Extras:
MI6 Datastream, Inside Die Another Day, Shaken and Stirred - On Ice,
Mission Deconstruction, Equipment Briefing, Image Database, Ministry of
Propaganda, Region 2 Exclusive, Two Audio Commentaries.
Director:
Lee Tamahori
(Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, The Edge, The Guide, Mulholland Falls, Once Were Warriors, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Thunderbox, TV: The Ray Bradbury Theatre, The Sopranos)
Producers:
Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson
Screenplay:
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade
Music:
David Arnold
Cast:
James Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Jinx: Halle Berry
Gustav Graves: Toby Stephens
Miranda Frost: Rosamund Pike
Zao: Rick Yune
M: Judi Dench
Q: John Cleese
Damian Falco: Michael Madsen
Colonel Moon: Will Yun Lee
General Moon: Kenneth Tsang
Charles Robinson: Colin Salmon
Miss Moneypenny: Samantha Bond
Peaceful Fountains of Desire: Rachel Grant
Scorpion Girl: Anna Edwards (uncredited)
Verity: Madonna (uncredited)
Die Another Day, or 'Bond 20'. Can you find the plot?
Well, there is one but it's nothing to write home about. Bond (Pierce Brosnan)
finds himself locked up in a cell for 14 months after bumping off Colonel Moon
(Will Yun Lee) in spectacular style, much to the annoyance of his
father. However, imprisonment with the Moons of Korea is a more attractive
option than spending time with the Moons of Albert Square, but just as he's
getting into doing time Bond is released in a trade for an enemy called
Zao (Rick Yune) who has a bit of a skin problem after James showed him
that diamonds are not a man's best friend.
There's a hospital that's helping patient achieve new identies with DNA
transplants and Zao's their latest customer, but after a chase with Bond he
leaves diamonds behind that came from lucky billionaire Gustav Graves which
look exactly like African conflict diamonds, whatever those are but that doesn't
really matter.
Along the line there's a feisty female known as Jinx (Halle Berry) who
has her own reasons for going after Zao and together they have to find what
really links their Korean friend with Graves - and hope to put both of them
in one.
Pierce Brosnan gets the Lynx effect
with the gorgeous Rachel Grant.
Die Another Day features an explosion in a hospital, swordfighting,
an explosion in an ice palace, a car chase, a treacherous MI6 employee, a new
project from Graves called "Icarus" which harnesses the sun's energy and cause
havoc where intended elsewhere - so another explosion or three then, it harks
back to previous Bond films such as Jinx coming out of the water, a la
Dr. No, plus
a line from Toby Stephens when he says "Diamonds are for everyone",
an air-sucking moment like
Goldfinger's,
the dodgy shoe from
From Russia With Love.
and the jetpack from
Thunderball.
It's just too self-referrential to be a worthy contender.
See some incredibly iffy CGI work as Bond rides the big one, or dodges General
Moon's early attempts to give him a good flaming. Even the one-liners are
predictable. There's uncredited cameos from model Anna Edwards as
Scorpion Girl, a brief appearance in the ice palace from model Catherine
McQueen and aging songstress Madonna, who performs the appalling
theme tune, as swordplay watcher Verity.
It does end up as two hours of mildly
diverting fluff, albeit far from a classic Bond by any means and not one I'd
particularly want to see again. I'm not a fan of Halle Berry's and most of the
rest of the cast leaves me cold, like the scenery. Rosamund Pike looks
cute when she lets her hair down but in any other scene with Brosnan there's
absolutely zero chemistry, particularly in bed. Only Rachel Grant as
the masseuse known as Peaceful Fountains of Desire brings a warm glow to my
heart...
New to Bond - flying cars!
Filmed and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, it's as crisp and
clear as you'd ever want a disc to look. While there's some dodgy CGI,
there are moments of special effects that look fantastic such as the
plane falling apart in one section.
This is the first Bond to get a two-disc release and it allows the film to
benefit from both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surrounx EX and DTS 5.1 ES sound formats.
I chose the latter and it's a real workout for your system. From the lasers
shooting all over the shop as Jinx is trapped to just about anything that
involves an explosion the split-surround effects are to die for. While the
film itself is rather lame, the AV experience is demo quality.
"Now I see the light!"
As mentioned above, this is the first two-disc release for a Bond film and
the extras are as follows:
MI6 Datastream:
After you've seen the film once, watch it again with text appearing onscreen
all the way through that gives more detail about all aspects of it.
Inside Die Another Day (76 mins):
A lengthy look behind the scenes, looking at opening surfing sequence, the hovercraft
chase, the Cuba that wasn't, the role of John Cleese as Q now that he's
fully taken over from Desmond Lewellyn, the ice palace, the car chase and
the post-production work applied to the movie. Presented in anamorphic 16:9
widescreen, this can be more engaging than the film it's talking about.
Shaken and Stirred - On Ice (24 mins):
Placed within the 'Inside...' menu - Action, stunts and set design at the
ice palace.
Mission Deconstruction (33 mins):
Scene Evolutions describe storyboard-to-film comparisons for the
hovercraft chase and the car battle, Inter-action sequences provide
multi-angle viewings of the hovercraft chase, the car battle, the swordfighting
and the fight scenes in the film's climax, Title design looks at the
design of the title sequence - surprisingly - and Digital Grading
is a process that digitally-enhances the entire film to make it look exactly
the way you want it to.
Equipment Briefing (5 mins):
An inside look at the Bond weapons this time round. Short but sweet in most
cases, but there's a longer look at the Aston Martin Vanquish. This section
is voiced by someone trying to sound like John Cleese and not the man himself.
Image Database:
The cast, the sets, the locations, the stunts, the special effects, the
vehicles and the gadgets. It's all here.
Ministry of Propaganda (25 mins):
Trailers and videos, starting with a theatrical trailer (16:9 anamorphic, 2
mins), two teaser trailers (one in 2.35:1 anamorphic, the other 16:9 anamorphic
and a minute long each), plus TV spots (8 of them totalling just over 4 minutes,
all in 16:9 letterbox).
Following the music video for Madonna's Die Another Day theme (16:9
letterboxed, 4½ mins) comes a "making of" featurette for it (2.00:1
letterbox - strange ratio, 4 mins). There's a trailer for the 007
Nightfire game (4:3, 1½ mins) which appears to use Pierce Brosnan's
likeness but not his voice and then a "making of" the game where the creators
get to talk about what made it tick (4:3, 3½ mins)
Finally there's a trailer for the James Bond Collector's Edition DVD boxset (3½ mins)
(see here for more details
although note that the boxset is now deleted. Still, at least it did include
The Living Daylights which was missing as a single-disc title when MGM
forgot to renew the licence for it)
Region 2 Exclusive (52 mins):
Another behind-the-scenes featurette with more info about the film and
apparently is exactly what it says on the tin.
Two Audio Commentaries: One featuring director Lee Tamahori
and producer Michael G Wilson and the second with Pierce Brosnan
and Rosamund Pike, with Pierce commenting that both Cadiz, Spain and
Hackney Wick in London are used as doubles for Cuba.
There are 36 chapters to the film, so four more than a usual major MGM release,
subtitles in English for the hard of hearing and Dutch, plus exceptional
menus which have short amounts of animation and sound repeating over and over,
all in keeping with the theme of the film.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
