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Top:
Halle Berry as Jinx: a delectable and very capable CIA agent.
Below: Pierce Brosnan as James Bond: calm, cool and
looking charming in black.
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Another
bevy of Bond girls
Die
Another Day
Starring
Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, John Cleese
and Judi Dench.
Reviewer
:: The Big Irish Git
Bond
is back – shaken, stirred, battered, bruised and generally
looking more than a little the worse for wear. And it has nothing
to do with the fact that Britain’s best and most successful
licensed killer has been saving the world for exactly 40 years.
No,
this time, during his latest escapade, James is sprung by the bad
guys and, despite his usual, massively destructive escape attempt,
is captured behind enemy lines.
For
the next 14 months (or at least the duration of the opening credits),
the normally unflappable Mr Bond is tortured and abused by his North
Korean captors, all the while sure in his own mind that his country
has forsaken him – as, indeed, they had.
But,
unusually, fate, and not Bond himself, plays a hand in dealing 007
a chance to die another day. Trouble is, MI6 and the whole Western
spy fraternity are less than happy to see him back in one, albeit
scruffy, piece.
Having
been rescued from North Korea and not content to be delivered quietly
in to spy-world retirement, James makes a daring escape in Hong
Kong harbour before proceeding with haste to Cuba.
It
is here he meets the delectable and, it transpires, very capable
CIA agent, Jinx (Berry).
Between
the two of them they lay waste to a cliff-top “beauty parlour”
before proceeding to the wide, open wastes of Iceland for the film’s
biggest, best and compulsory car chase.
As
if that wasn’t enough travelling for one movie, they eventually
end up back in North Korea to save the world from the baddie with
the big gun.
Die
Another Day expands and develops some welcome facets to the franchise.
Brosnan’s
first appearance as James Bond, although long awaited by Remington
Steel fans, was a little disappointing.
Goldeneye
was dogged by rampant political correctness, with both the womanising
and the violence underplayed – the latter to such an extent
it was reminiscent of a made-for-TV special where you know the bad
guy is cactus, but you never actually see the killer blow.
Tomorrow
Never Dies brought back some of the grit to the action and also
introduced the concept that Bond could possibly have an equal in
the spy game – Chinese agent Wai Lin.
Then,
in the opening sequences of The World is not Enough – shock,
horror – Bond is hurt and carries a niggling injury throughout
the show.
This
latter-day chink in the armour, this fallibility, this notion that
007 is, after all, only human, is explored even further in this
latest, and let’s hope not the last, Brosnan Bond film.
Die
Another Day is, dare I say it, the best Bond yet. It is fast paced,
witty and bursting with all the women, cars, women, gadgets, women,
gimmicks and over-the-top stunts you know you want from Bond, James
Bond. And if Jinx and Halle Berry get their rumoured spin-off franchise,
I will be at the head of the queue.
The Big Irish
Git rates this movie 5 shamrocks
You
can view more than 100 other movie reviews by The Big Irish Git
on his personal web site www.bigirishgit.com
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