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James Bond - Die Another Day (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [2002]


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A BRAIN-DEAD DUD.
Review date: 2008-03-24 Rating: 2 out of 10

with the possible exception of the pitiful 1971 entry 'DIAMONDS are FOREVER', 'DAD' is easily the most ignoble BOND entry in the entire series: certainly the least credible serving of the 21st Century.

The thrills and spills are frequent enough, but it has all been done so many times before [in infinitely more skilled hands] that this epic shambles serves no real purpose beyond forgettable 'popcorn' thrills: this total production is a monumental waste of film-making potential: at best it is a routine, also-ran entry in the BOND canon; --at worst, it is a hackneyed, cliched abomination of pseudo-cinematic confetti.

In order to inject 'new' scope into the tired [at this point] formulae, we are asked to accept as credible the concept of a fully-functioning INVISIBLE CAR: a totally ridiculous notion that not even the AUSTIN POWERS spy/60s send-ups would entertain as suitable.

BOND girl-watchers will doubtless enjoy the appearance of HALLE BERRY, but this is short compensation for this strictly BOND-by-numbers sub-MATT HELM nonsense, that represents a particularly non-entertaining, blundering, clunking mis-fire within the usually-reliable 007 series.

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Reviews


Overblown end to Brosnan's tenure as Bond
Review date: 2008-02-14 Rating: 4 out of 10

Sadly, Brosnan's fourth and last outing as Bond is as tired, cheesy and over the top as Roger Moore's 4th Bond movie was.. Given that original script ideas for this story were taken from Moonraker, the symmetry is ironic.
Bond is captured in Korea, but is released as a prisoner transfer because the Americans suspect he has broken under torture. Removed of his 00 status (what, again?) he goes renegade to track down the mole that betrayed him. Along the way he crosses paths with a CIA agent (Halle Berry) and the trail leads to Gustaf Graves (Toby Stephens). Graves' unlikely Iceland diamond mine is a cover for the development of a powerful satellite based weapon which uses diamonds to focus the sun's energy to... oh, who cares, its all as ridiculous, if not more so, than a compilation of Bond's worst moments.
The movie muddles through feeling like someone forgot to shake OR stir, until the awful moment when the movie becomes irredeemably lost. A cgi Bond surfs on a wave using a parachute for guidance, in one of the most abysmally poorly executed special effects scenes put to film. Bond movies are always fantastic, sure, but they always have a veneer of reality - the gadgets look like they COULD work, the stunts you see are done for real, even if the stuntmen do have safety wires.. but here, all that heritage is thrown out the window, and the movie never quite recovers. Indeed, a few scenes later Bond gets into his invisible car just to seal the deal.
On the plus side there is a stunning set piece car chase on ice, with the Jaguar and Aston Martin going tete a tete, a pleasing sword-fight ina gentlemans club in London, and David Arnold puts in his usual excellent score with multiple references to previous movies for the fans. Indeed, the numerous references to previous movies (most notably in the `Q' sequence, with gadgets from previous movies littering the background) are one of the few real pleasures of the movie. Halle Berry performs her task of looking hot in leather, and doing `that' walk out of the sea emulating Ursula Andress but with none of the mystery or charm. Rosamund Pike puts in a decent performance, and Judi Dench does what she is supposed to... but John Cleese is just not quite right yet as Q (though better than TWINE), and cameos from Madonna and Michael Madsen are an embarrassment. Toby Stephens does his best to make his hard to believe character believable, but none of the actors can rescue the movie from some of the most painful one liners and simply awful lines for many a year. A large chunk of the blame has to go to director Lee Tamahori, whose propensity for slowing and speeding up events is more `The Matrix' than Bond's classic style.

With an overblown budget and anticipation running as high as it had for a Bond movie, Die Another Day didn't just lose the race, it fell flat on its face somewhere along the way. Sure, you have to watch it to complete the Bond saga, but be grateful that just as Moonraker's excesses inspired the makers to return to basics in For Your Eyes Only, we can thank Die Another Day for bringing the producers to their senses and whittling Bond down to the basic ingredients again for Casino Royale.

For an Ultimate Edition, this is the least well stocked disc in the extras department - no trailers, few documentaries, no music video etc.. however, it has to be said the extras included do cover the making of process from script through to realisation pretty well. An hour long documentary on script to screen is moderately revealing, and the other half hour documentary gives a fascinating glimpse into what it takes to get an Aston Martin to slide like that on ice - and what happens when it goes wrong. Extras are rounded out with a 3 minute peek into how British Airways helped out, and Peter Lamont's home video of location scouting and a video diary of one day in the shoot, giving a glimpse into Lee Tamahori's directorial style.


Great First Half, Ridiculous Second Half
Review date: 2008-02-05 Rating: 4 out of 10

I am a big fan of the James Bond films. Unlike most, I think each of the 5 actors upto this point all brought something to the series. In the Brosnan era, I really enjoyed Goldeneye and World Is Not Enough, but found Tomorrow Never dies a bit dull - this film though is ridiculous. After a promising first hour, the film turns into an absolute farce. I know there has always been a certain amount of "fantasy" in the film series, but the scenes involving the invisible car and surfing on an ice avalanche are just pushing it too far. By the end of the film, I had totally lost interest in the plot. There was just too much shallow action and absolutely no character buidling.



Quick Reviews!
Review date: 2007-12-08 Rating: 4 out of 10

Easily, by far the worst Bond film yet, truly awful, with almost nothing going for it. What turned out to be Brosnan's last Bond film this should have been much better, but right from the start we were dreading it would turn out like this.

