- Review: John Wick 3 (C)
Scott Sycamore - Weekend Box Office
May 17 - 19 - Crowd Reports
Avengers: Endgame - Us
Box office comparisons - Review: Justice League (C)
Craig Younkin
Movie Review
Die Another Day
By Craig Younkin Published November 25, 2002
US Release: November 22, 2002
Directed by: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Pierce Brosnan , Judi Dench , Halle Berry , John Cleese
PG-13
Running Time: 123 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $160,700,000
Directed by: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Pierce Brosnan , Judi Dench , Halle Berry , John Cleese
PG-13
Running Time: 123 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $160,700,000
D+
An over-stylized bore
Die Another Day is an over-stylized bore. From the horrible opening theme by Madonna to the lifeless ending, this new installment of Bond has even less to offer than its recent predecessors.
Bond is still the same suave agent who can get himself out of any situation, and bed any great looking woman who comes within ten feet of him. He also continues to get the same new gadgets; this time the most impressive thing being a car that can camouflage itself and shoot bullets. Only we've seen all this, plus the predictable plotting before. The only thing still holding this series together is the sex and the action, and Die Another Day fails to sizzle on either one of those. The action is hampered a lack of tension, mostly because director Lee Tomahori is just shooting the scenes rather than trying to come up with a way to make them look dangerous.
Take one scene for example where Bond is fighting a guy while a bunch of lasers have gone bezerk, only the lasers serve very little purpose in this scene rather than to surround the battle with a very expensive light show. The action is also incredibly ridiculous in most scenes because the CGI effects and stunt doubles are so blatantly obvious.
The sex is disappointing, especially from Halle Berry. We see her in a bathing suit, but this is actually the first movie I've seen her in where she is fully clothed the entire time. The PG-13 rating also doesn't allow us to see much of anyone else either.
The story picks up on a mission in North Korea where James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is betrayed by a fellow agent and left to be tortured by North Korean militants looking to take over all of Korea. It looks like this could be the end for James until he is lucky enough to get traded back to the British CIA for a Japanese terrorist (Rick Yune), whose face was brutally scarred by Bond during the mentioned mission.
When Bond is safely returned, he then gets the career halting news from Judi Dench (again reprising her role as Agent M) that his cover has been blown and that he is of no use to anyone anymore. But, not one to take anything lying down, Bond goes after the terrorist, tracking him all the way to Havana.
There he meets Jinx (Halle Berry), a sexy NSA agent who just so happens to be going after the same guy James is. They track him to a DNA transferring facility but fail to re-capture him. Instead they find diamonds, which leads them to the other villain, a British adventurer named Graves (Tobey Stephens). Graves is a diamond hunter who has big dreams of turning a satellite he has launched into a second sun. He is also the most interesting of the Bond villains of the recent past.
Graves was once the Japanese militant ruler of North Korea, but during the before-mentioned mission Bond supposedly killed him, leaving his father to torture the abandoned British agent. Only he never did die. Instead, he adopted a whole new identity and went through very painful gene therapy to adopt a whole new identity. That beats the hell out of Robert Carlyle's no-pain feeling villain in the last Bond film, and Jonathan Pryce's newspaper villain from the one before. Stephen's also has an edgy, insolent manner in the way he acts which makes him a fun foil.
The rest of Bond isn't very fresh and also isn't very interesting. Pierce Brosnan does his usual routine, only this time he is more of a suave playboy than action hero and Halle Berry is sexy enough to pull off her role as Bond girl. Only Bond looks close to being done. Telling the same story over and over again is starting to wear thin, and even Brosnan seems tired of the role. Die Another Day will appeal to the Bond fans, and they may actually like it for all of it's empty style. But personally I'd rather fall back on xXx (Triple X). He's no superstar spy yet, but at least he still has the attitude for it.
Bond is still the same suave agent who can get himself out of any situation, and bed any great looking woman who comes within ten feet of him. He also continues to get the same new gadgets; this time the most impressive thing being a car that can camouflage itself and shoot bullets. Only we've seen all this, plus the predictable plotting before. The only thing still holding this series together is the sex and the action, and Die Another Day fails to sizzle on either one of those. The action is hampered a lack of tension, mostly because director Lee Tomahori is just shooting the scenes rather than trying to come up with a way to make them look dangerous.
Take one scene for example where Bond is fighting a guy while a bunch of lasers have gone bezerk, only the lasers serve very little purpose in this scene rather than to surround the battle with a very expensive light show. The action is also incredibly ridiculous in most scenes because the CGI effects and stunt doubles are so blatantly obvious.
The sex is disappointing, especially from Halle Berry. We see her in a bathing suit, but this is actually the first movie I've seen her in where she is fully clothed the entire time. The PG-13 rating also doesn't allow us to see much of anyone else either.
The story picks up on a mission in North Korea where James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is betrayed by a fellow agent and left to be tortured by North Korean militants looking to take over all of Korea. It looks like this could be the end for James until he is lucky enough to get traded back to the British CIA for a Japanese terrorist (Rick Yune), whose face was brutally scarred by Bond during the mentioned mission.
When Bond is safely returned, he then gets the career halting news from Judi Dench (again reprising her role as Agent M) that his cover has been blown and that he is of no use to anyone anymore. But, not one to take anything lying down, Bond goes after the terrorist, tracking him all the way to Havana.
There he meets Jinx (Halle Berry), a sexy NSA agent who just so happens to be going after the same guy James is. They track him to a DNA transferring facility but fail to re-capture him. Instead they find diamonds, which leads them to the other villain, a British adventurer named Graves (Tobey Stephens). Graves is a diamond hunter who has big dreams of turning a satellite he has launched into a second sun. He is also the most interesting of the Bond villains of the recent past.
Graves was once the Japanese militant ruler of North Korea, but during the before-mentioned mission Bond supposedly killed him, leaving his father to torture the abandoned British agent. Only he never did die. Instead, he adopted a whole new identity and went through very painful gene therapy to adopt a whole new identity. That beats the hell out of Robert Carlyle's no-pain feeling villain in the last Bond film, and Jonathan Pryce's newspaper villain from the one before. Stephen's also has an edgy, insolent manner in the way he acts which makes him a fun foil.
The rest of Bond isn't very fresh and also isn't very interesting. Pierce Brosnan does his usual routine, only this time he is more of a suave playboy than action hero and Halle Berry is sexy enough to pull off her role as Bond girl. Only Bond looks close to being done. Telling the same story over and over again is starting to wear thin, and even Brosnan seems tired of the role. Die Another Day will appeal to the Bond fans, and they may actually like it for all of it's empty style. But personally I'd rather fall back on xXx (Triple X). He's no superstar spy yet, but at least he still has the attitude for it.
Craig's Grade: D+
Craig's Overall Grading: 340 graded movies
| A | 10.9% | |
| B | 41.8% | |
| C | 31.8% | |
| D | 15.3% | |
| F | 0.3% |
