Die Another Day Review

Pierce Brosnan returns to the role of infamous secret agent James Bond in 'Die Another Day', Bond's twentieth celluloid adventure in forty years. This time round Bond has to redeem himself (after being captured and tortured for more than a year by a rogue fraction of the North Korean army) through foiling an attempt by wealthy diamond entrepreneur Gustav Graves (Toby Stevens) to start a global war. Joining forces with Bond on his quest to rid the world of villains, and unmask a traitor in MI6, is Jinx (Halle Berry), an exotic beauty who may well be more than she seems…

The elements which make up a James Bond film are all present; the beautiful women, the fast cars, the gadgets, and the stunts. Some of the set pieces are as spectacular as we've come to expect from 007, with a great pre-credit sequence involving some unbelievable surfing and an armoured hovercraft chase, and a climactic battle involving a jumbo and a world threatening giant laser from space. But unfortunately 'Die Another Day' often fails to excite, with a car chase around and inside a huge ice palace the perfect example of a potentially compelling scene that is reduced to nothing more than sheer, unengaging, spectacle. With the honourable exception of "Moonraker" Bond movies have always been associated more with incredible stunts that big budget effects, and the inclusion in this movie of an invisible Aston Martin and CGI effects to beef up the climax offer little more than impressive distractions.

However 'Die Another Day' is not all bad and there are some good set pieces, most notably a fencing sequence (featuring a Madonna cameo) and John Cleese's cameo as the recently promoted Q who banters with Bond as he takes him through the gadgets graveyard, which includes the jet pack from 'Thunderball' and 'From Russia With Love's' deadly briefcase. James Bond fans will enjoy the movie for these and many other nods to Bond's esteemed history, but with its lacklustre script (with too many weak double entendres and the odd plot hole) this is Brosnan's first outing that brings to mind Roger Moore more than Sean Connerry.