Right now we are in a period where there is no official James Bond with that most likely being the case for the rest of the year at the very least. Well I thought that it was only about right that I took a look at the time at the final film for another Bond actor that saw the franchise reach both new heights and new lows during his tenure as James Bond and so then join me as I review the film that saw Pierce Brosnan leave the role of James Bond and the James Bond franchise for good with the film in question being called simply just "Die Another Day" enjoy.
The plot of the film is after held captive by North Korea for fourteen James Bond is tasked with locating a traitor in British intelligence and stop a mad man from launching a nuclear missile strike on London once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty person ally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that good with this films plot being a parody of what a James Bond film plot should be and while we do get moments of goodness in this films plot they are very few and far between the plot being more interested in referencing other James Bind films then it is in being a good plot but I really will admit that this films plot is really rather entertaining and at times also really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Of course this film stars Pierce Brosnan as James Bond , Dame Judi Dench as M , John Cleese as Q and Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny. Also starring in this film is Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with all of the MI6 regulars doing there usual shtick and nothing really more then that which is fine for all of the established actors like Pierce and Judi but it's not something that really works for John Cleese as he hasn't had that chance to fully establish his version of the Q character before now and while that doesn't let the acting down it is something that does hold it back from as good as it could have been.
Starring in this film is Halle Berry as Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson , Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves and Will Yun Lee as Colonel Tan-Sun Moon. Also starring in this film is Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost , Rick Yune as Tang Ling Zao , Michael Madsen as Damian Falco , Kenneth Tsang as General Moon , Michael Gorevoy as Vladimir Popov , Lawrence Makoare as Mr. Kil , Ho Yi as Mr. Chang , Emilio Echevarría as Raoul , Vincent Wong as General Li , Simón Andreu as Dr. Álvarez and Mark Dymond as Mr. Van Bierk. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad however that's also the issue as the acting in this film isn't all that good either with alot of that coming down to the fact that this films director Lee Tamahori really doesn't know how to direct his cast with this not really being helped by the fact that this films script really isn't all that good with the films script not giving the cast a whole lot to work with interms of what there characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place.
This film does technically have two Bond Girls with the main Bond Girl being Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson who is of course played by the seriously stunning Halley Berry. This is a character that had the potential to be a good character but due to the films bad script the character just isn't all that interesting with her being a female James Bond in every way possible except without any of the likability and charm that the James Bond character has and as a result of this is the fact that it's hard to feel anything for her character with the whole "being James Bonds equal" stereotype being done alot better by Wai Lin who was due to appear neat the start of the film with her character being a good example of being James Bonds equal and yet with Jinx it's hard to see why Bond would work with her or why Bond would want to spend time with her as she just isn't that interesting of a character.
Technically this films second Bond Girl is Miranda Frost who is played by the seriously stunning Rosamund Pike. With her character not really being better then Jinx's character with her character also being rather uninteresting but here that does also kind of work to the characters advantage as she's a character that's meant to blend into the background and not standout when she's with her boss Gustav Graves and as a result it does make sense that her character would be uninteresting but at the same time even when she's revealed as being a double agent she's still an uninteresting character with her having next to no personality which is a shame as her character had the potential to be one of the most complex characters in all of James Bond characters and yet due to the films script being bad and the films director not really knowing what to do with her character she just across as being a rather flat and boring character.
Out of the two characters i'd say that Jinx is the better of the characters but even that really isn't that far of a stretch. As both if these characters have the exact same faults but Jinx at the very least was a fun character to watch alot of the time where as the opposite was true for Miranda Frost as even when she should have been a fun character she just dull to watch that isn't a fault of the actress tho as that's more a fault of the script for not writing her as a fun character in scenes when she really should have been fun but at the same time both of these characters are clearly not good characters and both of these characters really should have been alot better as these characters and these types of characters have been done better in other James Bonds and yet in this film they just felt rather shallow when they should have been some really good characters.
This film was of course the twentieth official James Bond film and as a result of this the film is chocked full to the brim with references to every single official James Bond film. Which is a bit much as lot of them are very distracting and take you out of the film the more subtler ones being the better references like the fact that the film references Honey Ryder's entrance in Dr. No with Jinx's entrance in this film that was a good reference because it was subtle and on the opposite end of that is the Q Branch scene that features alot of references to the other James Bond films which does take you out of the film as all your doing is trying to find the next reference before the scene ends with the same thing also being true for the Goldfinger laser reference as well as all that reference does is remind you that could be watching a much more better movie and while it understandable why there are references in this film as it's an anniversary film this film really does go overboard with them to the point where it's no longer fun to see them.