Let's see where they went wrong- Plot: Tries to be smart, ends up making little sense. A blatant attempt at pandering to today's younger audiences, and succumb to the modern definition of cool. This involves retro stuff- nods to past films, updated technology, stupid looking cars and modern music etc. This may have always been the way with the series, but here it just goes too far and ends up looking horrendous. Script- Nothing but innuendo. Nothing. No attempt at anything else, more akin to a Carry On movie than a Bond movie. Music- Madonna's 'song' is the worst Bond song ever, by a long way. Bad Guys- Some guy who fences, and some other guy with a strange face. Neither pose any threat, neither seem evil, not worthy of a spot in Eastenders. Girls-Madonna's pointless cameo further reduces her status to inglorious levels, once an interesting artist, now some woman you would avoid on the street. Halle Berry as Jinx, yes she's pretty, but an average actress, flavour of the month, and a very weak character obviously created in the hope of a spin off. She is apparently a strong female character because she knows how to kick people, use a gun and show off her body-well done, i'm sure intelligent women around the world are enamoured by her. Miranda Frost- instantly forgettable character and Pike's performance is pretty bad too, hamming up the terrible dialogue. She is only there so Bond can have a 'steamy' scene. Stunts, action, gadgets- Probably the best part, there are plenty of set pieces, and the intro is pretty good. But some dodgy CG, combined with the other faults mean the experience of watching is hollow, we do not feel any excitement or tension. All that remains is a series of explosions flashing in front of our already switched off minds.

So, where to now for Bond? Rumours of a younger reincarnation did the rounds after this film- that would have surely brought in tonnes of cash, but would probably mean more teen fluff. Contrary to what many believe, Bond is a character of great depth and emotion, he is not just a guy who shags women and saves the world. He is a haunted, lonely figure, at odds with himself and his actions, with a tragic past, but the fact he must do his job means he will never escape. Remember Goldeneye?- Bond-'It's what keeps me alive', Natalya- 'No, it's what keeps you alone'. We see nothing of the real Bond in this attempt at a film. Only Cleese, Dench etc rescue it slightly.

I tend not to write negative reviews here, as I do not want to spend any time writing about things I dislike (as I will have already wasted time watching, reading, or listening to it in ther first place) but as I am reviewing all of the Bond films I had to bring myself to typing this. The film-makers needed to seriously rethink what they have done here, and what they should do to this much loved character in the future. Luckily, they succeeded with the brilliant Casino Royale. This however, is a hideous film by any standards- an overly camp mess devoid of structure, a kick in the face of the franchise, and more like a straight to DVD action film starring Big Brother rejects.

I only give this 2 stars because the extra features are good, although strangely they are inferior to the 1 disc Special Edition. It seems the disease caused by the film has spread to the DVD.



The last of the real Bond movies
Review date: 2007-07-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

I call DAD the last real Bond movie because I can't abide Craig as Bond as he is forced to act a tedious sulky teenager Bond so unlike his normal sophisticated and intelligent self in other parts, and CR2006 is a mess of a film anyway from start to finish and the last thing I want is a complete rehash of the franchise into some violent American action movie with a humourless, crass musclebound Bond who doesn't seem to have any idea how to do anything but relies on others to get him out of trouble whilst drivelling over a very silly heroine. Yuk. That's not what Bond is about. But DAD is the usual great, fun Bond, and Craig could learn a lot from how Pierce dealt with the very well-done torture scenes in DAD.

I also particularly liked Toby Stephens as a splendid villain, and his nasty lady assistant - actress name I forget was very good too along with Halle Berry. Is this the Bond in which they jump off the skyscraper? Wonderful stuff whether this or an earlier one with Pierce. And what fun the whole DAD movie is. I watch Bond to be entertained, amused, enlivened, and this Bond has everything. Well, as do all the earlier ones, thank goodness. ]

This Collection is excellent and I particularly like the Uniform approach.

The Craig years, which I hope will be mercifully short, are an anomaly, some drivel about some bloke supposed to be pre-Bond-Bond in spite of the actor's age - and set in some alternate universe (ie completely loopy time-zone) which we can conveniently forget. It will be awhile before Bond returns to us and what a shame Pierce will be too old to play Bond again but at least we have Bourne and the like to keep us entertained for the time being. I shan't forgive the Bond producers for ditching Pierce Brosnan in favour of Estuary Musclehead Mondeo-driving Bond, I certainly shan't be buying any of the Craig Bonds and can but hope when we are rid of that era Bond will get back to what it should be. So thanks again, Pierce and Die Another Day and all the other actors in this great movie.

I see some of the reviews give this movie a very low rating. But are you rating it against the other Bonds on a scale of 1 to 5 or are you rating it against all other movies?! It isn't I feel a case of saying all Bonds are equally good but that compared with other movies they should get their due so I rate all Bonds up to this one 4 or 5 stars, and it's only the latest Bond CR2006 that gets the lowest rating I can give it as it was totally vile and that's the end of Bond for me unless the producers find a suitable actor for Bond and get back to making the movies fun.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Halle Berry
Colin Salmon
Madonna
Rosamund Pike
Pierce Brosnan

Creators:
Pierce Brosnan (Primary Contributor)
Colin Salmon (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: MGM Entertainment
Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment
EAN: 5035822430891
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Box set, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2006-07-17
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 127 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2002
Language: Greek (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Finnish (Subtitled)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)

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