Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Etienne B — 21 Dec 2010

Die Another Day(2002)-8/10...the 20th official James Bond film is an entertaining thrill ride full of great action, amazing stunts, cool one-liners, sexy women, and dastardly villains, basically everything a James Bond movie should be. The film was direted by Lee Tamahori with the title song sung by Madonna, who also make an interesting appearance in the film. The opening scene features Bond trying to assassinate a renegade colonel in North Korea, that ends with a spectatcular chase on hovercrafts and leads to Bond's capture and imprisonment for 14 months! Bond has been left to rot, forgotten by his organization and he is angry because he was set up. Soon he's on the trail of Zao played by Rick Yune, who is caught up with daredevil rags to riches playboy Gustav Graves played by Toby Stephens, who has created a powerul satellite capable of reproducing the sun's energy and power for sunlight at night and "other things". Rosamund Pike plays sexy double agent and world class fencer Miranda Frost. Ahhhh a Bond plot featuring a space weapon and world domination is all too familiar...but the action and the fun of this movie make it work. Bond also teams up with NSA agent Jinx, played by Halle Berry who has a sexy introduction to the film and is an homage to Ursula Andress' intro in Dr. No. That is also another great thing about this Bond flm is that it can play with the 40 year history of Bond and subtle in-jokes are great especially for somebody like me(a Bond fanatic) like the jet-pack that was used in Thunderball...or the shoe with the poisoned spike that was seen in From Russia with Love. As I said the action is great...the opening scene, an intense fencing match that turns into a bloody sword fight, spectacular chases and fights in and around an Ice-Palace with some ultra-cool lasers, an over the top surfing on a glacial wave scene(yeah it did look fake)...and a stunning fight aboard a disentegrating and fiery airplane. There is also a couple of great bits with virtual reality, with a hilarious conclusion involving a Moneypenny fantasy. Overall Die Another Day is a spectacular, fun, entertaining Bond film that features everything a Bond film should and is probably Brosnan's 2nd best behind GoldenEye.

"Reginald Bundy...critic for the Times.".