Doing the production design for this film is Peter Lamont and well if you've seen any of my reviews that i've done for the Bond films then you'll know that i'm not the biggest fans of his James Bond sets. Yet here he does oddly create sets which perfectly match the world that James Bond resides in in that all of the sets in this film are big and out landish which is perfect for a James Bond film and while Peter has created sets like this before like in Ocotopussy for example he very rarely does them and as a result we end up with films that don't have sets that look like that they belong in the world of James Bond and yet the sets that he creates for this films especially the Ice Palace look like that they perfectly fit in well enough with the world of James Bond as they are big and outlandish and that's what a good James Bond set really should be.
The one major issue with this film is the fact that it's just so stupid with the film being filled to the brim with a lot of really stupid moments. With the most infamous being the riding a tsunami scene which even on paper just doesn't sound all that good at all and that scene is just the tip of the ice berg for the amount of stupid things that are in this film with the fact that James Bond is now given a car that turn invisible to drive and the fact that the main villains big secret weapon is something that can harness the power of the sun and that's not to mention the fact that Madonna who sings the films opening title song makes a cameo appearance in this film while yes the James Bond film have always had some stupid things in them no one is ever going to question that but those films where for the most part good films where as here we have a ton of really stupid moments in a really bad film and as a result of this is the fact that those stupid moments just standout all the more.
For some strange reason this films director Lee Tamahori thought that the James Bond character needed to be made cool for the young audience. This right here should tell you that he was wrong man to make this film as the James Bond character doesn't need to made cool for the younger audience as he already was a cool character that the young audience actually liked he didn't need to have all of the things that they have in this film like the slow motion whip pans in this film all just because of the fact that they were in The Matrix and while yes the reason for having him surfing does make sense as it sets up the fact that he can surf which then pays off later on in the film that's not something that we really needed to see as a line of dialog could have accomplished that exact same feet all of this combines to make it look like that the makers of this film were just trying to hard to make the character cool when all of the other films didn't have to do that because of the fact that James Bond himself is already a really cool character in the first place.
This films opening titles were of course done by regular James Bind title creator the great Daniel Kleinman. Just like with alot of the things that are in this film the films opening titles just aren't that good as Daniel Kleinman isn't allowed to be as creative as we all know that he could be as he now has work around live action footage shot by the films director instead of just being allowed to do his own thing and help to continue the films story in his own unique way which is something that really does hurt this films opening titles as they just lack that extra special something that alot of the James Bond titles have and while this films opening titles do have some really nice visuals in them those aren't enough to save this films opening titles in the slightest as while they could have good they just aren't allowed to be as good as they could have been.
The opening title for this song is also called "Die Another Day" and is sung rather well by the legendary Madonna. This is a song that does take a while to grow on you as while the song isn't that good after a while it does become somewhat OK to listen to with the song being well sung which is to be expected as it's Madonna singing it but at the same time the lyrics of the song make no sense with the song itself not really having much of a connection to the film outside of the opening title also being the name of the film but on the whole while this film isn't good by any stretch of the imagination it's also not that bad either it's just one of those songs that is just OK and really nothing more then that which is not something that you really want for a James Bond theme song as alot of the James Bond theme songs are in someway memorable songs and even alot of the bad James Bond theme songs are in there own unique way also memorable as well.
One of the things that this film introduces that's actually a good idea is the idea of Bond meeting the films main villain before the opening titles. Which is one of the few good ideas that this film has as it then allows the film to give us more of a mystery of who Gustav Graves really is and that is something that makes the reveal that he's actually someone that both Bond and the audience assumed had died at the start of the film all the more shocking but the film really does nothing with this rather solid idea as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop the Gustav Graves character nor does it take the time to show us how Gustav and Colonel Tan-Sun Moon are similar as the two people are meant to be the exact same person this is something that the film really should have done like for example we know that Colonel Tan-Sun Moon has anger issues so why not give Gustav Graves some anger issues as well just like we know that Moon hates the English so why not make Graves also the English as well both of these are things that would have served as great little clues that the two characters are infact one in the same.
Now then I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this films grand total running timer even was but I do know that for a fact that this film has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly two hours and seven minuets. Which is a rather solid running time for this film to have as the film really does have more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time with the film not really having any scenes that needed to be cut from this film as alot of this films scenes are either setting up something that will pay off in a later scene or are paying off something that was set up earlier on in the film with there being very few scenes that aren't either of those two types of scenes and even then those scenes can't really be cut out either as alot of them are also really important to the plot of the film but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual actin that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual actin that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty the best part of the film. As this films action was just so much fun to see with alot of this films action being where we get alot of the good scenes in this film and while yes it is during an action that we get to see the rather infamous surfing a tsunami scene it's also in this films many action scenes that are just cool to watch and when you add in the fact that the films action scenes are also really creative as well you also really end up with alot of really good action scenes in this film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is quite easily one of if not the worst official James Bond film ever made and it's for sure the worst Pierce Brosnan James Bond film ever made as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that means that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official James Bond fandom wiki page , Wikipedia ad Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being the official James Bond fandom wiki page just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on the official James Bond fandom wiki page are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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