Die Another Day

James McMahon -- Brosnan ascends to sit at Connery's right hand with his performance here. Had the second half of the film been as good as the first, this film would be rated much higher on this list, but invisible cars, recycled death-ray satellites and cartoon CGI, severely demote an otherwise terrific Bond film. Tom Zielinski -- Pierce Brosnan once again delivers a perfectly tough, suave, and witty performance. As this is to be his last turn as James Bond, he left on a high note. Brosnan´s tone and straight-forward approach is perfect, and the rest of the film follows nicely. Neal Purvis´ and Robert Wade´s screenplay includes some elements as non-formulaic as ever seen in the series. The credits sequence depicts Bond captured by the villain, I mean seriously captured, and tortured and imprisoned for a considerable time. Good stuff. New Zealander Lee Tamahori directs; his approach suits the film and character well. Danny Kleinman's title design may be the best of the entire series, and David Arnold´s score works well. Halle Berry is gorgeous, though her casting took some of the essential focus from Bond. She is not a highlight of the film, nor is some of her supposedly improvised ghetto dialogue. A couple other niggles are the invisible Vanquish, Madonna´s cameo, and the indefensible CGI. But the first hour of Die Another Day is terrific, the rest is pretty damn good, and (when released) this is the best James Bond movie since 1969. Paul Baack -- After a magnificent, brilliant first half, the film belly flops when the action moves to Greenland and Rupert Grave's Ice Palace. Even so, the flaws are more those of execution rather than of conception, highlighted (lowlighted?) by unbelievably shoddy CGI special effects. (As this was the big 40th anniversary production, maybe they were trying to pay tribute to the history of crappy SFX in the James Bond series?) The film seems peppered with bad decision-making; allowing Halle Berry to act like a barely-in-control sociopath with an associative disconnect disorder, allowing director Lee Tamahori to play with speed-ramped cameras to the extent he did, using Madonna's bizarre techno theme song instead of scrapping it in favor of... almost anything else. This movie is 85% good stuff, but the 15% bad stuff is so hugely bad that it drags what could have been an excellent Bond film down to the level of, at best, a mediocrity. It's doubly sad in that this proved to be Pierce Brosnan's swan song as James Bond. What a waste.

Bill Koenig -- A very strong first half resembles Fleming (and in many ways was modeled on the author's Moonraker novel). The second half is nonstop action, flawed in part by two sequences that rely heavy on computer-generated images. Perhaps Brosnan's best performance as Bond. Still, the first time I saw the film I felt more exhausted than elated. I may still be judging the movie too harshly, but first impressions are important. The movie is a big hit, so what do I know, anyway? Ed Werner -- This is a tough one. There is so much that is right about the first half of this movie and so much that is wrong with the second half, that it's almost as if they were written by different people who never communicated. The pre-title sequence is very Bond. The visuals for the titles done by Daniel Kleinman are sublime - Bond just gets the crap beat out of him. A stunning and vigorous start for any Bond movie. Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves has got to be one of the best villains in the entire series (lets not talk about his Icarus control/body armor at this point - it's not Stephens fault). Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost is inspired, as is Rick Yune as Zao - a truely worthy henchman. Then there is Halle Berry... I know she can act, I've seen it! But what she did to the character of Jinx is beyond words. Something happens to the movie at about the half way point, when they get to the ice palace. It then just starts to turn into a comic book. I was really looking forward to seeing Bond behind the wheel of an Aston Martin again, in retrospect, now I'm not so sure. In the past, some of the cinematic values of the Bond series have been seriously lacking (rear projection) which is really unforgivable. Now they have decided to try CGI and they still can't get it right. I've seen special effects on television that were more convincing. Overall, the Bondian elements in this move are so good that it's almost possible to overlook its massive flaws. Almost.... Robert Cotton -- The first half is the best Bond film since TLD, possibly since OHMSS. The second half is Roger Moore light and barely passable. Michael Reed -- A modern day Octopussy, half and half. The first half is a masterpiece, and shows Bond's character with and without words. The horrible second half is a Vin Diesel film with a better looking lead. Berry is dreadful and completely out of synch with everyone around her. Stephens give a nice performance and should've been given better scenes in the climactic end.