Die Another Day: Review By slysnide

After a brief hiatus after three films being produced over nearly five years, the producers got underway with a film which would mark the fortieth anniversary of the franchise, and to add to the celebration, screenwriters Neal Purvis & Robert Wade alluded to many previous Bond films in the franchise, most notably "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) with the plot & themes of international diamond smuggling for a large laser equipped satellite, and a fight scene seemingly lifted straight from Bond's duel with Chang in "Moonraker" (1979). The numerous other allusions I'll get to later all make for a spectacular tribute to the nineteen films preceding it, and while going a bit overboard in CGI at times, still manages to come through as a rousing, entertaining thrill ride reminiscent of the classic Bond films.

A cast was quickly assembled out of up and coming names in the business, such as Toby Stephens for the lead villain Gustav Graves, Rick Yune for the terrorist Zao, and Rosamund Pike for one of the new Bond girls, MI6 agent Miranda Frost. For the leading lady, the screenwriters invented a character just like Wai Lin from "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) in Halle Berry's NSA agent Jinx. With Pierce Brosnan returning for the final time as the popular british super spy, and the producers having finally acquired the film rights to Ian Fleming's first Bond novel "Casino Royale" (1953) in 1999, then it was very apparent to all the cast & crew that this film had to be an extra special sendoff as it was clear the producers intended to reboot the franchise in the upcoming twenty-first film. With regular cast members returning, including 'R' (John Cleese) is his first solo run as Bond's quartermaster, and Samantha Bond's final performance as Moneypenney, then everything was picture perfect. As usual with the franchise, a lesser known director was chosen: New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori.

In his twentieth adventure, secret agent 007 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) finds himself betrayed while on a mission pursing an international diamond smuggling ring at a DMZ in North Korea, resulting in fourteen months imprisonment & torture, finally ending with a prisoner exchange between he and the terrorist Zao (Rick Yune). In a quest to clear his name before 'M' (Judi Dench) can deal out discipline, Bond finds himself trailing Zao at a gene therapy clinic in Havanna, Cuba, which gets him into mischief with NSA agent Jinx (Halle Berry), who's own mission will lead Bond to Iceland where an old foe will return with vengeance. But how does the Icarus satellite demonstration put on by diamond magnate Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) figure into this plot? Just what was Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee) doing with conflict diamonds on a DMZ? Why would a terrorist be affiliating with such a meager operation? And why the hell would a billionaire diamond magnate like Graves be hanging around a geeky russian scientist (Vladimir Popov) so much? The answers to these questions may surprise you as to just how far reaching the writers got with the story, nearly stretching the ream of believability too far. But with all the allusions to the classic Bond films, it overall comes out as acceptable for bringing back the fantasy in the long run.

Production began on 11 January 2002 at Pinewood Studios in England. However, a smaller unit shot the opening stunt of the film at Maui's famed Jaws waves off the north coast in December 2001. La Caleta, Spain stood in for Havanna, Cuba and the fictional Isla Los Organos, while the 007 Stage stood in for Gustav Graves' enormous Ice Hotel, which was built to scale in the stage. The set by production designer Peter Lamont was reminiscent of his and Ken Adam's prior sets in the franchise, and was elegant for it. Despite the USAF base and aircraft prominently featured in the film, they were all british planes at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, England. As for the Switchblades Bond & Jinx use to skydive into North Korea undetected, rather than get the experts who invented the real version of them, called PHASSTs (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport) to perform the daredevil stunt, it was filmed on chromakey at Pinewood Studios, along with a very poor rendition of Bond surfing giant waves among small icebergs, marking the first time special effects were visibly horribly handled. Thankfully, such CGI hasn't been utilized since then, or at least not in such an obvious manner. And as for the fictional Blades Club which has made numerous appearances in Ian Fleming's novels, the Reform Club in central London was used, which also stood in for several other english locations in the film, such as MI6 HQ, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and Westminster. A 20' wide remote controlled model was used for Graves' freight plane. Lastly, Halle Berry's daring cliff dive was shot in Cadiz, Spain, but it was so cold and windy that the shoot was almost intolerable for Berry, but she probably just kept telling herself "It's for a Bond film! It's for a Bond film! It's for a Bond film!" Also, debris from a smoke grenade got into her eye, and had to be surgically removed in a thirty minute operation. Fortunately, no other injuries plagued the production.

