Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Randolph B — 13 Apr 2016

Possibly the weirdest Bond yet he's stuck investigating a billionaire who wants to melt the ice on Earth for an allegedly good reason, to use the land for more crops to feed the poor, but it turns out melting the ice is bad for global warming and in conclusion they all want to kill Bond.

I particularly liked this one because it was probably the most cartoony of the Bond films. Sure they have Jaws, a cat-petting evildoer, hat throwing Mishkin, all sorts of whacky villains and weird torture devices but in one scene the Asian guy has a row of diamonds implanted in his face from working with 007. They clearly tried to add humor to the film, alongside the patented alcohol and supermodels that make up the majority of the scenes. I feel like these movies can get very dark and serious sometimes, which is odd for an action series that has over 30 minutes of car chasing, fighting and bullet dodging..............but they didn't really mind adding all the CGI to the film. The stunts and effects look great. Even watching Goldeneye 10 years earlier feels like watching something out of an ancient vault. Not to be outdone they add an ice hotel, giant space lasers shooting earth, and Bond surfing a tidal wave (look out Kurt Russell).

The villain was pretty unbearable in this film. Hearing him speak a few opinions was enough for anyone to want to see Bond get rid of him. Definitely no Goldeneye, or Trevelyan, but he had a great line before ending him in an airplane engine. This type of non-stop action made me love the series from the start.