Massive.

With the release of Die Another Day, it can truly be said that James Bond has come full circle as a massive pop phenomenon. Appealing to women and men, young and old, long-timers and first-timers, James Bond piques interest by his mere name.

To any remaining naysayers, it is past the time to admit that any interest arises from the argument over whether Pierce Brosnan is James Bond. Brosnan securely owns the role now. He created a persona that has the young, male action-oriented audience waiting impatiently to see him standing alongside the (grand)moms who swooned over Sean Connery, and he deserves all due credit. Brosnan's performance in Die Another Day is a continuation of his strong performance in The World Is Not Enough. He emotes better than I thought he would even attempt when he first won the role. In Die Another Day, Bond experiences a wide range of emotion. Brosnan's ability to express them carries the movie along wonderfully.

In the end, I give the new film three stars, rating it below The World Is Not Enough, and just about on par with GoldenEye. It is easily better than Tomorrow Never Dies (despite my initial review of that one, the film hasn't held up well).

Die Another Day begins very well. Of the first hour, the only real quibble was Madonna's disastrously awful, co-penned theme song. She is also featured in a cameo role as a fencing instructor, and I am shocked to find her acting surpassed her music in this case. Without giving away the entire plot, I will share that Bond is captured and tortured in a North Korean camp for over a year. While the screen subtitles "fourteen months" it may have been more effective to have M note the elapsed time period, more along the lines of Raymond Benson's novelization. But the desperate situation shows in Brosnan's eyes. Bond isn't invincible, isn't a puppet superhero, and does feel pain.

The direction of Lee Tamahori is for the most part successful, though I am not a fan of the stop-motion technique he employed at various times. It works in the right circumstances but not in a James Bond film. But here does a nice job of providing the viewer the ambience of the locations involved, particularly the scenes evoking Cuba.

Toby Stephens and Rick Yune play the primary villains. Stephens has a face you'll feel you've seen elsewhere. He portrays Gustav Graves, a magnet for attention, and adopted by the British as one of their own. This is similar in theme to the Hugo Drax character of Ian Fleming's "Moonraker." I felt sorry for Yune, an attractive actor made to portray a scarred assassin named Zao. Yune deserved an enhanced role, and sparkles whenever he's on screen. Rosamund Pike enters the fray as Miranda Frost, a press agent for Graves. Her character is also a medal winning fencer, and an MI6 agent. She is capable in her role, though lacks the talent of previous Bond girl Sophie Marceau. That said, she is certainly a step above the acclaimed Halle Berry. Berry got butts in the seats for the film, and did win an unexpected Academy Award for "Monster's Ball." But her Jinx Jordan, "is she good or bad?" character, is a pitifully one-dimensional role, acted poorly. I don't know if Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the film's writers, inserted Jinx's retort of "Your mama," or if it was ad-libbed and added later, but as bad as the line is, it is worse with Berry's Shaft-like delivery. In her introduction to Bond, she explains the nickname "Jinx" originated as a result of being born on Friday the thirteenth. Unfortunately she delivers the line like a thirteen year-old.

While one can debate her physical merits, Halle Berry is significantly less charismatic than Rosamund Pike, whose character, ironically, is written as cold and distant. Jinx comes off that way without intention. I am totally disappointed with Berry's lackluster performance. She drags the movie down in a way that Denise Richards never did, which is especially disappointing since Richards was never promoted as more than eye candy. Halle Berry was supposed to be something more. She isn't.

The returning regulars are in fine form. Brosnan and Judi Dench have great chemistry, and this M is every bit the equal to her predecessors. Some non-fanatical fans told me M's initial scene with Bond in this outing seemed too cold and mean. They don't know how M is supposed to be.

This film has, for me, about as terrific a Moneypenny scene as seen in the series. Samantha Bond is comfortable in the role, and while she doesn't have a scene in the usual fashion, she is unforgettable this go-round. 'Penny has pined for Bond so long, just as the audience has, and an expression of that fact is fitting.

John Cleese assumes the mantle of the late (and beloved) Desmond Llewelyn. Note that Bond early in their scene calls him "Quartermaster", and by the end can comfortably, and respectfully, refer to him as "Q". Cleese has won me over in the role, which surprises me. He can spar with Bond as one would expect, but he easily is the exasperated straight man in the traditional style as well. The Q scene is a standout of the film, and had the audience rolling from start to finish. There is no slight of Llewelyn at all. For those expecting a mention, however, other than quoting his most famous line, the new Q does not explain Major Boothroyd's whereabouts. Nor is there a dedication in the credits. There was a dedication to Llewelyn included on the release of the home video of The World Is Not Enough, so I am not surprised.

As this is the fortieth anniversary of the series, look for some homages to previous films. They did a nice job of keeping it cute without going overboard. My favorite was Q noting that Bond just received his twentieth Q Brach watch, as this is the twentieth EON-produced Bond film. David Arnold can be considered the official successor to John Barry, scoring his third consecutive film. This time out he unfortunately produces his least exciting work. It isn't a frightful soundtrack, a la Eric Serra's GoldenEye, but it shares a blandness along the likes of Moonraker. There is nothing particularly memorable this time out, but the score serves the movie very well.

The film looks great, excepting for a particularly noticeable CGI design as Bond crashes into a glacier. The teaser seems to do it also, during a surfing scene, though the "blue screen" techniques of actual Brosnan shots are above average. While CGI works fine in the titles sequence, EON should stop relying on it for action in the film. It is obvious and detracts from any tension or excitement. smart.

Daniel Kleinman continues the fine legacy with his title sequences that compares positively with Robert Brownjohn and Maurice Binder. For Die Another Day, he uses shots of Brosnan to further the plot within the titles. Enjoy the visual. I shrugged to notice that Madonna's insipid techno-laced track was given more screen time than in the last few films (particularly the edit of the most important line in Garbage's theme), but as it carried along the story, I accept it. I know some people appreciate Madonna's effort. Fine. Just don't let it happen again.

All in all, Die Another Day is full of positives and is a lot of fun. The only question of pacing comes in the middle section. I have seen reviews (even here at HMSS) suggesting the movie's tone is lost immediately after the Q scene. I don't actually agree with that. But the movie loses heart once Graves begins trying to eradicate Bond over the glacier. Because at that point, intelligent, even sharp dialogue, takes a backseat to numbing action. But the final scenes have their moments.

Should Pierce Brosnan go through with a fifth and final Bond film, as indications seem to suggest, he would be wise to continue pressing for good lines and real stories. We are living through a (second) golden age of James Bond in the cinema. Bond himself has lived to die another day.

Copyright © 2002 Michael Reed