Opinion

Die Another Day

Dir: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens

"He's never been cooler."

Following a covert operation in North Korea when betrayal leads to capture and fourteen months of torture and imprisonment, James Bond (Brosnan) is traded for a Korean agent, and begins a highly personal mission to demonstrate that he did not crack under interrogation and restore his credibility. Along the way, he teams up with an NSA agent (Berry), gets into some scrapes, plays with some gadgets, and has sex. That'll be the 20th Bond movie then.

What can you say about this most venerable of film franchises that gets away from the mythology of the franchise itself? In the light of tough competition this year from films like XXX, the Bond producers have fought back by, in a sense, not fighting back. Unlike the True Lies reaction, which arguably forced Goldeneye to move the series radically onwards in terms of its action levels, or risk becoming outdated and obsolete, Die Another Day largely sticks to the standard and formula of Brosnan's previous Bond outings. Indeed, as the 20th film in the series, released in its 40th anniversary year, there's a distinct sense of looking back in the film's many nods to previous films.

Which is not to say it's old-fashioned. The concepts at work are impressively handled, from the idea of Bond being in captivity for over a year to Gustav Graves' ice palace, and the action sequences are generally outstanding. There's a point to regret in this last area though, as the series' traditional focus on 'real' stunts gives way to more computer-generated work, and in at least one place, fall down badly as a consequence. Admittedly, doing this particular stunt 'live' would probably be pretty much impossible, but not doing it at all would have made the film stronger.

The performances are of the standard you'd probably expect - no one's at RSC levels, but then, this sure isn't Shakespeare. Berry's turn as Jinx is probably the standout, making it abundantly clear why the possiblity of spinning her off into a film (or series) of her own has been mooted, though having her need to be rescued by Bond late in the story undermines that a little.

The bad guys are solid turns, and Toby Stephens as Graves turns in a highly effective presentation of barely-restrained rage and madness.

Newcomer (to the Bonds) director Tamahori does good work, keeping things close and intimate for large parts of the film in order that the widescreen extravaganzas of the last third have more impact. He's incorporated an annoying 'sub-Matrix' slo-mo habit at times, though, that frankly distracts more than it enhances.

As with most Bond movies, if you go into it expecting, well, a Bond movie, basically, you won't be disappointed.