Die Another Day

Die Another Day (2002)

Runtime: 132 minutes

Directed by: Lee Tamahori

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune

From: MGM

Yes, I finally watched this movie for a second time to review online. I mean, the last-and first-time I saw this was on DVD years ago. I did not want to see this again as it was bad; seeing it for a second time last night, this was even worse than I had recalled. The Letterboxd review is below explaining my opinion:

Even if I have to see Spectre a few days after it comes out here in the States (it's only a week and a half away; it snuck up on me), I will finish rewatching all the 007 pictures before checking that one out. I'll admit that some of them I am reviewing here for the first time, including this one; I have only seen it once in full and that was years ago; I had no desire to see it again soon so that is why it is just now I am giving it a second viewing. Was it as bad as I had remembered it? Yes, yes it is. In fact, even worse than the memories I had of it.

The plot, it's still pretty bad. It is an absolute mess involving a dude with diamonds in his face, a weird dude named Gustav Graves, a walking stereotype in the character that Halle Berry played... it's really not worth discussing in detail, except that almost from the very beginning the movie makes little sense. Really movie, a hovercraft wouldn't set off a landmine if you go over it? It gets far more illogical from there, into science fiction territory, with such things as the gene therapy clinic as presented in the film (changing your own DNA to the point that you become another race? That's likely the stupidest plot point, not only in this movie but the entire franchise), invisible cars, that ice palace, Bond stopping his own heart from beating, and all the rest. You can appear out of nowhere and within the year become knighted by the British government? I don't think so. Then, there's Madonna's extended cameo, which was at least better than that awful title song she did. That should have been what Bond had to listen to as he was being tortured for 14 months in a North Korean gulag.

The movie is just poorly done, with a dunderheaded plot, many dopey moments (why do we sometimes get slow motion?), and some pretty terrible CGI; I hear that even Brosnan himself shakes his head at “that one surfing scene”, which I say is the nadir of all the Bond pictures. Now, there are some decent ideas in the film, but they're squandered, such as North Korea being the new evil power and especially the ramifications of 007 being held captive and tortured for over a year. And, the “big bad weapon” being pretty much the same thing that they used a few times before in the 60's and 70's is disappointing.

The settings of North Korea (actually... the UK? Apparently so), Cuba (actually Spain) and Iceland are fine and all; I just wish they would have been in a better picture. As it was the 40th anniversary of 007 films there are tributes to all the previous 19 movies throughout; a lot are subtle so at least they aren't distracting and the franchise has its own Wikia site and on the page for this film they list them all if you really care to see them.

Overall, despite a few moments, this is the worst of the entire series. I don't know what they were doing... or maybe I do; They must have been trying to be "hip" and comparable to some of the idiotic action films that came out around the time. To spout a cliché, it looked as if they had lost their way. I mean, a spin-off film with that lame character Berry played? Thank Christ they never went with that; it was only MGM balking that prevented what would have been a pretty atrocious movie from happening. A change was probably needed. Doing things completely different and giving us the Daniel Craig films... there are plenty of people who don't care for those as they're so different in tone and style from the previous 20 and even I am not fully sure it was the right move... but I can talk more about that when I review those flicks.

Being so bad and misguided that you caused a seismic change in a franchise that had little change through 40 years and 20 movies, that is quite the feat. I just wish that old Pierce would have been in better films overall as I have no complaint about him or his performance as Bond.