The obvious joke in Die Hart 2: Die Harter’s title is a play on the second Die Hard movie starring Bruce Willis, which landed in theaters in 1990, 34 years ago.
But judging by its trailer, Kevin Hart’s comedic action movie takes more than a few cues from an action-comedy-parody masterpiece that released just 16 years ago: Ben Stiller’s brilliant Tropic Thunder.
In that film (SPOILER AHEAD) Stiller’s character, Tugg Speedman, is an action-movie star past his prime. In a bid to rekindle his career, he’s joined forces with Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) a method actor who dies his skin black in order to play a black soldier; Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) a comedy actor and heroin addict; and Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) a hip-hop star best known for his line of energy drinks, Booty Sweat, to make a big Vietnam movie filmed in south Asia.
Things go very, very wrong when they decide to film the movie guerilla style in the jungle and the actors—convinced that it’s all still just a movie shoot—find themselves deep in the jungle facing off against ruthless drug smugglers.
It’s hilarious. One of the best modern comedies and a terrific parody of celebrity and Hollywood, and despite the regularly scheduled attempts to cancel it, Tropic Thunder remains beloved by many.
Now Die Hart 2: Die Harter appears to take the main conceit from that film and apply it in a slightly different way. Here’s the trailer:
I admit, I didn’t even know that Die Hart was a thing. Before this sequel movie, it was a Quibi show that began airing in 2020 with Kevin Hart playing a fictional version of himself and a star-studded cast of supporting characters including John Travolta, Nathalie Emmanuel and Josh Hartnett starring. The second season aired on Roku after Quibi shut down, and the first season was edited into a movie-length feature film for Amazon Prime Video in 2023.
Ben Schwartz (Parks and Rec) joined the show in Season 2 and along with Emmanuel (who you’ll recognize from Game Of Thrones) is here in Die Hart 2 and John Cena. The second season, which aired last year on Roku, is now being edited down into a movie-length offering headed to Amazon Prime Video on March 30th.
It looks pretty bad! It might be funny bad, but I think you’d probably be better off just sticking with Die Hard and Tropic Thunder . . . .
