Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57161 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-12
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Synopsis
In DIE ANOTHER DAY--the 20th James Bond adventure--007 (Pierce Brosnan) gets off to a rough start when he's captured and subsequently tortured during an assignment in North Korea. When the suave secret agent is eventually liberated, he embarks on a dangerous mission that involves tracking a terrorist named Zao (Rick Yune) to Cuba, where 007 also encounters Jinx (Halle Berry), a highly formidable and alluring fellow spy. Soon Bond is back in England following a mysterious trail that leads to Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a flamboyant diamond mogul. After a rather bloody introduction, Graves invites 007 to Iceland, where he plans to unveil his enigmatic Icarus project. Before long, Bond and Jinx are reunited and battling Graves, Zao, and other villains bent on world domination. With this Bond instalment, directed by Lee Tamahori, 007 catches up with the 21st century and the results are grittier and more explosive than ever before. Although it begins as one of the darkest and most violent Bond films, the intense mood of DIE ANOTHER DAY is also counterbalanced by typically clever and funny moments. Brosnan is in fine form as the iconic hero, while Berry shines as the immediately likeable Jinx. Stephens and Yune are excellent as the two main bad guys, and the rest of the cast--including Judi Dench, John Cleese, Rosamund Pike, and Michael Madsen--provide key supporting roles. With its hi-tech gadgets and special-effects-laden set pieces, DIE ANOTHER DAY clearly has its eye on the future, but in numerous scenes it also lovingly embraces the past, placing the film in the upper tier of Bond movies.

Customer Reviews

Doesn't hold up to repeated viewings as well as other Bonds
Die Another Day was surprisingly impressive first time round but doesn't hold up well to a second viewing for a number of reasons. The pre-title sequence is particularly strong, and the film is plot-led with a good premise that it explores far more effectively than License to Kill - Bond screws up, gets captured and finds his license to kill revoked and has to go it alone. But to many wrong choices are made in the casting of those both in front of and behind the cameras to do it full justice.

Brosnan is certainly a major problem here, getting lazier in the role far sooner than his predecessors. He takes too much for granted and doesn't seem to be putting much effort into it in the assumption that he's got it down pat, when in reality he's starting to go to seed - certainly he must be the only man to come out of 14 months of torture in a Korean prison chubbier than when he went in, something his tendency to spend much of the opening of the film with his shirt off and hidden under a bushy Monty Python castaway beard only exacerbates.

He's not helped much by his co-stars either: Halle Berry, who seems to become a worse actress with each successive film, really can't handle sass or wisecracks, which is a shame since that's almost all her part consists of, and their initial meeting exchange of innuendoes seems more like eavesdropping a married man picking up a hooker to prove he's still got it than anything else. Rosamund Pike's other fatale femme fares a little better purely on he grounds that, while an extremely one-dimensional performer, to least her limited abilities fit the part. Toby Stephens' villain is a bigger problem. While it's a neat touch that he models himself on an unflattering portrait of Bond's vanity, Stephens actually seems to be basing his performance on Rik Mayall's caricatured MP Alan B'stard from sitcom The New Statesman, and the results aren't pretty - a largely ineffectual screen actor, it's no accident that he needs to don an electronic suit of armour to become a credible foe for Bond in the final punch-up. Curiously, two of the better performances on display come from bit-players John Cleese (pleasingly restrained) and Michael Madsen as a distinctly unimpressed company man. Even Madonna's unnecessary cameo as a lesbian fencing instructor is considerably less painful than her terrible title-song, easily the series' worst. Still, the resulting overly enthusiastic swordfight is okay but would probably have been even better had they hired William Hobbs to choreograph it instead of Bob Anderson (Anderson may have coached Errol Flynn, but only in some of his worst films).

The direction adds to the problems. Lee Tamahouri is a maddeningly variable director, and too often its his weaknesses on display here. For a series that prides itself on globe-trotting, he has a very poor sense of place (aside from the Iceland scenes, this is the first Bond film that really looks like they were afraid to leave the studio backlot) and his handling of action isn't always effective - indeed, the car chase actually looks like several shots are missing. Still, at least they manage to just about get away with the science behind the invisible car more effectively than the awful CGI that undermines the series' reputation for doing daring stunts for real: along with the occasionally slo-mo or sped up scene intros, it just seems horribly out of place without ever quite ruining the film.

Another big problem is the tone. As the 20th entry in EON's series, the desire to celebrate its heritage threatens at times to overwhelm the film as it becomes increasingly self-referential. With almost every scene having an homage, a prop or an audio or visual reference to a previous movie, it stops being fun and becomes labored long before the halfway point. Bond is feeding off himself so much here that at times it reminds you of one of those animals that, when caught in a trap, gnaws its own leg off. It just about gets away with it, but it gets messy. There's fun to be had, most of it in the first half before it goes all Diamonds Are Forever, but there's still the feeling that this could and should have been much better.

It's well-worth tracking down the original 2-disc DVD release for the wealth of extra features that weren't carried over to the very underwhelming recent 'Ultimate Edition,' but if you just want the film to fill in a gap in your collection, this single-disc version is a good enough

Without Doubt, the lowest point in the ENTIRE series.
It's a tough thing to decide the worst moment in the Bond series but if we're talking about really hitting rock bottom, this dire dire film surely has many of the top contenders.

Is it the sight of Madonna in a Bond film? Or maybe it's her theme tune (although to be fair, I personally wouldn't label it the worst). Maybe it's Halle Berry squirming her way through the film minus any sex appeal whatsoever? Could it be the irritating (and not in a good way) and dull Gustav Graves, or would you prefer to nominate Rosamund Pike's Miranda Frost who is totally unconvincing either as Bond's assisstant or the totally obvious double agent?

As bad as all those are, none can compare however to the invisible car. Bond films have always been daft and had more than their share of ridiculous gadgets, but for that entire scene this movie should be condemned to eternal shame.

Not that it would have been anywhere near a decent movie without that abberation. Brosnan's on auto-pilot, the supporting cast are dull and the plot/script is boring. And the attempts at encorporating famous moments from the previous 19 films within this one highlight everything that's wrong with the film.

It's the movie equivalent of that cheap CD you get from the Service Station, where it's got all your favourite songs but all sung by cut-price and unheard of singers. The only reason to buy this at all is if you've got the other 20 Bond's and need to complete your collection.