Die Another Day *** (2002, Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Rosamund Pike) – Classic Movie Review 408

Forty years on from Dr No, in 2002, James Bond finds that diamonds are forever as he investigates a Korean terrorist and a diamond broker. All the usual 007 elements are shaken and pretty well stirred this time, as Pierce Brosnan slides back into Martini-swilling action for the fourth time in this sturdy and enjoyable if not entirely inspired 20th entry in the series.

The yarn does some impressive globetrotting, starting with refreshingly serious spying in Korea that climaxes in a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase. Soon we’re in Hong Kong, then Cuba, where a gorgeous looking femme fatale emerges from the sea, just like Ursula Andress did all those years ago. She is the sexy Jinx, played by Halle Berry, who turns out to be a CIA agent and a dab hand at espionage and fighting herself.

In London, Bond has a great swordfight with lip-smacking villain Gustav Graves, dashingly played by Toby Stephens. Then Bond follows him to his Iceland hideaway, where 007’s invisible, rocket-shooting car and glass-shattering watch come in very handy…

In his fourth Bond movie at the age of 49, Brosnan still moves around nicely despite sustaining a knee injury that kept him off filming for a week, while the classy Berry looks tasty and scores a personal success. Stephens succeeds well in a change of pace having an unusually young Bond villain, aged only 33. Rick Yune’s baddie Zao is excellent and Rosamund Pike’s glacially beautiful MI6 agent Miranda Frost definitely has the right style.

Pike scores an auspicious feature film debut at only 23. She won the Award for Best Debut at the 2003 Empire Awards for her performance. ‘When you’re dressed up like Miranda Frost, people assume you have a similar character,’ she says, ‘but I was quaking inside.’

Though there are no truly memorable villains, lines or sequences, the old formula still works. It’s achieved with a relentlessly fast pace, a chilly efficiency and some fine chases and well-staged action. Lee Tamahori directs with confidence and flair.

The attempt to make it ‘realistic’ at the start, with Bond being tortured over the 60s-style pop-art credits, is undermined by the later fantasy stuff, with Bond’s car going invisible and the reliance on CGI a pair of blows to the yarn’s credibility. The inventive screenplay’s again by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote The World Is Not Enough.

Judi Dench and Samantha Bond return as M and Miss Moneypenny, and John Cleese is back, this time as Q after the tragic death of Desmond Llewelyn in a car crash. These three are all good value, earning their pay cheques.

Anyway, the action’s a blast — and the series lives on to fight another day. Madonna (who wrote the theme song) has a cameo as Verity. Producer Michael G Wilson appears as General Chandler. It’s the first Bond film to feature an Aston Martin as the Bond car since The Living Daylights.

The movie was the highest-grossing Bond film till Casino Royale and set a new record for merchandising, with $120million worth of deals with 24 companies for product placement and/or tie-ins. Mysteriously, it proved to be Brosnan’s final movie as Bond. The role was taken over in 2006 by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 408

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/