Latest news with #RennyHarlin
Daily Mirror
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Hollywood legend's 'bigger and better' action film streaming for free on BBC
Die Hard 2, the sequel to the 1988 hit action film Die Hard, is now available to watch for free online - and fans of the genre are in for a treat It's a rare find to come across film buffs who aren't familiar with Die Hard 2. This sequel to Die Hard is grander, costlier and more tumultuous. This 1990 action-packed spectacle continues the saga of detective John McClane and his extraordinary exploits. Directed by Renny Harlin and co-penned by Steven Souza and Doug Richardson, Die Hard 2 marks the second chapter in the Die Hard film franchise. The film stars silver screen legend Bruce Willis as the lead character John McClane, alongside a stellar cast including William Sadler, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton, Art Evans, Dennis Franz, Franco Nero, Reginald VelJohnson, Fred Thompson, and John Amos. The film is currently available for streaming at no cost on BBC iPlayer. Set a year after McClane's daring escapades in LA from the first film, Die Hard 2 sees the LAPD detective at Washington Dulles International Airport, awaiting the arrival of his wife Holly on an incoming flight, reports the Express. In a twist of fate, that's the very night terrorists seize control of the airport, causing chaos and threatening to crash all incoming flights unless infamous drug lord Ramon Esperanza is released. It's up to McClane to thwart their plans before his wife's plane is endangered. Created with a budget of approximately $70 million, Die Hard 2 proved to be a massive hit at the cinema, earning more than $240 million globally - nearly twice what its predecessor made. It became the seventh biggest earner at the box office that year. Die Hard 2 was succeeded by Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). Speaking about his involvement in creating the blockbuster during a 2021 chat with Empire, director Renny Harlin revealed: "When I look back, I think, 'Did I realise how young and inexperienced I was?' I was very passionate and confident, but not cocky, because I really had huge fears and doubts. We shot so much at night-time too, and I was just really stressed about not being able to sleep. So yes, I felt huge pressure." Describing the challenging elements of filming, Renny explained: "It's no secret the movie went over budget and over schedule. Not because we didn't plan things carefully - I was super-organised and responsible - but because it was the warmest winter in North America for, like, 60 years. So there was no snow anywhere. We were literally hunting for snow around the country and in Canada, while we were leasing this whole armada of aircraft." Achieving a 69 per cent critics approval rating, Die Hard 2 garnered mixed reviews, with one critic noting: "Packs plenty of punch, heavy-hitting adventure, and explosions galore." One critic drew comparisons to the original, remarking: "This disappointing followup to Die Hard has more action and bigger action, but considerably less suspense." Another reviewer lavished praise on the sequel, stating: "The filmmakers know the audience is challenging them to top themselves, and they've risen to the bait. Harlin and company build suspense the old-fashioned way. They earn it." Yet another critic enthused about the film's qualities: "Exquisite widescreen theatrics and explosive entertainment. It's an awesome machine of mayhem....a skilled sequel, a brass-knuckled bruiser of an action picture, and a sublime cinematic distraction." Die Hard 2 also received a mixed bag of reactions from fans, with one saying: "While they have ramped up the action sequences here, it lacks the claustrophobic setting of the original movie that helped make it an instant classic. Still an entertaining movie and one worth checking out." A different viewer offered a contrasting opinion: "Call me crazy but I think that this could be greater than the first one, and don't get me wrong the first one is a masterpiece of the action cinema but this one has more intensity, I don't know both are great movies." An additional fan shared their take on the sequel: "Still a fun Die Hard film but nowhere near as exciting as the first one. Very bleak, dark and ugly looking by contrast. Bruce is still great; full of energy and chaos. The villains were a little over the top and campy." For those keen to revisit or discover the high-octane thrills, Die Hard 2 is currently available for streaming at no cost on BBC iPlayer.
OC Media
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- OC Media
5 Days of War — an offensively bad depiction of the August 2008 War
Join the voices Aliyev wants to silence. For over eight years, OC Media has worked with fearless journalists from Azerbaijan — some of whom now face decades behind bars — to bring you the stories the regime is afraid will get out. Help us fuel Aliyev's fears — become an OC Media member today Become a member ★☆☆☆☆ Renny Harlin's film combines the worst elements of Hollywood action-movie cliches along with a substanceless explanation of the events themselves. There's so much wrong with Renny Harlin's 2011 film about the August 2008 War – entitled 5 Days of War — it's hard to even know where to begin. But, of course, neither does the movie, which starts with an odd and out-of-place scene in Iraq when the film's star — Thomas Anders, a two dimensional trope of a grizzled war journalist played by Rupert Friend — is rescued from faceless jihadis by heroic Georgian soldiers. Relying on tired action movie tropes and clearly biased depictions of the brave Georgian warriors, it feels like propaganda right off the bat. And, of course, that's because it is. On its face, without being familiar with the politics of the region, it is perplexing why the movie was even made, and how it managed to get relatively big names — such as Val Kilmer, Andy Garcia, and Heather Graham — to feature in it. 5 Days of War was in part financed by members of Georgia's former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party, which was in power both at the time that the war occurred and when the film was released, and which had a stake in presenting its own narrative about the conflict to the West. Advertisement It is no surprise that the movie has zero nuance in its black-and-white depiction of Georgia, the good, against Russia, the evil, and of then-President Mikheil Saakashvili (played by Garcia in a thankless role) as an unequivocally heroic figure, ignoring his many controversies. Ironically, some of the most overtly propagandistic elements of the film are also some of the only parts that ring true today, against the backdrop of Russia's brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Early on in the movie, Anders, who airdrops into Georgia ahead of the outbreak of fighting, struggles with Western indifference to what is happening, and is baffled that Western media uncritically repeats Russian propaganda and talking points from then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Many have argued that the West's tepid response to Russia's aggression against Georgia paved the way for Moscow to do the same in Ukraine, first in 2014 and then again in 2022. Besides this extremely brief foray into actually making a good point, the film's explanation of the real-world events surrounding the war is delivered in a 20-second exposition dump by Anders, the American journalist. Keeping in line with the superficial nature of the movie, the description of the circumstances that lead to the outbreak of fighting contains about zero nuance. It's not just that the film failed as a propaganda piece — its cartoonishly evil stereotypical Russian villains (or 'Cossacks' for that matter) felt straight out of the Red Scare era of the 1950s — it's also just a straight up bad movie. The bulk follows Anders and his fellow foreign journalists, who in classic Hollywood-style get to be the heroes of the story, overshadowing the Georgian characters. The film launches into the conflict quickly, with Russian forces bombing the scene of a festive Georgian wedding, and Anders rescuing a local woman, Tatia, played by the very non-Georgian actress Emannuelle Chriqui. For some reason, almost all of the Georgian and Russian characters are played by non-Georgian and Russian actors. When they speak in English, which they mercifully do more than struggling to speak Georgian or Russian, they use the standard Russian-type movie accent that bears little resemblance to the one that actual Georgians or Russians often have. This includes Saakashvili and his team, which are inexplicably played by American and British actors, speaking in English to each other but occasionally saying a few words in horribly accented Georgian. It all makes for a confusing and rather irritating approach, and leads to numerous scenes in which the screenwriters clearly use deus ex machina plot devices to spare the actors (and the audience) from using Georgian or Russian. The language issue is really symbolic of one of the biggest issues with the movie — for a film about a war between Russia and Georgia, there are almost no Russian or Georgian actors in it, or at least none with actual speaking roles. Even as characters, the American and British journalists take centre stage, alongside the extremely Americanised Tatia, who explains her complete lack of an accent by saying she studied in the US. The remainder of the film follows Anders and his team as they race to get footage of Russian war crimes to Western media, borrowing a bizarre trope from other films in which there is a belief the West would actually do something about foreign conflicts if they knew atrocities were being committed (Behind Enemy Lines anyone?). I won't spoil the plot, but needless to say there's plenty of last-minute rescues, severed limbs and spurting blood, missiles being fired into buildings, and cool guys not looking at explosion moments. It's all very trite and predictable. Surprisingly, the movie concludes with an actual, real moment of pathos, with a series of clips of Georgians speaking about how their loved ones were killed during the war. It provides some real-world grounding to what is otherwise an utterly awful film, but also almost feels cheap tacked on to the very end of the shoot-em up spectacle. Film details: 5 Days of War (2011), directed by Renny Harlin, is available to stream on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime. For our culturally curious readers: a free, biweekly selection of film, book, and music recommendations from the Caucasus. Our team offers a varied selection of hidden gems, cherished classics, and notable new releases from all over the region, included in our newsletter.
