Die Another Day
Cast
Pierce Brosnan as Commander James Bond, Agent 007
Halle Berry as Jinx
Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves
Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost
Rick Yune as Zao
John Cleese as Q
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Rater #2 has Description and review
Rater #1
7/10. James Bond. Double O Zero....wait, strike that, 007.
Let's first talk about our acting in the little world of Bond. Pierce Brosnan was good as James Bond once again for his 4th outing. He might be getting old but I think he is starting to get the hang of his "British" job. Halle Berry was interesting as Jinx. Though she appeared that she was actually jinxed. Almost drowning in water, getting almost sliced and diced in half, and other assortments. At first glance, it would appear Halle Berry was a bad guy and that Miranda Frost was good. The tables do slide don't they? I liked Miranda Frost, who is played by Rosamund Pike. She seemed good by being a fellow MI6 agent but she sure turned the tables on James. John Cleese as the new Q was interesting. I liked the old Q better but I guess John will have to do.
Now, let's talk about camera angles. I really liked the camera movement in most of the film, but their were some things that brought down the movie. I personally, and they people viewing the movie that I was with, agreed that the slow motion shots did not go well with the movie. They seemed too much like the Matrix in a bad way. The movie would have much been better placed if they were without these shots.
The things Q develops are extremely good. The watch always comes standard even though James has run through about 23 of them over the years. All the little engine packs and knife shoes. But there's one thing that always catches our eye. The cars. Q branch always comes up with something imaginative. Even this time we're amazed with the new invisible car. Though I thought there were slight problems with it. The design used cameras that sensed the surroundings and made it look invisible, but the cameras couldn't have done that by just looking around. They basicly would have had to be pointed in wars to get an effect. Though the car cameras aren't expained that much in detail.
There were some other minor flaws that I saw when I watched. I was surprised that the British would leave James for 14 months without coming to get him. I thought that was pretty depressing. I felt bad for James. Another incident was when James and Gustav are in the plane with the windows blown out, everyone in the room gets sucked out except those two. You see them later standing up when they should have flown out the door. There was actually another scene before this when Jinx and James enter the ship and kill a couple people, the Koreans are wearing the exact same things as them. One last thing that I saw was the fact that if you got shocked with 100,000 volts of electircity, you would be dead. You would not struggle, you would be dead
The most ironic thing I find about this movie is that currently, as of 1/10/02, we are having problems with North Korea. Those are the bad guys in this film. It's almost as if the James Bond films predict the future.
All in all, this was a good film with good and plentiful car chases.
Rater #2
7/10. James Bond. Double 0 Agent. Parachutist. Rocket car driver.
Ornathologist. Surfer. Ice swimmer. Fencer. And many more on this
version of James Bond.
For his fourth outing as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan shows us that he
can be strong as Bond. This time, Bond is captured in Korea and
tortured for 14 months. He gets released in exchange for a traitor,
Zao (Rick Yune). He meets up with Jinx, played by Halle Berry. The
two go off to Iceland to track a terrorist, Gustav Graves (Toby
Stephens). Exotic locations and non-stop action ensue.
Not being a gigantic Bond fan (love the Goldeneye video game but only
have seen one other film), I can't really compare this to others. The
action was almost non-stop with fun to spare. The special FX didn't
really seem that visible compared to most blockbusters. The invisible
car seemed "stolen" from I Spy, but it was probably the other way
around. Bond got some pretty cool gadgets to work with, including a
glass-shattering ring and the invisible Aston-Martin.
You can tell all of the product placement plagued from other
companies. Bond is being chased in his Aston-Martin by a Jaguar after
using a Norelco shaver, etc. That kind of stands aside, though.
Brosnan was very good as Bond. I think that he could go on for at
least two more Jimmy Bond movies. Halle Berry, whom I love a lot, is
also great as Jinx (soon to become a spin-off movie), but if more
insight had been given into her character it would have been great.
Stephens underplays his role, though menacing enough. It couldn't be
a Bond film, though, if the bad guy didn't go for the "slow but
painful" death that has become a trademark.
The locations were very beautifully shot, traveling from Korea to
Cuba to, where the majority of the film takes place, Iceland. I've
always liked icy conditions (don't ask why) so I thought this would
be fun (especially with a car chase on it). It was. Seeing two weapon-
packed sports cars go after each other on two-feet-thick ice is my
idea of having a good time.
Madonna sings a truly terrible song in the beginning, with a subpar
opening credits sequence, though FX ridden. She, unfourtanetly, also
has a cameo as a fencing instructor. But, you've got to take the bad
with the good.
The twentith Bond film doesn't lack on fun at all, continuing the
tongue-in-cheek humor that it had before, and is definately a high
seven on my list.
Rater #3
6/10. It was pretty good. Pierce Brosnan was a good James Bond. As in all James Bond movies, it has a slight plot that's hard to follow, unless your paying close attention. The special effects and fight scenes were amazing, and it was action packed. It got really good in the end. Q, the scientist who makes all the high-tech weapons and stuff, was pretty funny. I liked this movie, but probably wouldn't see it again. Oh yeah, and I think James needs to be tested for AIDS.
Rater #4
7/10 This was the first Bond movie I'd ever seen. Pierce Brosnan fits the Bond character really well. The screenplay was pretty good and the flecks of humor were very fitting. The action and special effects were awesome. The plot was kind of odd, pretty creative, and I heard it enraged North and South Korea (first time the two countries have been unified in some way in over 50 years). The laser scene was pretty cool, and so was Bond's car. I agree with Rater #3, the illicit sex gets old. That'd be funny if in the next movie he gets an STD and his skin is all blotchy . . .
This Movie was given an overall rating of about 7/10.
Rated PG-13 for action violence and sexuality.
Running time: 132 minutes
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