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Die Another Day
***
Cinema Releases - November 22, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12A. USA/UK.
135 minutes. Directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade;
based on characters created by Ian Fleming. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle
Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Ruck Yune, John Cleese, Judi Dench,
Michael Madsen, Will Yun Lee, Samantha Bond.
It is customary for James Bond films to open with
the superspy waking up with some nice bit of totty before being interrupted
by rapscallions, or for some random bit of action to happen before the stylish
credits sequence. "Die Another Day" goes for a different tactic:
Bond is rumbled on one of his missions, and -- what's this? --
captured!
Should this stray from formula be tolerated? It's
strange for the credits sequence to incorporate shots of the great James
Bond being tortured, weird for the next scene to inform us that he has been
in a North Korean prison camp for fourteen months, uncommon for the first
hour of a Bond film to show the hero abandoned by MI6 and working on his
own, and it's sure darned unnerving to see Bond with sweaty long hair and
the beard of an ageing tramp. My buddy mused that it might be interesting
for the whole film to show Bond with this appearance. It might indeed, but
we'd have to rename him James Chonged.
"Die Another Day", which follows Bond's attempts
to stop the overzealous son of a North Korean general attempting to blast
the crap out of South Korea with a giant light-manipulating diamond in the
sky, does quite a few unexpected things. I am at a loss to explain the 12A
certificate, for example, what with one very steamy sex scene, and flirtatious
dialogue that has gone past double-entendre and turned into nothing but rudeness.
"I'm here for ornithology," says Pierce Brosnan to Halle Berry at the start
of one of his secret missions. She stares at his crotch without a hint of
covertness, and declares, "That's quite a mouthful."
Later, the other Bond girl, played by Rosamund
Pike, suggests, "I take it that Mr. Bond has been explaining his big bang
theory." Berry: "I believe I got the thrust of it." We keep expecting Frankie
Howerd to dodge into frame and shout, "Oooh!" Not that I'm complaining. It's
fun. You know you're in for a couple of hearty disbelieving laughs when James
Bond films start including songs by The Clash on their soundtracks and random
sword fights in their quiet moments.
The director, Lee Tamahori, gets in all this and
manages to still, ultimately, incorporate all the familiar Bond elements.
Judi Dench is back as M, and John Cleese shows again that he has done a classy
job of stepping into Desmond Llewellyn's role of gadget-man Q. Bond is supplied
with an invisible car this time round, still with the customary machine guns
and rocket-launchers. And of course he gets another groovy watch: "Your
twentieth, I believe. Try to bring it back this time."
There are a few things that don't work. Madonna's
theme song is good pop, but its jittery electro-beats don't have the smoothness
or excitement that Bond tunes require. Tamahori gets most of the action sequences
right, even giving a chase along crummily computer-generated snow the right
senses of excitement and giddy scope, but every now and again he seems to
think he's making a bad Jet Li movie, giving us tacky incidences of slow-motion
and jagged replays. And there is, as with most Bond pictures since the days
of Roger Moore, a second climax that drags the running time out past the
two-hour mark and does a great job of confusing the hell out of
us.
But the movie works. It plays around and still
delivers the goods. Berry is a terrific Bond girl, her bikini-clad entrance
reminding us of Ursula Andress in "Dr. No", and her performance earning the
comparison. She has come a long way from roles like the quiet girl in
"Boomerang", and here embraces her stardom, living up the poses of smart
sexpot and badass sidekick. Brosnan, meanwhile, is finally at ease with the
role of Bond; he comes across as less stiff than in the previous three films,
as if he doesn't need to try so hard to be perfect, and can carry it all
off with cool just by going about his business. "Die Another Day" is a solid
and exciting series entry, ticking all the customary boxes while offering
us surprises.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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