With Graves and Xao Bond plays cat-and-mouse on island just off Cuba, in a London fencing club, on a souped-up Korean cargo plane, and in the aforementioned ice palace. In the bedroom Bond must play cat-and-mouse with Jinx and an icy beauty named Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), both of whom cannot be trusted. Darker elements of �Die Another Day� include a title sequence in which Bond is taken prisoner for fourteen months by a renegade Korean general and beaten daily.
Back are Bond�s ever irate but forgiving supervisor M (Judi Dench) and the equally irate spy gizmo designer Q (lanky comic genius John Cleese, stealing every scene he�s in). As Jinx, Berry doesn�t take things very seriously, and always seems to have her eyes only half-open around Bond, as if a little voice in her mind keeps saying �is this guy for real?� Like Jinx and all Bond movies, �Die Another Day� has a sense of humor about itself. Doctors confirm Bond�s identity after he is rescued from Korea by the condition of his alcohol-blasted liver, and when Xao offers Mr. Kill a pistol to dispatch a chained-up Jinx, Kill scoffs at the idea with the words �I use laser� before firing up an infinitely more complicated industrial-strength laser.
Cries are always being made for Bond to �update,� especially now with the success of Vin Diesel in the 007-knockoff �XXX.� In some ways Bond has updated�his gizmos, guns, soundtrack, and the flavor of the villains out to conquer the world�but in most ways he�s fine just the way he is. Whatever passing fads that could be considered updating would only die out in a few years and make 007 look dated. Deep down we know that every trendy thing XXX represents�extreme sports, tattoos, leather jackets�will become pass�, while nicely-tailored tuxedos, fast cars, good wine, and Bond�s always impeccable haircut will take a lot longer to go out of style. As for his sexism and womanizing, well, somehow that�s just funnier now that it�s less acceptable than in the 1960s.
Maybe after I�ve seen �Die Another Day� a time or two more it will gain the comfort and familiarity of so many of its older brothers, and the pacing won�t bother me. With all the money �Die Another Day� has made it doesn�t look like the Bond franchise is going to die any day soon. I�ll drink to that.
Finished December 10th, 2002
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