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Die Another Day (2002)  Bond: Pierce Brosnan The Villian: Will Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves The Henchperson: [Rick Yune as Zao The Bond Girl: Halle Berry as Jinx Director: Lee Tamahori IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246460/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0VyXWDrv_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0VyXWDrv_Y Movie summed up in a quote: " I am so good. Especially when you're bad." -Jinx and Bond So we come to it -the final outing of Brosnan as Bond. This movie is supposed to be the culmination of 40 years of 007 and his 20th movie. To that end the movie succeeds - there is plenty here for the Bond fan to see, and well placed references to previous films that don't get in the way of the story. The main story is a retread of several previous Bond films, but begs the question, at what point does nostalgia begin to turn into too much of a good thing? The story starts out strong, and full of promise. Bond has been captured, and held in captivity for 18 months. Never mind the fact that under ordinary circumstances, Bond would have broken out in no time, let's just play along. Eventually, Bond is exchanged for another prisoner, the very man that caused him to be locked up in the first place. When Bond is back in the hands of the Secret Service, he's immediately incarcerated, and believed to have been giving secret information to the North Koreans. Once again, Bond is on his own, with no one to help him, trying to clear his name. An intriguing plot is in place, ready to take Bond on the adventure of his life.  The Nintendo PowergloveŪ finally put to good use Or so it would seem, until said plot is completely abandoned less than a couple of minutes after it was set up. The logistical problems that follow seem insurmountable. M had just had her life saved by Bond in the last episode, so you would think she would have a shred of feeling for Bond, yet just about the first thing she says to Bond is "Why didn't you take your cyanide pill"? If the need for Bond's death overshadows any personal feelings about Bond, and he is truly that disposable, why not just have him assassinated if you wanted him dead anyway? After all, he might escape, and give the North Koreans even more information. Maybe he's even working for them at this point. In the end Bond escapes with incredible ease using a technique that he could have used in North Korea months before. With the "Bond as the hunted" plotline soundly jettisoned, we now settle down for a fairly standard Bond adventure. The only interesting "twist" that shows up later is already foreshadowed, and even spoiled in advance of the reveal, making it relatively pointless in the schema of the movie. Even with all of this taken into consideration, this would have been an average Bond flick if there weren't even further problems. First and foremost, this is a terrible script. The writing is at a sophomoric level - how many times in a row can you use the expression "explosive situation"? Don't they teach you to add some variety in Creative Writing 101? Even worse, everyone speaks as if they are the voiceover in the movie's trailer, for example - "He'll light the fuse on any explosive situation, and be a danger to himself and others". It's truly abysmal dialogue leading you to believe that none of the characters have a single human element to them - people don't talk like that, only stars in a "B" movie do. Another problem is the direction. This time around, we get a director who has decided to film this movie as if it was a music video, almost giving you nausea from the speeding up the film, and then slowing it down. This technique could possibly be used effectively, but it's used over and over again to the point of being an annoyance. If you need to speed up to get past the boring scenery to the action scene, why don't you leave the boring part on the cutting floor? Also, we have gone back to the use of CGI to create actions scenes that suspend any sense of belief whatsoever. I remember sitting in the theatre when the parasailing sequence happened, and it was so ridiculous that I actually burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. I'm fairly sure that was not the reaction that Tamahori was going for in that scene. After this scene, things just get worse, as the final confrontation with Graves is even more unbelievable.  