James Bond - Die Another Day

It is very easy to be cynical about the James Bond film franchise whose formula has remained largely unchanged for the last 28 years. The only real differences are that the action and stunts have become more spectacular and the Bond girls kick more ass.

The ingredients for a modern Bond film:

Lots of stunts

Cool cars

Independent and sexy women

At least 3 international locations per film

Commercial tie-ins - e.g. Nokia, BMW etc...

Highly fanciful Gadgets

A politically correct villain, invariably a power crazed English man

A title sequence that belongs in the Tate modern

Lots of innuendo

Some witty (read cheesy) one liners

National stereotypes - The British do it by the book, and are boring (except Bond), the Americans are all Havana smoking, Hawaiian shirt wearing dudes and dudettes, the Russians are usually drunk. East Europeans and Koreans (in this case) are unpredictable, fanatical and often mad.

Bond is vulnerable, bond is rebellious, Bond really has gone too far this time…

‘Die another day’ has all that lot and more…

The plot revolves around a mad man intent on harnessing the power of the sun to take over the world. Pierce Brosnan is his usual exceptionally handsome charismatic self, and he cruises through this movie on a wave of cool.

At the start of the film Bond is actually captured behind enemy lines, and we see him being tortured. Of course his resolve doesn’t crack but we do see him looking like Ben Gunn, sporting a whooping beard. He escapes unscathed physically and psychologically, and as it tuns out his torturer is a sexy Korean army woman, but it was none-the-less refreshing to see Bond in a situation where he was vulnerable and infact completely helpless.

The stunts are in the main are very good. I particular liked it when Bond surfed on a huge wave into Korea at the start of the movie. There is one stinker though, that is when Bond kite surfs off of an iceberg. It looks very computer generated indeed…

Miss Money Penny, Q, and M all feature as you would expect. Judy Dench is fine, John Clease is fine. Hally Berry as Jinx is very good, suitably sassy and sexy injecting some cool kung fu action and a high proportion of the one liners.

Madonna makes a cameo role as a naughty fencing instructor, its good to see her in the film even though her acting in it is pretty bad.

The story has some lose ends that are never resolved, and there is a twist to the plot but unfortunately it comes pretty early on in the film so the end drags a bit.

Having said that it is an entertaining film, it is what you expect from a Bond film. Unlike Bond pretenders like XXX and Mission Impossible, James Bond has a reasonably intelligent and coherent plot, and Pierce Brosnan is very likeable in the lead. It is funny, cool, and impressive to watch, suspend disbelief and you will enjoy it.

Jamie O'Connell