Die Another Day Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)November 21st, 2002
Susan Granger's review of "DIE ANOTHER DAY" (M.G.M.)
Over the past 40 years, this is the 20th explosive James Bond action-adventure - so what's new? The opening sequence, which traditionally has featured seductive women gyrating to music, now also serves as a prologue, showing Bond (Pierce Brosnan) betrayed, captured and tortured by the North Koreans. When he's is finally released 14 months later in a prisoner exchange, his 00 'license to kill' is rescinded by M (Judi Dench) because, "You're no use to anyone now." So Bond, seeking redemption, heads for Cuba, where he discovers Jinx (Halle Berry) rising from the sea, clad in a bikini - in homage to the unforgettable Ursula Andress in "Dr. No." Jinx is an American spy who's also tracking Zao (Rick Yune), a ruthless North Korean terrorist. But there's an even more awesome adversary, Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens, son of Maggie Smith and the late Robert Stephens), a diamond tycoon who descends to Buckingham Palace on a Union Jack parachute for a meeting with the Queen. The fencing duel between Bond and Graves offers the most exciting combat, incorporating an unbilled cameo by Madonna, who co-wrote and warbles the title song. But when the fast-paced action shifts to Graves' ice palace in Iceland, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, along with director Lee Tamahori, seem to run out of originality, relying on a duplicitous blonde (Rosamund Pike) and Q's (John Cleese) cutting-edge gadgets and hi-tech gizmos, the most impressive of which is an invisibility cloak for Bond's Aston Martin. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Die Another Day" is visually stylish, spectacular 8. While product placement is now an accepted income-generator for film producers, this superspy venture takes blatant tie-ins to an extreme, making one think it might be subtitled: 'Buy Another Day.'
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