Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Drew O — 14 Jul 2012

I've always enjoyed Pierce Brosnan as Bond. He was the first Bond that I watched in the theaters, and he was Bond as I was growing up. Many fans will say that GoldenEye was the only one of his films worth mentioning and that the other three are terrible. I disagree. Both Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough I've always enjoyed. However, Brosnan's last film Die Another Day is another story.

Starting off very strong, Die Another Day begins with Bond in Korea and fights soldiers in an exciting (if ridiculous) action sequence. The film then continues to do well with a decent plot building up, a cool sword fighting sequence, and an amusing scene with John Cleese as the new Q. There is one scene though that I can't stand. It's when Bond "stops" his heart by thinking (very Roger Moore-esque). It's by far the most stupid thing to ever come from the series, more so than the space scenes in Moonraker. But, the film is actually pretty good until Q reveals the invisible car, and everything then goes downhill. Bond goes to Graves's ice palace (wow), we eventually find out that Graves is actually the Korean that Bond killed in the beginning (wow), Bond surfs down a melting glacier (just wow), and Graves dresses as Iron Man and fights Bond (...).

This film is incredibly stupid and absolutely ridiculous in every sense of the word. It completely wastes a very good first hour or so and immediately falls to the ranks of some of the worst Bond flicks. It's a shame that this was Brosnan's last film and an even bigger shame that John Cleese was never given the oppurtunity to play Q in another film after this.