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ANOTHER DAY Rating:  Director: Lee Tamahori Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade Director of Photography: David Tattersall Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, Michael Madsen Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
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Review by: Dan
Tester
11/21/02
STOP THE PRESSES! THIS JUST IN! JAMES BOND IS BACK, and he has entered the 21st Century. Actually, to be honest, based on some of the gadgetry I saw in Die Another Day, the 20th Bond film, he may well have entered the 22nd Century. But either way, Bond is BACK, and for the first time in about 15 years or so, it is truly a momentous occasion. Pierce Brosnan returns in his fourth outing as 007 here, and up until Die he was the worst Bond in my opinion. I am a diehard Roger Moore fan (say what you want, but he was my favorite, and I am legitimate because I write for the Internet). Connery was great, Lazenby is hard to gauge, and Timothy Dalton was effective in only one film, License To Kill, the down and dirtiest Bond film -- until now. But Pierce Brosnan was by far the worst; he was stiff, unconvincing, and his movies were utterly boring. He even came startlingly close to crying in Goldeneye, and I could never look at him the same way again. "Oh what he has done to Jimmy Bond?" I would loudly complain. But Brosnan absolutely nails it in Die Another Day and redeems himself so thoroughly in one fell swoop that I felt like a little kid again, discovering James Bond for the first time.
Die Another Day begins as all the others, with a spectacular action-filled set piece, this time set in a demilitarized zone in North Korea. Bond is investigating the weapons build-up of a renegade Korean soldier, and things of course go bad. But something else happens in this opening sequence that is so original, so unexpected, so wonderful, that I wouldn't dare reveal it. All I can say is, when it happened, and continued to happen, I sat back in pure cinematic bliss; it is that impressive and well done. It will be hard to explain the film without this reveal, so I will focus instead on generalities.
Die Another Day is a very exciting film, and one of the best looking of the series. The action is some of the best I have even seen, the gadgets are very cool, and the performances, particularly Brosnan's, are really very effective. I actually felt, in context of course, that I was watching real characters in this film, not just "Dr. Evil" style wackos. I haven't felt this strongly about characters in a Bond film since my personal favorite, The Spy Who Loved Me. Brosnan's scenes with M (Dame Judi Dench) early in the film were amazingly out of the ordinary and pretty hardcore. Rick Yune (The Fast and the Furious) creates an utterly creepy villain, looking like a cross between Toshiro Mifune and the lead character in Powder. Only Halle Berry's Jinx is typical Bond fare. She is beautiful to look at (her Ursula Andress-style entrance is jaw dropping), but her performance is just kind of silly. And the one-liners they have written for her would make even Roger Moore cringe. Clearly, Berry's best performance is behind her now (no, I don't mean Monster's Ball; I mean her Oscar acceptance speech.) And for years I have wondered why no director has taken hold of a Bond film and given it his own unique look. Director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors, The Edge) finally does this, adding some new stylish touches that are fun. They are baby steps to be sure, but they just made the film that much more interesting. Think about it though: What would a Quentin Tarantino or a Spike Jonze Bond film look like? I would like to find out someday.
The plot is actually pretty topical, involving the tensions between North and South Korea. The villain's grand scheme is, of course, ludicrous, but utilizing a timely worldwide crisis as expositional fodder adds an interesting layer to the story. The evil scheme involves a satellite that stores up the sun's energy to create a laser beam to, of course, create horrible devastation. This is certainly typical Bond film shenanigans, but the villain's tunnel vision plan for this weapon was at least original. The subplot, involving millions of land mines strewn across Korea and their part in the plan, was just very cool to me and leads to a spectacular conclusion. Actually, Die Another Day has about four conclusions, but I am speaking of the conclusive conclusion, the conclusion that actually concludes. And the gadgetry, well, James Bond has an invisible car in Die Another Day. Have they gone too far? I don't know, but let's see them top that one in the next installment.
A few complaints: The advent of CGI technology has not been kind to the Bond franchise. Sure it all looks neat, but it enables Bond to perform stunts that are simply too much to believe. Now Bond always pulled off amazing feats, but always within the realm of "suspended" belief. We saw an actual stunt man performing the stunts, so it somehow always could be accepted. With modern day computer wizardry, James Bond has crossed over from super-agent to super-human. There is scene in Die Another Day involving a collapsing glacier and a waterskiing Bond escape that was so silly, so over the top, that it was just kind of distracting; especially in comparison to the lower tech stuff in the film in which Bond actually seems to be in danger. And Madonna's theme song is the worst Bond theme ever. No comparison. Her techno-pop dance number is wretched and so laughably forgettable that it makes the previous subpar Brosnan-era theme songs seem like beloved classics in retrospect. And Madonna has a cameo that is so silk-screened I think a female crew member just stuck her panty-hosed leg in front of the camera during the scene. What was that all about?
If you like James Bond movies, run with open arms to your local theater for Pierce Brosnan's coming out party. For the true Bond connoisseur celebrating this 20th anniversary film in the series' 40th anniversary year, look for the clever references to past 007 films, namely Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball and From Russia With Love. If you don't like James Bond movies, definitely still go see Die Another Day, because it is like no others. I have just reread my review, and I can't believe I am giving a rave to Die Another Day. It warms me to my very soul that movies can still surprise me like this. I am both shaken and stirred.
But as always, it is only one man's opinion.
(An MGM release. Opens wide on November
22.)
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