{"id":4066,"date":"2024-09-16T20:31:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T20:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4066"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:30:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:30:04","slug":"die-another-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/16\/die-another-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Die Another Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Die Another Day <\/strong>(2002)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 133 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (action violence and sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lee Tamahori\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Arnold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Tattersall\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 20, 2002 (UK)\/November 22, 2002 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, Kenneth Tsang, Will Yun Lee, Emilio Echevarria, Samantha Bond, Colin Salmon, Michael Gorevoy, Lawrence Makoare, Michael Madsen, Rachel Grant, John Cleese, Judi Dench.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Opening Song: \u201cDie Another Day\u201d by Madonna\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $160.9M (US)\/$431.9M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sometimes it\u2019s a good idea to go back and reevaluate a film you didn\u2019t like the first time you saw it. You might find your opinion has changed. While it\u2019s not true for all of them (I will NEVER change my opinion of It\u2019s Pat: The Movie), you\u2019d be surprised how many movies I\u2019ve changed my mind about over the years. That\u2019s what happened with Die Another Day<\/strong> this past weekend.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What you\u2019re reading now is a complete rewrite of a review I wrote for Die Another Day<\/strong>, the 20th<\/sup> film in the James Bond series and the last to star Pierce Brosnan as 007. In it, I panned the spy actioner calling it \u201cthe absolute worst of the series\u201d and saying it would \u201cleave even the most diehard Bond fan exasperated\u201d. I\u2019d like to officially retract those statements as well as most of the things I said in my earlier review. In fact, I\u2019d appreciate it if you could forget it ever existed. This new one reflects my changed opinion of Die Another Day<\/strong> more accurately.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The one thing that hasn\u2019t changed is my opinion of the theme song. I still don\u2019t like it and never will. It\u2019s like this. A few Bond themes have been great. The ones that come to mind are \u201cLive and Let Die\u201d by Paul McCartney and Wings, \u201cNobody Does It Better\u201d (The Spy Who Loved Me) by Carly Simon, \u201cAll Time High\u201d (Octopussy) by Rita Coolidge, \u201cA View to a Kill\u201d by Duran Duran and \u201cSkyfall\u201d by Adele. The rest are forgettable for the most part. \u201cDie Another Day\u201d by Madonna is the absolute worst by far. It doesn\u2019t even sound like a Bond theme. It sounds more like house music. It just doesn\u2019t fit. They should have refitted it for Shirley Bassey.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another aspect of Die Another Day<\/strong> I\u2019m not wild about is the opening credits sequence, an essential element of any Bond movie dating back to the beginning when they were designed by Maurice Binder. He was succeeded by Daniel Kleinman after Licence to Kill (1989). He designed the titles for Die Another Day<\/strong> which depict Bond\u2019s lengthy stay in a North Korean prison where he\u2019s beaten, tortured and stung by scorpions. The traditional silhouette images of shapely women are turned into representations of the tortures Bond is subjected to during his imprisonment. I know the makers are going for something darker this time out, but it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Aside from the theme and accompanying credits, the rest of Die Another Day<\/strong> is pretty fun albeit completely absurd. It opens with Bond surfing (yes, on a surfboard!) into North Korean to interrupt a deal that involves corrupt Colonel Moon (Lee, The Wolverine) trading weapons for South African conflict diamonds. It goes south for Bond quickly when somebody blows his cover. A hovercraft chase ensues and ends with the death of Moon and Bond\u2019s capture by his high-ranking father (Tsang, Rush Hour 2). Then the credits kick in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After 14 months, Bond is released as part of a prisoner exchange deal for the younger Moon\u2019s right-hand Zao (Yune, The Fast and the Furious) who has diamonds embedded in his face, the result of Bond blowing up the briefcase containing the gems during the botched operation. He doesn\u2019t receive the warmest of welcomes from M (Dench, Shakespeare in Love) who suspends him from active duty and revokes his license to kill. She no longer trusts 007. It\u2019s thought that he shared sensitive information that resulted in the death of an American agent. He contends he was set up by the same individual who burned him 14 months earlier, but M doesn\u2019t believe him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bond escapes from custody and goes about hunting down Zao and the person who set him up. His still-unauthorized investigation leads him to Gustav Graves (Stephens, Lost in Space), a British entrepreneur about to launch the Icarus, an orbital mirror satellite that can harness the power of the sun. Oh, there\u2019s no way he\u2019d weaponize it, would he? LOL! Surely you jest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), Die Another Day<\/strong> is the most bonkers Bond movie since Moonraker, the one that had the British spy fighting a laser battle…. IN SPACE! It\u2019s slightly more grounded than the 1979 film in that Bond remains on the planet. However, this one has him driving an invisible car created by Q (Monty Python\u2019s Cleese in his final appearance in the role). It comes in handy when doing battle with Zao and Graves\u2019 henchmen at his lair in Iceland. It\u2019s made completely of ice. You have to wonder if the place has heating. Then there\u2019s the villain Gustav Graves. He has a secret, a big one, relating to his identity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main Bond Girl this time is Jinx (Berry fresh off her historical Oscar win for Monster\u2019s Ball), an American NSA operative we first meet emerging from the ocean a la Ursula Andress in Dr. No forty years earlier. She\u2019s after the bad guys too. Naturally, the two agents join forces both in the field and the bedroom. The other Bond Girl is one Miranda Frost (Pike, Gone Girl), the personal assistant to Graves who totally lives up to her name. That is, before 007 uses his charms to thaw her out. Berry is more than game, kicking ass and looking gorgeous in sexy outfits. As for Pike, let\u2019s just say her character arc won\u2019t surprise anybody.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like Drax in Moonraker, the main villain in Die Another Day<\/strong> is rather underwhelming. Graves has a few good scenes like a fencing match against Bond that quickly escalates to a full-fledged sword fight. Yes, that\u2019s pop singer Madonna making a cameo as the fencing instructor. This was when she had a British accent. Stephens plays him well, but he\u2019s still not one of the more memorable Bond baddies. Zao, slightly less forgettable because of his unique visage, comes off as more of an immediate threat. Yune does a good job in the role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is plenty of action in Die Another Day<\/strong> with all the chasing, fighting, shooting and narrow escapes. Lack of action has never been an issue with 007 unless you count On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service (1969) which I feel moves too slowly. The action scenes are exciting and well-mounted. The problem is one of tonal balance. It\u2019s hard to reconcile the supreme silliness of the film with the dark stuff at the beginning. The special effects are good despite some unfortunate CGI at the end. The burning plane looks incredibly and obviously fake.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In his final turn as Bond, Brosnan does a good job. I always thought he was a decent 007; it\u2019s the scripts that were the problem. They just didn\u2019t serve him well. The plots were often convoluted, more so than any of the 007 films that preceded the Brosnan era (1995-2002). Oh well, what does it matter? It\u2019s still cool to see the character in action. That\u2019s exactly what he does in Die Another Day<\/strong>, a solid actioner that benefits from going off the rails without launching our hero…. IN SPACE!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Die Another Day (2002)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 133 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (action violence and sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lee Tamahori\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Arnold\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Tattersall\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 20, 2002 (UK)\/November 22, 2002 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, Kenneth Tsang, Will Yun Lee, Emilio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-bond-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Die-Another-Day-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4818,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}