Die Another Day (Ultimate Edition) (DVD)

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The plot of Die Another Day revolves Bond being captured whilst on an undercover mission in Korea, he is held by the Koreans for a total of 14 months. Eventually he gets traded by the British Government for Zao. A terrorist who originally blew Bond's cover which in turn meant 007 was captured. Being held by the British Government as a traitor, Bond escapes and goes on the search for Zao, to discover exactly who betrayed him to the Koreans. ...
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The word Die has been used far too much in the films as well, and that's down to the writers, Robert Wade and Neil Purvis have really given it their all and totally gone for the ultimate Bond adventure. What is delivered is a highly entertaining film but so far over the top in the last hour that when watched again for a second or third time(usually on ITV2) the film starts to look more like the Matt Helm films starring Dean Martin from ... more

Making a Bond film without any source material can prove to be a tricky exercise to complete, the simple reason is that you have to create everything from scratch. With this recipe for originality you have to also make sure that you don't repeat yourself from previous Bond outings and ensure that the story is punchy and fast moving.

The plot of Die Another Day revolves Bond being captured whilst on an undercover mission in Korea, he is held by the Koreans for a total of 14 months. Eventually he gets traded by the British Government for Zao. A terrorist who originally blew Bond's cover which in turn meant 007 was captured. Being held by the British Government as a traitor, Bond escapes and goes on the search for Zao, to discover exactly who betrayed him to the Koreans. What he uncovers is something totally unexpected.

Bond was held prisoner for 14 months which meant that he was not around at the time of the World Trade Centre. The same plot device was used in Superman Returns

This is one of the more aggressive starts to a Bond film, the fact that Bond is captured is not original, but to see him with beard and long hair after 14 months of being held against his will is and this is new territory for the film. So much so, that the interrogation scene continues over the opening titles and song. There are a number of Bond moments in the film, which add nicely to the story. Probably the best one of these was Bond walking into a prestigious Hong Kong hotel, after swimming across Hong Kong Harbour to escape from the British Government, in blue pyjamas with long hair and beard, soaking wet from head to toe and asking for his usual room! They even recognise him as well. Other moments include Bond walking into a Cigar factory and identifying himself as a sleeper agent and the hardcore sword fight between Gustav Graves and Bond in the Blades Club.

This is Brosnan's fourth film as James Bond, and in it he shows how comfortable he is in the role of 007 and how the scripts have been tailored to suit his method of acting rather than Brosnan upping the tempo, his appearance is fit and still looks good, if not better than Tomorrow Never Dies, in the obligatory Tuxedo. At the start of the film you feel that Bond has been beaten and it is a fresh feeling to feel completely sorry for the character instead of knowing that he is going to win every time. In parts Brosnan is far more aggressive than previous outing and also receives a beaten throughout the film as well.

The Bond Girl of the film is Jinx, played by Halle Berry. I have to ask what the hell is an actress of this calibre is doing in a film like this as I was very surprised about her being cast as the co-star and female lead. We are introduced to the character by using a well known "walking out of the sea" method that was originally used with Ursula Andress in Dr No. This was a nod back to that film and works well with Berry in an orange two piece swim suit. Berry's acting ability far surpasses that of almost everyone in the cast apart from Dench. Although the character of Jinx is feisty to say he least and channels her anger with the correct focus, you do tend to feel that there is something is holding her back, I can only think that this was the script itself.

Toby Stephens plays Gustav Graves, a millionaire diamond mogul that little is known about, yet Bond has the habit of keep bumping into this person as part of the assignment he is assigned. Stephans plays this character in such an over the top manner that you think your watching Jack Nicholson from Batman rather than a Bond film. I thought personally he was a little too young for the part in the film, but delivers a creepy and very greasy depiction. You see him push himself to win at everything; this is especially poignant in the Blades swordfight between Bond and Gustav Graves which goes into quite some granularity of showing the extremes that both men will go to. After a long competitive bout it is Bond that wins, but only just which annoys Graves immensely and opens up more of the story.

