Die Another Day (2002)

The 20th entry in the James Bond spy thriller franchise, this fast-paced film is a slick, expensively mounted effort to hang onto the shrinking audience for 007 pictures without straying too far from the formula of guns, gadgets, and girls. Director Lee Tamahori and screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade mostly succeed in this attempt, presenting a stylish and furiously paced yarn that moves seamlessly from one set piece to the next, with a few sly winks at their protagonist's past (Bond's masquerading briefly as an ornithologist is a clever bit of business, named as the character is after a famed bird expert). Unfortunately, it all feels a bit too tailor-made for die-hard Bond fans only. Like the central characters in so many long-running film series and TV shows before him, Bond's greatest strength is also his greatest weakness: he never really changes. A prologue that hints at the creation of a tougher, meaner Bond never really bears fruit, and the character is quickly brought into line with fan expectations of a suave, imperturbable ladies' man. Inhabiting his role like a second skin, Pierce Brosnan is a terrific Bond -- arguably the best since the original -- but isn't given enough to do beyond smirking and trying to match action with his stunt double. Halle Berry has some impact as the memorably beautiful Jinx, the best "Bond girl" in a long stretch and, at long last, the hero's feminine equal in physical bravura and swaggering attitude. But even a gorgeous corporate spokesmodel in an orange bikini and brilliantly staged, elaborately captured action sequences are dulled without the sense of urgency and imminent danger that derives from emotional involvement -- and it's this crucial element that the Bond series still lacks after 40 years. Like many of the characters played by John Wayne in his heyday, Bond's appeal lies in his impenetrable superiority, but it's exactly this same cartoonish quality that dooms him to endlessly loop variations on the same theme. Bond has become a granite rock of storytelling against which the breathless thrill of surprise -- that frisson that can only come with a character's evolution -- has been too often dashed. Die Another Day (2002) is by no means a bad Bond film, but it's proof yet again that this series badly needs to be both shaken and stirred. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide