he’s not the one directing? Or EON still bitter about Boyle’s exit?