For the awesome gadget car ice chase involving Bond's Aston Martin V12 Vanquish & Zao's Jaguar XKR Convertible, action unit director Vic Armstrong had to rush production between countries before the ice sheets melted for the season, traveling first to Jokusarlon, Iceland which stood in for itself and had previously been used for the pre-title scene in "A View To A Kill" (1985). Svalbard & Jostedalsbreen National Park in Norway, and RAF Little Rissington, in Gloucestershire, England provided other brief portions of the chase. That particular action sequence was certainly a "why didn't I think of that" type of moment, as Bond's souped up car dueling another souped up car sounds elementary, but to date, they'd only featured it fending off regular vehicles. Yokohama's tire spikes had such good grip for driving on the ice that the points had to be shaven off each one as they drove on ice as well as they did on asphalt. The cinematography by David Tattersall was magnificent, and the editing by Christian Wagner (the first American Bond editor) tied it all together to become a thrilling chase which famed stunt coordinator and action unit director Vic Armstrong handled perfectly. It was easily among the best car chases the franchise has had to offer, and the pairing of hero & villain involved was perfect. Not to mention the use of pyrotechnics and practical effects over CGI for the chase, with the exclusion of the Vanquish's invisibility technology, cause yeah, 'R' was that intelligent this time around. Fortunately it was only briefly used in the chase so the sequence stands on its own and will for probably a very long time to come.

Yet again there's a proper balance of action and storytelling here. However, the action gets to be a bit too trying at times, with the laser satellite Icarus being almost too much to take, as such a satellite wasn't far fetched for Blofeld in 1971, but the logistics of it all comes into question in 2002. These analogies can be drawn for many of the major action sequences, most notably the freight plane climax. However, if we weren't bothered by such things in the films from decades past, then there's no logical reason to be bothered by it now, as I made a similar analogy about the mediocrity of plots from the sixties versus plots in the eighties, where the latter plots were far more logical, yet criticized more harshly simply because such things just weren't acceptable anymore. I for one don't let those things bother me when it comes to the Bond franchise, and it'd be pointless for me to go through each such instance in this film. However, I do concur that the poor CGI was too much to handle for a Bond film. While there is no clear cut rule that says you can't use it, the fact that it hadn't ever been used sort of implied it. And so, despite the CGI being considered good for its time, and great for other action films, it was highly criticized for being so prominently featured in a Bond film. Thankfully the producers have acknowledged that themselves and won't be doing it again, though some crept in "Quantum of Solace" (2008), but fortunately not as prominently. The notion of not doing real daredevil stunts anymore is depressing too, as with CGI almost any form of cinematic laziness is possible. Though with the recent leaps in CGI, perhaps it won't be as noticeable in the future even if they come to rely on it more.

As the allusions to Bond films past, the most obvious are in R's laboratory, consisting of several gadgets of significance from the earlier films. Other less noticeable nods would be the revocation of Bond's double 'O' status and license to kill which both happened in "License To Kill" (1989), or Graves guards uniforms matching those of Piz Gloria and his attempt to kill Bond via avalanche are both found in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). "From Russia With Love" (1963) is also referenced via a reproduction of a scene in which Mr. Chang (Ho Yi) is trying to get footage of Bond making love to his undercover agent Peaceful Fountains of Desire (Rachel Grant). And of course, Jinx's entrance is a clear cut reshoot of Honey Ryder's intro in "Dr. No" (1962). Likewise, the laser sequence with Mr. Kil (Lawrence Makoare) clearly references "Goldfinger" (1964). The pursuit of Zao in the gene therapy clinic and Bond meeting 'M' on a ship is taken from "The Man With The Golden Gun" (1974), while Bond casually eating fruits after a kill in the clinic echoes "Thunderball" (1965). The two major climatic set pieces being the car chase and freight plane sequence are reminiscent of "The Living Daylights" (1987), while a window being broken by a bullet causing people to fly out the window is directly lifted from "Goldfinger." Zao's 'expensive acne' is reminiscent of Janus' facial scarring from "GoldenEye" (1995)--both caused by Bond--while Bond actually sleeping with a gun under his pillow referenced a comment Paris Carver made in "Tomorrow Never Dies." Lastly, Jinx drives a Thunderbird which Felix Leiter did in "Goldfinger," while Bond drove a 1957 Ford Fairlane in Cuba which Count Lippe drove in "Thunderball." Non Bond references include the unique brainwashing sound heard in former Bond producer Harry Satlzman's film "The Ipcress File" (1965) being briefly heard at the gene therapy clinic. Even attempts at breaking the fourth wall are made when 'R' references Bond's new watch as his twentieth, and when Bond picks up ornithologist James Bond's book "Birds of the West Indies" (1936) it's directly referencing where Ian Fleming came up with the name while at GoldenEye in Jamaica back in 1952 when writing the first novel.

