Die Another Day Review

by Ram Samudrala (me AT ram DOT org)
December 23rd, 2002

Die Another Day
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/die_another_day.html

The latest movie in the James Bond franchise, released in time for its 40th anniversary, is one of the best Bond films, thanks to a confluence of factors. These include Pierce Brosnan settling into the secret agent role as well as Roger Moore or Sean Connery, the ability to convincingly conjure up yet another villainous megalomaniac bent on wreaking destruction, and a somewhat dark opening sequence that shows that even Bond is quite vulnerable.

The cold war may have ended but its impact on the world's psyche and day-to-day operation is as strong as ever. The problem is that there was a great weapons buildup and the superpowers, along with their crony states, are hard-pressed to keep the technology developed from causing death and destruction. It's a perfect opportunity for psychopaths to unleash their dreams of world domination... and for licensed-to-kill agent 007 to stop them while dazzling us with his charm, wit, and arsenal of cool gadgets.

The high-energy opening action sequence ends up with Bond being captured and tortured in a North Korean prison (the relationship between the Korean peninsula and the cold war is made explicit). Suspected of leaking information, he is traded for the spy he was initially after, Zao (Rick Yune). His license to kill is revoked by M (Judi Dench) and he is placed under observation. But he soon redeems himself, and equipped with the latest weaponry courtesy of Q (John Cleese), goes after Zao. The trail leads him to a confrontation with the diamond merchant Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who has innovative uses for the product he peddles. Bond is aided in his quest by Jinx (Halle Berry) and Miranda Frost (Rosalind Pike), who are quite formidable on their own.

For some reason, there are a lot of scenes (characters stating dialogue) in the film that seem really awkward, even allowing for the so-bad-that-it's-good comments made in Bond films. This suggests that the director (Lee Tamahori) wasn't able to set the right context for the actors (or that it's just a bad editing job).

But dialogue isn't that important in a Bond film anyway. The scenes are filmed competently, the settings are picturesque, and the over-the-top performance by Toby Stephens works well. The acting by Barry and Pike is decent, and Brosnan seems to be enjoying himself. The score by David Arnold featuring the famous Bond theme is quite good.

The film pays tribute to all the 19-odd Bond films by making references to them. It's a good marketing trick since I didn't get them all in the first viewing. /Die Another Day/ is a fun movie to watch and I definitely recommend checking it out on the big screen.
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