Bond caught off guard by GENOM's improved security There's not a lot to say about the casting here. People have made a lot out of Berry's not being right for the role, and there is some truth to that. She certainly doesn't strike you as a trained agent, but beyond that, the lines she is given to work with are atrocious, which doesn't exactly help. As for the main antagonist, Toby Stephens comes off as a pimply sneering nerd that is more likely to whine you to death than be actual kill through any sort of prowess he is supposed to have. His subplot and relation to Zao is completely unconvincing (was all of that really necessary to his ultimate goal?), and Zao himself is about as two dimensional as they come. When the movie comes to a close, there is a strange feeling about it all. On the one hand, you are reminded of the greatest moments in Bond's career by the carefully added elements that make this a fitting tribute to the Bond series. But then you are also reminded of the greatest problem of this franchise - everything has been seen before, and there does not seem to be a way to create an interesting Bond film if it comes down to just using the same stale format over and over again. The script reflects Bond's greatest problem, all involved seem tired of writing fresh ideas, and a moment of great irony shows up in the lyrics of the theme song which says "I'm gonna avoid the cliche". It's seems nearly improbable that there is any way to make an interesting Bond anymore, and it appears this is the end of the road for this established cinematic icon. Luckily for us, a new movie was on the horizon looking to do exactly what was promised by M about Bond shaking things up.  Now we know why her name in Japan is "Hairy Belly" The Good: References to previous movies integrated without interfering. The Bad: Eyerollingly bad dialog and plot holes. The Ugly: Worst use of CGI ruins the best thing about Bond - amazing stunts. FINAL SCORE As a Bond Flick:    As a movie in general: . . MINOR SPOILERS BELOW! . . And now, without further ado, all of the previous movie references I could find (don't peek if you want to try to find them yourself): 1) Dr. No - Jinx coming out of the water with same Bikini and knife, like Honey did.  2) From Russia with Love - Knife Shoe, briefcase, hotel suite filming, and "My friends call me James Bond."   3) Goldfinger - Deadly Laser, car ejector seat, and "I never joke about my work" line.  4) Thunderball - Jet pack, rebreather, and the health clinc.   5) You only live twice - Samurai Armor in Osato's office, and concept of you live to die another day.  6) OHMSS - avalanche and mind programming machine in the clinic.  7) Diamonds are forever - Conflict Diamonds, and the "Diamonds are for ever..yone" line.  8) Live and let die - Using an electromagnet to get a weapon.  9) The man with the Golden Gun - Solar weapon, Bond's plane is destroyed.   10)Moonraker - The sword fight, swimming in an artificial jungle pool.   11)The Spy who loved me -The Union jack parachute  12)For your eyes only -Crossbow Bolts  13)Octopussy - Croco-sub, Q's rope gadget, and the the mini-jet  14) View to a Kill - The spy robot.  15) Living Daylights - Ice race, sniper scope camera shot, and vehicles falling out of a cargo plane.   16) Licence to Kill - The rogue agent on the outside subplot. 17) Goldeneye - Laser watch, Double cross by a fellow agent  18) Tomorrow never dies - Bond's Wire walking like Wei Lin did.  19) The World is not Enough - Jinx trapped in flooding water like Jones in the submarine.  Bonus - "Birds of the West Indies" book, written by James Bond.  Edit: Did you notice that Jinx's abdomen wound was gone at the end? Yabanjin fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Dec 18, 2009 |
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Oct 18, 2009 09:44
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I really hate this film. I donīt know what else to say. When Bond started to surf that gigantic CGI wave, I just stopped caring.Everything is just so idiotic. The title track is just the worst out of all the Bond title songs . Or maybe itīs the song for Quantum of Solace? I donīt know. You didnīt mention the title sequence. Instead the usual silhouettes of girls, we get hot tortring action.As if Madonna wasnīt torturing our ears at all. Also , this movie just drags. All this unnecessary stuff. That dreaming machine (or whatever it was called),that whole fencing poo poo and of course London Calling was playing to show that we are in London.  PROS: I donīt know. Rosamunde Pike is kinda hot CONS: Cartoonish,convulted,illogical plot; why should i like Halle Berry  Clearly one off the worst Bond films. Only matched by Moonraker 1/5
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Oct 23, 2009 20:05
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When I saw this in the theater, I was convinced that it was cheesy enough to join faves like Anaconda in my collection, but then I borrowed it from the library and rewatched it. It's just an utter pile of shite. That ultrashoddy CGI parasailing scene is one of the most ill-conceived stunt pieces in a series full of ridiculous poo poo. 1/5
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Oct 25, 2009 16:38
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