The critic the hosts call "our guy" (transcribed as Raj/Rush) loved it, giving three and a half stars and calling it terrific entertainment; no rating scale is spoken.
The review compares it with the Indiana Jones films as a thriller that leaves your forearm bruised where your date grabbed it during suspense.
Siskel reportedly had it in his top five or six of the year, and the film is described as broadly well reviewed; a Terrific Entertainment spinoff pod is joked about.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

McClane's fame; a Netflix series; Christmas-movie status; recreational taser origin; post-crash calm; the towed car; alternative McClanes

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 00:28:48Read transcript

Earmarked as an unanswerable question: whether McClane would have become famous after Nakatomi in the pre-internet era, with talk shows, Saturday Night Live cameos and commercials.
Could it be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show is raised as a probable unanswerable question.
Is Die Hard 2 a Christmas movie: one view holds that neither Die Hard nor Home Alone is a Christmas movie and neither is this sequel.
The opposing view insists it is, since it captures holiday travel anxiety and ends with a Christmas song; the skeptic calls the Christmas setting shoehorned and says negative reactions only strengthen the take.
Did this movie invent the recreational taser? No earlier comedic taser use is recalled.
Would the airport crowd really stay calm after a massive crash, and should the ending be more somber?
Why McClane's car is towed: he left it at the curb expecting a quick pickup before the flight was delayed.
Could anyone else have been McClane: Treat Williams lacks the humor, Jeff Bridges is plausible though he never did the everyman thing apart from Blown Away, and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is a joke.

Recasting Couch

Markie Post, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson or Sandra Bullock as the TV reporter

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 00:51:19Read transcript

Recasting the TV reporter is deferred from the aged-worst discussion to this segment.
An early-1990s option is sought for the reporter: Markie Post and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson are proposed.
A young Sandra Bullock, around the time of Love Potion No. 9, is proposed as an up-and-coming reporter; the film is judged unkind to the press.

Casting What-Ifs

John McTiernan as director

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 00:53:24Read transcript

John McTiernan was supposed to direct but was committed to The Hunt for Red October; otherwise the team was simply run back.
The film is not thought significantly better with McTiernan: Harlin's goofier, grander tone suits a sequel, while McTiernan takes material more seriously.

Half-Assed Internet Research

First digital composite with matte painting; Black & Decker lawsuit; reduced Leguizamo role; Amos-Willis tension; wet prints; Valverde shared with Commando

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 00:57:54Read transcript

It was the first film to digitally composite live-action footage with a scanned matte painting, used for the final runway scene.
Black & Decker paid for a cordless-drill placement in a Willis scene, sued Fox for $150,000 when it was cut, and settled out of court.
Leguizamo's autobiography says his role was meant to be bigger until the filmmakers realized how short he was.
John Amos described real tension with Willis during filming and said Willis would never humiliate him in public again; he is compared with an old wrestler airing grievances.
The film was finished so late that it shipped to theaters as a wet print, a phrase proposed as a band or pod name.
Esperanza is a general from Valverde, the same fictional country as Commando, prompting a mock announcement of a Valverde drug-war book.

Confusing plot and villain motives; faxed fingerprints; glide-slope sabotage; uncharismatic Esperanza; no diversions to other airports; non-igniting jet fuel; villains' escape plan; blanks fired in an office; double agents on the detail

In the discussion (10)

Approx. transcript time · 01:07:30Read transcript

Faxing fingerprints from a corpse is questioned as flawed 1990 technology.
The plot is found confusing; Wikipedia's synopsis of Esperanza's extradition and Stuart's sympathizers raises the question of why anyone would kill hundreds for him.
Only two Justice Department officials meet the plane even though cable news covers the extradition constantly; who pays the villains, the anti-communist explanation, the extradition treaty and the destination all remain murky.
Internet sources say changing the glide-slope value would not crash a plane because instruments have safeguards.
Esperanza lacks the charisma of Rickman or Jeremy Irons, and splitting villainy among Sadler, Nero and Amos causes overload.
Circling planes are not diverted to nearby airports such as Baltimore or Philadelphia; the Christmas-week crowds are questioned.
Nobody recognizes McClane, and online sources say jet fuel at that temperature would not ignite from a thrown lighter.
Had McClane not ignited their plane, what was the villains' plan: would military planes not shoot them down, and did they really expect to retire to the tropics?
McClane proves the guns hold blanks by firing a clip at Lorenzo in an office full of armed people.
How John Amos's team of double agents got assigned to Dulles, and why the one loyal soldier was brought along only to be killed, go unexplained.

Producer review

Loves it; plane crash horrifies a first-time viewer

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 01:24:21Read transcript

Invited to weigh in, the producer loves Die Hard 2, has seen only the first two films, and watched it with Liz, who liked it but was horrified by the plane crash. — Craig Horlbeck
The crash may explain why this sequel airs less than the first and third films; a last-second rescue like The Rock is proposed as the easy fix, while Harlin apparently wanted the real crash.