Geek Tyrant
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Full Trailer Released for THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 Teases a Brutal Fight for Survival — GeekTyrant
Lionsgate has released a full trailer for The Strangers: Chapter 2 , which is the next sequel in the slasher horror trilogy. It looks like it will deliver a brutal and creepy experience for fans of the franchise. There's Halloween II vibes in this trailer. Madelaine Petsch returns to the role of Maya, having survived the terrifying attacks by three masked killers. Well, she once again finds herself having to fight for her survival against the masked maniacs. The first film in this trilogy wasn't really that special as it was just a remake of the original 2008 film. In The Strangers: Chapter 1 , 'After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. 'Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.' In this next film, when the masked killers learn Maya is still alive, they return to finish the job. Unfortunately for Maya, there's nowhere to run and no one to trust, as these killers pursue her, and are more than willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. All of the films are directed by Renny Harlin ( A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Deep Blue Sea ). He previously expressed that the whole project was considered one epic journey of terror. He explained: 'We, of course, shot them on top of each other and mixed up, like movies are always made. But we had to keep in mind that this is one story arc. 'It is one 4.5-hour movie, and the first movie is a first act. It sets up the characters and the terror and the killers and our main character, who will survive the first movie, but then go on a journey for the next two.' Lionsgate's plan is to release The Strangers: Chapter 2 on September 26th.
Gizmodo
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘The Strangers Chapter 2' Pays Homage to ‘Halloween II' in First Trailer
Maya (Madelaine Petsch) survived the horrors of The Strangers—but she can't breathe easy yet. The hospital where she's supposed to be recovering is hardly a safe place, as the first trailer for The Strangers – Chapter 2 reveals. Remember when Laurie Strode realized Michael Myers had followed her to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital in Halloween II, intent on finishing what he'd started in the first film? Same vibes here. As slasher fans may recall, Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) filmed all three entries in his Strangers trilogy—a relaunch of the 2008 cult classic about a cabin invasion perpetrated at random by mask-wearing sadists—back-to-back, originally intending to release all three in a single year. That strategy obviously shifted along the way, now that Chapter 2—which stars Petsch along with Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath—is arriving this fall. There's not yet a date set for Chapter 3. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly back in 2023, Harlin teased that while the first of his Strangers films would hew relatively closely to the original film, the sequels would expand the world of the movies by exploring 'what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?' As the above trailer suggests, there really doesn't have to be a 'why'—after all, isn't it scarier that way? The Strangers – Chapter 2 hits theaters September 26. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Geek Tyrant
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
John Travolta to Star in Orca Survival Thriller BLACK TIDES For Director Renny Harlin — GeekTyrant
Actor John Travolta ( Pulp Fiction ) has signed on to star in the orca survival thriller Black Tides , from director Renny Harlin ( Cliffhanger , Die Hard 2 ), and writers Chris Sparling ( Buried ) and Ángel Agudo (Prime Video's Apocalypse Z ). Travolta will take on the lead role of Bill Pierce, an estranged father whose attempt to reconnect with his daughter and grandson turns into a harrowing battle for survival when their boat is attacked by rogue orcas off the southern coast of Spain. The film, which is due to shoot at the end of the summer, will be 'shot old-school, with in-camera effects and real water work'. The Solution Entertainment Group is handling worldwide sales excluding Spain at the Cannes market. Renny Harlin said of working with Travolta: 'John Travolta brings the perfect combination of grit, depth, vulnerability and charisma to the character of Bill Pierce, the estranged father, that achingly captures the tragedies of family dynamics. 'I can't wait to show fans of big screen cinema how his movie star presence and physicality will add gravity to the epic action sequences and deeply emotional personal drama. 'As a director, I consider myself fortunate to join a list of acclaimed filmmakers who've had the privilege of getting to know John as an artist and a person.' via: Deadline
