Everything old is new again in Die Another Day,
the twentieth (official) James Bond movie in forty
years. Quite a healthy output, and this latest
offering suggests that 007 shouldn’t fear retirement
anytime soon. Loud, aggressive, and highly
entertaining, it provides plenty of exciting set
pieces, a juicy plot (especially for Bond) and the
lovely look Halle Berry as a Bond
girl-turned-sidekick, the feisty American agent Jinx.
What’s not to love?
Before the Madonna title song, Bond tries to
sabotage a diamond exchange in North Korea. He meets
some mean Koreans, including the brutal Zao (Rick Yuen).
With muted colors and mud everywhere, one might think
this film is too gloomy to be a Bond. But director Lee
Tamahori is just keeping you on your toes by throwing
a few twists into the old formula. Bond wins but,
gasp!, gets captured and stuck a North Korean prison.
Then we hit the titles and for a change they actually
help further the story, as weird fire and ice
creatures play around images of an increasingly
haggard Brosnan, he’s menaced by scorpions and stern
Asian women.
This is just a little too kinky for Bond, so he
eventually is returned to the West, and the chase for
Zao is on. We follow Bond to Cuba and warmer climes
(and a score that transposes the classic theme onto
some Latin rhythms) where he meets Jinx. The other
major players include Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a
shady industrialist who is a cat choice away from
megalomania, and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) his
aptly-named P.R. manager. All these people get thrown
into a plot agitator, and we watch as they fight and
trade quips and sleep with each other.
It might sound a tad lame, but Tamahori’s
direction of this very willing cast is so energetic
that he manages to smooth out the bumpy spots and pump
up the fun in the script’s (written by Neal Purvis
and Robert Wade) numerous action sequences. Since Bond
is typically a stagnant character, it’s nice to see
the plot push him in unusual ways, and showing us why
he’s still the best secret agent in the world (For
one, it appears that nothing on earth can make him
talk, except a really hot babe, of course). The story
has plenty of surprises without ever becoming
convoluted, and it even offers enough to clues to
allow the audience to feel really smart when they
figure out the puzzle just before Bond does.
I’ve read that the film cost about $120 million
dollars to make; if so, it was largely well-spent. The
climax features Bond and Zao in a sly souped-up car
chase, a classic case of grown-up boys and their
absurdly expensive toys, playing a highly explosive
version of “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.”
As if the chase, set on a giant sheet of ice wasn’t
enough, the two eventually wind their way into a
melting palace of ice. Absurd and excessive, but also
fun.
The film does go on a bit too long, and the formula
for Bond women is not spiced up as much as the hype
would lead us to believe. Jinx does kick ass, sure,
and it’s nice to see, but just like most of the last
decade’s Bond movies Bond bags two chicks, one who
looks good and turns out to be bad and vice versa.
Granted we’re not talking about a Sherlock Holmes
mystery here, but these stories’ tricks are getting
a bit too easy to spot.
Still, there’s no denying Brosnan owns the role
now. Looking a very spry almost-50, he leaps, flies,
drives, surfs, drinks, and puns his way through the
film always looking in control and frequently looking
like’s having a jolly old time. And why not? He’s
certainly the most accepted Bond since Sean Connery
originated the role, and his Bond flicks, if sometimes
underwhelming, have made plenty of cash for parent
company MGM. Die Another Day is easily his best
effort yet, and he’s still got at least one more
film to make before he hands off the tux and martini
to another suave gentleman. Because, let’s face it,
it would take an act of God himself to stop this
series. Hopefully most of them will be as well-made as
this one. As "M" might say, good work 007.
