Directed by:
Lee TamahoriCinematography:
David TattersallComposer:
David ArnoldCast:
Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, Judi Dench, Michael Madsen, Will Yun Lee, Kenneth Tsang, Emilio Echevarría (more)VOD (1)
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When his top-secret mission is sabotaged, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) finds himself captured by the enemy, abandoned by MI6 and stripped of his 00-license. Determined to get revenge, Bond goes head-to-head with a sultry spy (Halle Berry), a frosty agent (Rosamund Pike) and a shadowy billionaire (Toby Stephens) whose business is diamonds but whose secret is a diabolical weapon that could bring the world to its knees! (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
Brosnan's run in Bond films generally didn't sit well with me, but what the creators did in Die Another Day was truly awful. Digitally, it's absolutely horrible. In the belief that special effects would bring it to life, another sci-fi Bond film was created, but compared to the great Moonraker, it's completely unrecognizable. Moonraker is excellent, even in terms of special effects. This film is a demonstration of how special effects can look bad. The acting is needlessly exaggerated and bad, and the script is uninteresting. Never again. For me, this is the weakest Bond film of all.
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The weakest Brosnan Bond... Still, four stars, because I was entertained from the blindfolded, almost realistic beginning to the mega-overwrought ending. It's a Bond birthday present, so it will be especially enjoyed by Bond fans, who will recognize one quote after another and feel like they're in spy-action heaven. Madonna's song, however, is awful. The music (except for "Cuban rhythms") as well... Where did the good old times of Barry go?
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After Casino Royale it’s hard just to sit down and rate previous Bond movies. Not that it was so much better. It’s more like it’s completely different. The main plus of Die Another Day is that it’s entertaining, humorous and peppered with allusions to the preceding 20 years of Bond history. But not just that. Lots of excellent sequences appear in this movie, including the captivating chase on the ice that made me drool with bliss (I always loved the gadgets in the Bond cars). The Bond girls are also great and the villain suitably repulsive. The stumbling block though are the special effects. The horribly over-CGI-ed shots spoil any joy about Bond’s escapes and about the invisible Aston Martin. Such a shame. Nonetheless, this is a dignified farewell to Pierce Brosnan will two zeros and a seven for luck. Because Die Another Day is his best Bond movie after Golden Eye.
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Visually the most robust and opulent Bond film in a very long time, considering that today's trend is economical, raw, and down-to-earth filmmaking. The hazy digital effects can be survived, there aren't so many of them, but overall, it's occasionally too over the top. Pierce Brosnan delivers his lines decently and the Bond girls are a good. A number exotic locations, great action, and a loaded technical side, but it lacks charm, tension and atmosphere. A wild ride and a culmination of one decade of filmmaking.
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Bond's 40th birthday party was a success, though I don't hide fact that to have the fullest enjoyment from it, you need to know the old Bond movies, noting the pleasant details that go back to the days of Dr. No, From Russia with Love or Thunderball. Brosnan's interpretation of Bond is his own - manly, charismatic, action-packed... Brosnan as 007 does not focus on being funny, but rather on movement and action (I consider the absence of really good catchphrases a big minus for the film), which sometimes exceeds the measure of good taste, but is nevertheless fun and well filmed. But I could do without the overdone finish that's as artificial as Pamela Anderson's silicones. The story of Bond number 20 isn’t amazing (satellite, diamonds, a villain with a changeable face, it's all been done before), but it's steered into an engaging stream of action that is also spiced up by Bond's humanization through suffering and the ensuing "rising from the ashes". The serious and dark tone of the film's introduction is great... The following things bother me – Halle Berry is too good an actress to play a simple Bond girl, Toby Stevens as the central villain does not have the right flair, and Lee Tamahori completely unnecessarily smuggles into the decent direction modern camera stop time and other clips that are self-serving and spoil the impression of the film... Die Another Day is a good old Bond film dressed in a modern robe, but with a heart that is pretty old-fashioned, slightly naïve but sincere. And I also have to like it... with some noticeable “buts". Edit 2012: As the years go by. First of all, the dead end in the film literally screams and is confirmed by the accompanying material from the Blu Ray. Brosnan's Bond can't be improved upon, only his surroundings can be redone into an absurd fantasy. With hindsight, this film really seems like a cry of absolute nostalgia mixed with a delayed desire to make Bond into a competitive commodity at a time of growing CGI spectacles. The film completely misses the mark, especially in the second half, whose terrible digital effects get worse as the years go by. Otherwise, as a collection of fetishes and references, I enjoy it, but Tamahori couldn't incorporate them other than as random "nostalgic objects", and that says something. But the pre-Iceland part is still more than tolerable.
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