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Die
Another Day DVD Review:
When his top-secret mission is sabotaged, James Bond (Brosnan) finds himself captured by the enemy, abandoned by M16 and stripped of his 00-license. Determined to get revenge, Bond goes head-to-head with a sultry spy (Barry), a frosty agent (Rosamund Pike) and a shadowy billionaire (Stephens) whose business is diamonds... but whose secret is a diabolical weapon that could bring the world to its knees.
Critique
Before going into the Die Another Day review, I want to recap the previous three Bond films. GoldenEye is probably the best of the four Brosnan Bond pictures, because it’s dark, funny, exciting, exotic and suspenseful. Tomorrow Never Dies is not very suspenseful, but runs on a more linear structure than GoldenEye and uses all sorts of cool gadgets in action for the pleasure of the fans, yet the villain is probably the weakest of late. The World Is Not Enough includes some great action pieces, such as the speedboat and ski chase, but the two Bond girls and Robert Carlyle’s role as villain, even though he did well, didn’t satisfy enough. Now comes Die Another Day, directed by Lee Tamahori (The Edge, Along Came a Spider) and written by the team of Neil Purvis & Robert Wade.
Die Another Day celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Bond franchise and as a token of appreciation includes references to all of the past Bond films. Aside from this, this fourth Bond adventure is also the most expensive with a budget of around $120 million. However, Die Another Day is probably the best-looking Bond picture of the previous three. Thanks in large to Lee Tamahori and his crew; the action sequences, locations and sets look terrific. The film begins in subdued North Korea for its opening action sequence and later travels to the exotic Havana where Halle Berry is introduced in a familiar, sexy fashion. After some time in England, Bond makes his way to a cool resort in Iceland (no pun intended). The locations are wonderful and the action sequences taking place on each of them are exciting to watch. The locations are a great update from the previous Bond pictures.
In terms of structure, Die Another Day takes a while to get going. It’s not distracting, but the film would have benefited from some tightening in a few spots. The third act stumbles a bit and is a little over the top, but then again, that’s for James Bond to justify. The script is pretty good, but not as coherent as it could have been. I’m not referring to plot holes, but the way the story progresses. It’s a little too convenient at times, while at other times it moves just right. Essentially, the story seems to be about revenge, that is, Bond wants to find the person who set him up in North Korea. The revenge subplot lingers about until it is time to reveal the traitor. The other subplot is the pursuit of the diamonds distributed by Gustav Graves, which goes back to the opening sequence. So, in terms of subplots, Die Another Day has enough to satisfy its story depth. What I’m saying is that as a whole the film could have been a little more coherent. There are also some funny one-liners and dialogue is not as stiff as in TNG or TWISE, which is a fresh update.
Speaking of updates, Die Another Day practically reinvents the action material and execution. The opening hovercraft chase and the car chase on ice are very exciting, however, during these and a few other sequences, the action is over the top. That is Die Another Day tries too hard to be on par with recent, action-filled spy thrillers, such as xXx and perhaps Spy Game. The action tends to run on a more ridiculous level than the one that’s most important (for me, anyway): action that is both fun and within the limits of reality (some of the action pieces in TNG are pretty good examples). Not to the credit of xXx, which is not as good as some people may claim, Die Another Day’s action sequences are cooler because they involve James Bond.
When speaking of action, one has to also credit Q’s kick-ass gadgets. They’re still fun and inventive this time around, but an invisible Aston Martin? Anyway, the relationship between Q and Bond is still based on the same virtues as before. Bond likes to play with them, while Q tries to be serious about his work. The scene between John Cleese and Pierce Brosnan is one of the highlights of this film, especially the part when Q hands the car manual to Bond who throws it in the air to test the Aston Martin’s weaponry. What’s funny is Q’s set up, "You should be able to shoot through that in a couple of hours," and Bond’s punch line, "Only took a few seconds, Q." What’s also great is to see Bond apply all the gadgetry at exactly the right moments.
The performances of the major players in Die Another Day are pretty good. As usual, Pierce Brosnan is dead-on perfect as 007. In fact, he’s got the role down to the last possible roots and by now is in the same league with Roger Moore, but slightly behind Sean Connery. Aside from Brosnan, the film features an impressive performance by Toby Stephens. Villains are easy to play, it seems, but to make them cool and memorable, the right performance is necessary. While nowhere near memorable, Stephens does a pretty good job as Gustav Graves. But let’s not forget Halle Berry as Jinx, the female equivalent of Bond, but not quite. Berry has the charisma and looks, but not the strength and agility. Still, Halle Berry’s performance is up there with some of the memorable Bond girls.
Die Another Day is the best-looking Bond picture of the last three. It’s probably the biggest production as well with cool action pieces and shoot-outs, but in general feels a little too over the top. The jokes don’t let up either. All in all, Die Another Day is a great update of the franchise as it moves into the 21st century, but GoldenEye preserves as the most original and best all around of the Brosnan Bond pictures.
RE: Madonna's Day Another Day
Awful! Terrible! I mean, who's responsible for those juvenile and stupid lyrics?! Believe it or not, it's a distraction to the film. But really, what's with such a lame song?! Okay, Tomorrow Never Dies is kind of weak too, but at least the lyrics and beats are better than this. The World Is Not Enough song is also not great, but much better than the latter ones. GoldenEye is probably the best theme song of the last two decades of Bond pictures. Anyway... The
Video
MGM presents Die Another Day in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. MGM’s presentation is very nice with an overall clean transfer. I didn’t notice any spots of dirt, gain or scratches. Dark tones and black levels are terrific. However, the transfer includes some heavy edge enhancement. Nevertheless, the color palette is very prominent and color detail is consistent. Die Another Day looks crisp and alive, despite the heavy EE usage.
8 out of 10
The Audio
MGM presents Die Another Day in both English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround and DTS 5.1 ES Surround. Both of these tracks are terrific and distribute enough bass and punch to all your speakers. David Arnold’s score is all over the place, rocking your ears. The sound effects are all over the soundfield, creating a lot of effective noise. Dialog scenes are perfect and easy to understand. Surround usage is evident, loud and crystal clear. Die Another Day’s audio presentation is simply rocking. MGM also presents the film in optional French and Spanish Stereo Surround.
10 out of 10
The Extras
This 2-disc
special edition is the most features-laden DVD of any Bond
picture, but that’s most likely because it’s the
most recent and profitable of all. Produced by Charlie De
Lauzirika, known for some of director Ridley Scott’s
special editions, Die Another Day is as packed as the film’s
attendance during opening weekend. Commentary by Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike – Brosnan starts off the commentary by himself and is very engaging. His comments are personable and fun to listen to. As in the Evelyn commentary, Brosnan is very apt and comfortable talking about Die Another Day. Rosamund Pike joins the track later on. This track is definitely worth listening to, especially because it is with James Bond himself.
MI6 DataStream – In other words, this is a trivia track with pop-up information on Bond and all other things. Also included is a branching feature showing behind-the-scenes clips running about two minutes each.
This is where the first disc comes to a stop and requires you to pop in the second disc, where the real special features are located.
Inside Die Another Day (~90 mins) – Here you get a detailed look at the making of the film, including breakdowns of the major scenes in the film. This documentary also features interviews with all sorts of people who worked on the film. It’s a nice, reflective and entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the film. For your viewing pleasure, a "play all" option allows you to watch the documentary as a whole instead of having to select each of the eight parts.
Mission Deconstruction – Basically, this menu breaks down into a few different parts, each detailing specific areas of the film. "Scene Evolutions" is a storyboard-to-scene comparison on the Hovercraft and Iceland Car Battle scenes. "Inter-Action Sequences"is a multi-angle exploration of some of the film's coolest scenes, such as the Hovercraft Chase and Iceland Car Battle, among two other scenes. "Title Design" explores the creation of the film’s titles by showing some video that lasts about ten minutes. Lastly, “Digital Grading” looks at how the film’s color is balanced and graded for a better look.
Rounding out the rest of the special features is "Equipment Briefing," which gives you a look at some of Bond’s gadgets. Next up is "Image Database," which kind of explains itself. This still gallery includes photos of the film’s effects, students, sets, vehicles, etc. Lastly, "Ministry of Propaganda" is another word for the following; a music video for Madonna’s Die Another Day, a short making-of the video, a trailer and making-of for the 007 Nightfire game, Theatrical Trailers, TV spots and some DVD-ROM features.
You can select to view the film with optional English and French subtitles. The animation of the DVDs main menu is very neat, but takes some time to get to the navigation. The 132-minute feature is organized into twenty-six chapters.
9 out of 10 Overall
Die Another Day is fun and exciting, I guess it’s what some people call an action ride. The action and jokes are featured prominently in Lee Tamahori’s skillful direction. Brosnan is now perfect as 007 and Halle Berry joins him as the sexy Bond girl Jinx. There are some problems in the video transfer, but the audio presentation is sure to rock your ears. This 2-disc special edition includes some great features, including the 90-plus minute documentary of the film. Die Another Day comes highly recommended and is worth adding to your collection.
RATINGS SUMMARY
THE MOVIE
7 Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Die Another Day and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline. |
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