Amazon.co.uk: Die Another Day [2002]: Pierce Brosnan|Halle Berry|Rosamund Pike, Lee Tamahori: Video

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
The 20th "official" 007 outing released in the 40th anniversary year of the series, Die Another Day is big, loud, spectacular, slick, predictable and as partially satisfying as most Bond movies have been for the last 30 years. Pierce Brosnan gives his best Bond performance to date, forced to suffer torture by scorpion venom administered by a North Korean dominatrix during the Madonna-warbled credits song. He traipses from Cuba to London to Iceland while feuding with a smug insomniac millionaire (Toby Stephens), who admits that he's an evil parody of Bond's own personality. There are many nods to the past: Halle Berry recreates Ursula Andress's entrance from Dr No, the gadget-packed car (which can become invisible) is a Goldfinger-style Aston Martin (albeit a brand-new model), the baddie's line in smuggled "conflict gems" and super-weapons derives from Diamonds Are Forever and the jet-pack from Thunderball can be seen in Q's lab.

It's the longest of the franchise to date (two-and-a-quarter hours) and the first to augment stunts and physical effects with major CGI, though the best fight is traditional: a polite club fencing match between Brosnan and Stephens that gets out of hand and turns into a destructive hack-and-slash fest with multiple edged weapons. Berry may be the first Bond girl with an Oscar on her shelf, but she's still stuck with a bad hairdo as well as having to endure 007's worst chat-up lines. Amazingly, most of the old things here do still work, though it's a shame that director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) wasn't given a better script to play with.

On the DVD: Die Another Day arrives on disc in a transfer that makes some of the CGI look less dodgy than it did in cinemas. The first disc includes two separate commentaries: an interesting, enthusiastic technical one with Tamahori and producer Michael Wilson, and a blander drone from Brosnan with input from "bad girl" actress Rosamund Pike. On Disc Two the main extra is "Inside Die Another Day", a 75-minute making-of with the usual 007 DVD extra mix of boosterism and solid background how-the-hell-they-did-it info. The "Region 2 exclusive" turns out to be another making-of, a video diary effort that takes a more interesting, wry approach to the mix of enterprise and chaos that is the Bond production machine. --Kim Newman

Synopsis
James Bond after being imprisoned and tortured in North Korea for over a year, wins his freedom when M bargains for his release. Out for revenge Bond is hot on the heels of Zao, the agent who captured him and Gustav Graves, a unscrupulous tycoon who threatens the safety of the entire world...

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

O dear!, 4 April 2005

By	Mr. A. S. T. Bateman (Halifax, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Die Another Day [2002] (DVD)

This has to be the worst bond film. I am convinced the only reason for its existence is to remind us how good the others are. Indeed, even the hitherto "weaker" bond films are infinitely better than this! Bond films have always stretched believeability for their audiences, but many of the gadgets used in earlier entries (the bleeper in "Russia With Love", the tracker in "Goldfinger", the underwater camera in "Thunderball" and the memo receiving watch in "The Spy Who Loved Me" to name a few) are now readily available but the invisible car is quite simply absurd. I know that some people will argue that the military are actually working on such a vehicle. Well, be that as it may, such a thing does not belong in a Bond film in 2002!

However, the biggest problems I have with this film are to do with two more conventional aspects. Firstly, the performaces. Tobey Stephens is as engaging and as threatening as the movie's villain as Postman Pat would have been, Halle Berry simply shouldn't have bothered and even Pierce Brosnan, in my opinion the most over rated actor to play Bond anyway looks like he's going through the motions. The only high point is Rosamund Pike who fits in very nicely alongside the previous icy, confident yet flawed femme fatales of the franchise.

The second issue is the awful CGI. In parts, the film looks like a Pixar Animation (no insult intended to Pixar!) Bring back the kind of real stunts performed by real people (skiing off a clifftop (Spy Who Loved Me), waterskiing without skis to catch up with the plane(Licence to Kill), falling out of a plane without a parachute (Moonraker). These are what defined the Bond films to generations of film fans and they must return if the franchise is to stand out from other action films.

However much you are going to be charged to buy this film, its worth paying twice that NOT to bother.

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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

mixed feelings...., 24 Feb 2003

By	M J Birch - See all my reviews

This review is from: Die Another Day [2002] (DVD)

I find it really hard to sustain a consistent opinion on this film - it is both entertaining and plain daft!
I'm not a massive Bond film but at the same time I quite like watching many of the films, so I am fairly objective.
Good points: well, clearly it is very entertaining and the gadgets are on a higher level (invisible car anyone?!).
Bond being a prisoner for so long could be a good development in his character - I thought it might give a more 3D feel to his character and make him more serious, though didn't quite work.
If you don't expect too much, it is visually entertaining and contains the usual terrible one liners from Bond!
BUT overall, probably not as good as I hoped it might be. His spell in the Korean prison impressively fused his agony with Madonna's song and video (honest!), and yet when released he looked exactly the same (bar a stupidly short beard). This clearly had no impact on his character or the film and so confused me. Now I know people will argue that Bond is not supposed to be a deep character, but I think he is becoming as daft as Roger Moore made Bond to be in the end. Timothy Dalton did well to turn Bond into a more serious (and effective?) Bond, and the Korean episode should have hardened Brosnan somewhat.
Equally disappointing was halle berry, very one dimensional, not a lot required of her in the film, just an annoying smile. After swordfish, I hoped she wouldn't be taking the types of roles where she is required to smile and pout a lot. In fact, the double crossing female agent is more effective in her role.
Forget the far fetched scenes and gadgets - it is James Bond, after all! - just a pity that the first part of the film had little bearing on the rest.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Pleasant surprise, 25 May 2003

By	Mr. A. P. Venables "andi02" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Die Another Day [2002] (DVD)

When I'd heard all the comments about the films dodgy CGI and a silly second half I wasn't anxious to see it. However in my view this is the best Bond since Licence to Kill.

It starts off wonderfully with some of the finest action in years and probably one of most powerful starts to any Bond film. By the time the credits role you get the impression that the large gap between this and the last Bond film did the filmakers a lot of good. The film feels fresh and exciting pushing the character of Bond in a bold new direction. Brosnan gives a wonderfully assured performance and Lee Tamahori's crisp direction gives the film a gritty realistic quality. The ending is a bit over the top but this film is far more exciting than the other Brosnan entries.

In ten years time I reckon that this will be the film Brosnan will be most proud of.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Truly woeful
This really is a truly terrible piece of amateurish drivel; it's so bad it's not even funny. Without a doubt it features the weakest of all the Bond themes - Madonna's title theme... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Alistair McArthur

is this a joke?
this is so bad its untrue, ruined only slightly more by halle berrys atrocious acting! still, bronson looks good with a beard!

Published 8 months ago by Mr. G. Bywater

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