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Friday, November 22, 2002 MOVIE REVIEW: The Ties That Bond 'Die Another Day' tips its hat to past 007 adventures with subtle references By CAROL CLINGREVIEW-JOURNAL
Are we having fun yet? The answer, inevitably, depends on your idea of same. But for those whose cinematic definition includes the magic numbers 007, "Die Another Day" adds up to a return to form for Bond, James Bond. After 1999's labored, lackluster "The World Is Not Enough" (neither was the movie), the new millennium finds the 40-year-old Bond franchise in much fitter form. The basic ingredients remain relatively unchanged: guns, gadgets, goons and girls, not necessarily in that order. Which seems appropriate, considering the franchise's status as storybook fodder for grown-ups. No matter how many times the world transforms itself or turns upside down, the suave spy with the license to kill always slays the dragon of the day. And though he may be shaken in the process, he's seldom stirred. "Die Another Day," however, breathes new life into the sometimes moribund formula, from a pair of kick-butt Bond girls who give as good as they get to a mystery millionaire with a debonair flair that's reminiscent of a certain secret agent we know and love. Even more surprisingly, a smattering of edgy urgency galvanizes the popcorn proceedings, lending "Die Another Day" a glimmer of actual dramatic conflict. Not too much, mind you, but enough to make brain-engaged audiences sit up and take notice -- in between all that stuff blowing up real good. And, whether they meant to or not, the moviemakers inject a note of sober topicality to the proceedings, initially stranding 007 (Pierce Brosnan, in his fourth turn in Bondage) deep in Axis of Evil territory when he's captured by North Korean military schemers. Freed in a prisoner exchange -- into a post-Sept. 11 world -- Bond intends to resume his globe-trotting ways. But M (the commanding Judi Dench), convinced that 007 cracked under torture and revealed secret spy identities, suspends his license to kill and relegates him to a ship in Hong Kong harbor. Yet M must know Bond will escape -- first to a swanky yacht club where he cleans up and makes a few deals, then to Cuba in hot pursuit of the killer (a snarling Rick Yune) who helped instigate his imprisonment. That sultry Havana sojourn provides an initial close encounter with the even sultrier Jinx (a saucy Halle Berry), who's as adept undercover as she is under the covers, as Bond discovers when he infiltrates a mysterious medical clinic specializing in face-altering DNA transplants -- and finds Jinx there too. From Cuba, the trail leads back to London -- and 007's reinstatement as an MI6 agent. It also leads to dashing diamond mogul Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens, Maggie Smith's son, in gleeful megalomaniac mode), who's about to be knighted -- and about to unveil a new device that could change the world. Or, perhaps, destroy it. That explains why Bond's off to Graves' massive Icelandic ice palace -- but not before he stops by Q's House of Fun (now overseen by the crisply wry John Cleese, replacing the late Desmond Llewelyn) to pick up his latest allotment of spy toys, including an Aston-Martin Vanquish with an uncanny ability to vanish. Naturally, Jinx has arrived to heat up Iceland too. But she's got some competition in the bodacious babe department from the icily alluring Miss Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), who advises Graves on public relations -- and possibly private ones too. Thus, all the elements seem in place for the slam-bang set pieces that ought to provide the movie's climax. Alas, "Die Another Day" succumbs to over-the-top-itis, that raging cinematic epidemic in which movies refuse to end -- even when they should. As a result, the movie charges past the point of diminishing returns, demonstrating that more definitely means less when it comes to sustaining suspense and excitement. "Die Another Day" suffers from other script problems as well. Screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (who also collaborated on "The World Is Not Enough") create a story line that's more complicated than it needs to be. For a change, some of "Die Another Day's" characters have sufficient substance to support actual development -- particularly with Brosnan continuing his quest to temper Bond's impeccable insouciance with a bit more gravity. But "Die Another Day's" too busy wasting precious time slogging through plot complications to take advantage. To their credit, however, Purvis and Wade come up with a reasonable array of snappy quips -- some of the best delivered by supporting characters, including Madonna, who turns up in a cameo as a sharp-tongued swordmistress. (At least her lines are keener than her dance-trance theme, which seems unlikely to enter the pantheon of 007 classics occupied by the likes of "Goldfinger" and "Live and Let Die.") "Die Another Day" also tips its hat to Bond's cinematic legacy with a host of visual references to previous adventures, from killer lasers to the unfurling of a Union Jack parachute to Jinx's emergence from an ocean swim in the same manner (and in a similar, if teenier, bikini) Ursula Andress employed in 1962's "Dr. No," 007's big-screen debut. Cynics will call it recycling; Bondphiles will appreciate the slyly flippant tributes. Most of the time, however, director Lee Tamahori ("The Edge," "Along Came a Spider") shows off a muscular, elemental style that helps bridge the gap between "Die Another Day's" dramatic elements and its full-throttle action. And now that computer-generated effects make staging the impossible more possible than ever, Tamahori wisely punctuates the digital fakery with old-fashioned stunt sequences that give "Die Another Day" a refreshingly retro -- and satisfyingly rousing -- feel. Somehow, going back to the past gives "Die Another Day" enough forward momentum to give Bond a future -- one that's worth anticipating, for a change. |
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