DVD REVIEW

Die Another Day  (2002)

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens

Director: Lee Tamahori

Rating: PG-13

Studio: MGM

Release Date: 6.03.03

Review Posted: 6.04.03

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

"Vodka Martini, with ice if you can spare it!" - James Bond

When his top-secret mission is sabotaged, James Bond (Brosnan) finds himself captured by the enemy, abandoned by M16 and stripped of his 00-license. Determined to get revenge, Bond goes head-to-head with a sultry spy (Barry), a frosty agent (Rosamund Pike) and a shadowy billionaire (Stephens) whose business is diamonds... but whose secret is a diabolical weapon that could bring the world to its knees.

Before going into the Die Another Day review, I want to recap the previous three Bond films. GoldenEye is probably the best of the four Brosnan Bond pictures, because it’s dark, funny, exciting, exotic and suspenseful. Tomorrow Never Dies is not very suspenseful, but runs on a more linear structure than GoldenEye and uses all sorts of cool gadgets in action for the pleasure of the fans, yet the villain is probably the weakest of late. The World Is Not Enough includes some great action pieces, such as the speedboat and ski chase, but the two Bond girls and Robert Carlyle’s role as villain, even though he did well, didn’t satisfy enough. Now comes Die Another Day, directed by Lee Tamahori (The Edge, Along Came a Spider) and written by the team of Neil Purvis & Robert Wade.

Die Another Day celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Bond franchise and as a token of appreciation includes references to all of the past Bond films. Aside from this, this fourth Bond adventure is also the most expensive with a budget of around $120 million. However, Die Another Day is probably the best-looking Bond picture of the previous three. Thanks in large to Lee Tamahori and his crew; the action sequences, locations and sets look terrific. The film begins in subdued North Korea for its opening action sequence and later travels to the exotic Havana where Halle Berry is introduced in a familiar, sexy fashion. After some time in England, Bond makes his way to a cool resort in Iceland (no pun intended). The locations are wonderful and the action sequences taking place on each of them are exciting to watch. The locations are a great update from the previous Bond pictures.

In terms of structure, Die Another Day takes a while to get going. It’s not distracting, but the film would have benefited from some tightening in a few spots. The third act stumbles a bit and is a little over the top, but then again, that’s for James Bond to justify. The script is pretty good, but not as coherent as it could have been. I’m not referring to plot holes, but the way the story progresses. It’s a little too convenient at times, while at other times it moves just right. Essentially, the story seems to be about revenge, that is, Bond wants to find the person who set him up in North Korea. The revenge subplot lingers about until it is time to reveal the traitor. The other subplot is the pursuit of the diamonds distributed by Gustav Graves, which goes back to the opening sequence. So, in terms of subplots, Die Another Day has enough to satisfy its story depth. What I’m saying is that as a whole the film could have been a little more coherent. There are also some funny one-liners and dialogue is not as stiff as in TNG or TWISE, which is a fresh update.

Speaking of updates, Die Another Day practically reinvents the action material and execution. The opening hovercraft chase and the car chase on ice are very exciting, however, during these and a few other sequences, the action is over the top. That is Die Another Day tries too hard to be on par with recent, action-filled spy thrillers, such as xXx and perhaps Spy Game. The action tends to run on a more ridiculous level than the one that’s most important (for me, anyway): action that is both fun and within the limits of reality (some of the action pieces in TNG are pretty good examples). Not to the credit of xXx, which is not as good as some people may claim, Die Another Day’s action sequences are cooler because they involve James Bond.

When speaking of action, one has to also credit Q’s kick-ass gadgets. They’re still fun and inventive this time around, but an invisible Aston Martin? Anyway, the relationship between Q and Bond is still based on the same virtues as before. Bond likes to play with them, while Q tries to be serious about his work. The scene between John Cleese and Pierce Brosnan is one of the highlights of this film, especially the part when Q hands the car manual to Bond who throws it in the air to test the Aston Martin’s weaponry. What’s funny is Q’s set up, "You should be able to shoot through that in a couple of hours," and Bond’s punch line, "Only took a few seconds, Q." What’s also great is to see Bond apply all the gadgetry at exactly the right moments.

The performances of the major players in Die Another Day are pretty good. As usual, Pierce Brosnan is dead-on perfect as 007. In fact, he’s got the role down to the last possible roots and by now is in the same league with Roger Moore, but slightly behind Sean Connery. Aside from Brosnan, the film features an impressive performance by Toby Stephens. Villains are easy to play, it seems, but to make them cool and memorable, the right performance is necessary. While nowhere near memorable, Stephens does a pretty good job as Gustav Graves. But let’s not forget Halle Berry as Jinx, the female equivalent of Bond, but not quite. Berry has the charisma and looks, but not the strength and agility. Still, Halle Berry’s performance is up there with some of the memorable Bond girls.

Die Another Day is the best-looking Bond picture of the last three. It’s probably the biggest production as well with cool action pieces and shoot-outs, but in general feels a little too over the top. The jokes don’t let up either. All in all, Die Another Day is a great update of the franchise as it moves into the 21st century, but GoldenEye preserves as the most original and best all around of the Brosnan Bond pictures.

In regards to Madonna's Die Another Day song... awful! Terrible! I mean, who's responsible for those juvenile and stupid lyrics?! Believe it or not, it's a distraction to the film. But really, what's with such a lame song?! Okay, Tomorrow Never Dies is kind of weak too, but at least the lyrics and beats are better than this. The World Is Not Enough song is also not great, but much better than the latter ones. GoldenEye is probably the best theme song of the last two decades of Bond pictures. Anyway...

>>Continued on Page 2 (Video, Audio, Extras).

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