Rounding off the cast is Dame Judy Dench as M and John Cleese as the new Q, Dench is always good money and fulfilled her part early in the film by chastising Bond in Hong Kong while held by the Government. She has shown in the previous three films that she can stand her ground with Bond and in this one shows that she still has faith in 007. Cleese as Q on the other hand I think is one of the failings of the film; where as you had the legendary Desmond Llewellyn take the part seriously, Cleese does the exact opposite and plays the part full of witty put downs and catty remarks. Okay I can understand why this is done as he is the new Q, but I just didn't like the way in which he is played by Cleese. There are other cast members such as Rosamund Pike who plays Miranda Frost, she plays an interesting character and that is all I will say about that one!

Madonna also makes a cameo appearance in the film as Verity, a Fencing trainer. The part could have been played by anyone at all, it's just so happens that Madonna who sang the title song of the film has been given a cameo part. Her scene is completely under lit and leaves her looking rather butch. By the way the title song is not one of the memorable ones in the series and can be quite annoying after hearing it a few times.

Released in 2002, the film marked the 40th Anniversary of the franchise. The Gun Barrel sequence was adjusted slightly, a number of reference to all previous films were made throughout the film itself, the most obvious one being in the scene with the new Q where a whole scope of gadgets from previous adventures are seen. , and the use of the Aston Martin made a welcome and long overdue return to the screen as Bond's car of choice as the BMW's were not used in the film at all. The Aston Martin is put to much more use than previous film as Bond uses the car throughout the film for all reasons as the car is able to turn invisible. Yes I said invisible. This is the other reason why the film doesn't really work in some places, the gadgets that have been issued aren't that believable in the film and are a little too far ahead of today's technology, well look at it this way... have you seen an invisible car lately? The obvious answer is no, as you wouldn't see an invisible car anyway, but my point is that the film should reflect technology that is one step ahead of today and not reflect technology that is a next generation gap ahead and this for me spoilt it somewhat.

Director Lee Tamahori introduced a new style to Bond, he uses time shifts throughout the film that help us get a visualisation of the landscape or set piece of movement in either slow or fast motion. He has shown that with the use of CGI that landscapes can be produced to show off a film, in reality the locations he has used on the film range from Central London to the Eden Project to Finland, all are used well in the film, yet are used to an extent that you don't actually realise where they are till you see then listed in the end credits. The film contains a lot of action sequences from the initial Hovercraft chase at the beginning of the film to the climatic and very loud climactic sequence of the film, and although these are full on adrenalin pumping action sequences you do tend to feel by the end of it that it has been full of action and entertainment yet no substance, if this got any heavier then it would start to turn into a pantomime and yet even though the film almost reaches that line, surprisingly somehow it doesn't cross it.

The word Die has been used far too much in the films as well, and that's down to the writers, Robert Wade and Neil Purvis have really given it their all and totally gone for the ultimate Bond adventure. What is delivered is a highly entertaining film but so far over the top in the last hour that when watched again for a second or third time(usually on ITV2) the film starts to look more like the Matt Helm films starring Dean Martin from the 1960's than a modern day action adventure film. The first hour of the film is pure unadulterated James Bond; it is what happens when Bond is re-instated as 007 and is given his assignment from M that the film goes off into cloud cuckoo land. The second half is by the book formulaic Bond and although there is a noticeable two parts to the story the first part has more class and style than the second, which also has far too much product placement that is less than subtle with its presentation.

This was to become Pierce Brosnan's last outing as 007, something he didn't know anything about at the time of shooting as his expectations were that he would be there for a fifth film as 007. The decision was made that the next film would be Casino Royale and a new younger Bond would be required. Brosnan was 48 at the time. In hindsight rebooting the 007 franchise was not a bad idea as the continuation of the "next film must be bigger" ideology had to be put down sooner rather than later.

Overall I'm very hit and miss about this film, I did go to the cinema to see it when it was released and felt that the film didn't work on some levels as much as I thought it would do, especially with it being the 40th anniversary as well.
 

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