As for the cast, I didn't care for the snotty rich brit characterization of Gustav Graves. It was vastly unappealing, and he hid his lack of confidence by being more flashy. Although, these elements contribute to making him a more desp*cable villain, albeit for the wrong reasons. On the flip side of that, Will Yun Lee would've made a far better lead villain as Colonel Moon. The transformation and adaptation of a new identity was directly lifted from Fleming's portrayal of Hugo Drax in the novel "Moonraker" (1955), and both characters reinvent themselves in the same likeness with intentions to use a space weapon, though for different purposes. Moon's motive to be accepted by his father General Moon (Kenneth Tsang) by avenging his home country was noble, and a unique spin for a Bond villain, though it would've come across vastly better had Colonel Moon been portrayed in that climatic scene over Gustav Graves. Likewise, Rosamund Pike's performance as the overly typical MI6 agent was almost too dull to be believed, so it sort of gives away her allegiances early on. Her acting style didn't change in the latter parts of the film either. She was just overly typical of such an archetype all around that she wasn't that interesting. On the flip side of that however, Rick Yune's performance as Zao made for the best villain in the movie, and as far as henchmen are concerned, he easily holds his own against other memorable henchmen like Red Grant, Oddjob, Tee Hee, Baron Samedi, Nick Nack, Jaws, Gobinda, May Day, Xenia Onatopp, and Mr. Stamper. Or at least they are the most memorable to me. Lastly, Berry & Brosnan did fine, and had good chemistry, which was so good in fact, that the MPAA censored parts of the sex scene, which by the way was the first sex scene in a Bond film, as every other scene was either before sex, or mostly immediately after. However, Pierce Brosnan visibly appears too old at forty-nine to be paired romantically with thirty-six year old Halle Berry, but I got over it. The worst element by far was Madonna's title song, though it was unique for turning the main titles into a whole new scene, which had never been done as literally before, though had previously been explored figuratively with the main titles of "GoldenEye" representing the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When released, the $140,000,000 film grossed the highest revenue in the franchise at that time with $431,971,116 despite being met with mixed reviews. The CGI was heavily criticized, as was the outlandish plot and execution of the story. Although, as I mentioned, not all fans like myself were too bothered by it, taking this installment as the ultimate fantasy adventure in the 007 franchise to date, and it will probably be the last to feature Cold War undertones, as was the case with North Korea's portrayal in the film. We've yet to see the concept of such daring plots explored in the Craig Era which is currently show running the franchise, and I take it it'll be a hard sell for modern audiences to accept again. This film hit at just the right time, marking the end of the Brosnan Era, and an end to the glory days of Bond, as he's certainly taken off in a Jason Bourne like direction since then. Overall, I wish there were more Bond films under Brosnan's belt, for as I think on it, I prefer him to Daniel Craig as he represents a Bond akin to the Connery Era Bond who can have adventures as fantastical as ever. And at the end of the day, wasn't that the whole point Cubby was trying to make? Weren't Bond films made for the sake of being unrealistic, fantastic, exotic, and full of pristine escapism? Keeping that in mind, all Bond fans should be able to go back and appreciate this sendoff, which if the franchise continues going down its current road, will probably be the last Bond film close to that glorious vision that Albert Romolo 'Cubby' Broccoli had way back on a winter day when he began this long journey in 1962.