Review of Die Another Day (2002) by Mark S — 04 Dec 2010

I was going to class this as being my joint least favourite Bond film, tied with For Your Eyes Only, but after some consideration I've decided to declare this the WORST EVER Bond film, as it's SO bad it deserves that title.

For Your Eyes Only is annoying because it's too cheesy, but Die Another Day is not only annoying through being too cheesy, but also just because it's bloody annoying! Halle Berry's much ballyhooed bikini shot can make you forget just how irritating her portrayl of Jinx is.

Toby Stephens' villain Gustav Graves doesn't come across as menacing, rather a silver-spooned so-and-so who's just asking for a slap in the face. Madonna should have stuck to just singing the reasonably decent theme tune.

And Michael Madsen? Keep Michael Madsen the f**k away from Bond films! He's not wanted there! Amusingly, at the time he stated: "It's not a big role, but it's somewhat pivotal in that it introduces a new recurring character.

" Be it wishful thinking on his part or a genuine intention of the producers at the time, thankfully that recurring character has yet to recur. I'm not surprised this turned out to be Pierce Brosnan's last outing as 007 as regardless of getting too old for the part, he's just not very good in this.

Look out for his ridiculous running, he was starting to resemble the T-1000 in the way he moved. Talking of the T-1000, Die Another Day could have done with some of its CGI, as the stuff that's on display here is very bad, particularly for a film that cost $140 million to make.

Roger Moore had it spot on when he commented on this film: "I thought it just went too far - and that's from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!" Precisely.

It's a bad story (with bad acting and too many gadgets and product placements) terribly directed; Lee Tamahori's next film after this was xXx 2, and that's as far as he should have been allowed to go - directing Bond wannabes rather than damaging the Bond series from within.

As critic James Berardinelli stated, "This is a train wreck of an action film - a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed James Bond into the mindless xXx mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs.

".