Die Another Day - Underrated
Jimmy Bond
Posts: 324MI6 Agent
I've been watching the Dalton/Brosnan entries week-by-week, with a friend who's never seen them, and we reached DAD yesterday, and to my surprise I enjoyed it more this time than previously. The flaws are all there, the need to consummate the seriousness found on TWINE still there, but I did appreciate the good stuff in it.
First of all, Pierce is really good in this. He's at his angriest, and instead of being petulant of visibly furious like Dalton in LTK, his experience in life and on the job informs his restrained but still clear desire for vengeance. In the first half in particular he drives the film and earns his place as one of the best Bonds. The action, such as it is, is still fantastically well done, and I love the cinematography, definitely the best-looking of the Dalton/Brosnan entries. And it needsto be stressed ho how good the first half of the film is. It does dip a bit when Berry's Jinx comes up, but I think up until the VR sequence with Q, it's potentially better than anything since GE. I mean, the pre-title sequence is fantastic, Bond being put to torture is just as good, his escape while extraordinary, feels like something Fleming would've written, the sword fight in the club is good, the action in the clinic is good, the M-Bond scenes are as good as ever... It's all good, man.
.... Then it goes to Iceland. Sigh. I don't need to repeat the criticism here, but suffice to say, for me, the jokes became unbearing at this point. This is a beef that I have with TND as well, but they did load Brosnans Bond with a LOT of one-liners and jokes, too many of them not working at all, either. I like the car chase, but I'd have preferred it if wasn't an invisible car. Basically, I wish the rest of the film carried in that time of the first half.
But, I still enjoyed it. Its way better than I remembered it, and I do think it works, despite its glaring flaws. Its way better than QOS, at least.
First of all, Pierce is really good in this. He's at his angriest, and instead of being petulant of visibly furious like Dalton in LTK, his experience in life and on the job informs his restrained but still clear desire for vengeance. In the first half in particular he drives the film and earns his place as one of the best Bonds. The action, such as it is, is still fantastically well done, and I love the cinematography, definitely the best-looking of the Dalton/Brosnan entries. And it needsto be stressed ho how good the first half of the film is. It does dip a bit when Berry's Jinx comes up, but I think up until the VR sequence with Q, it's potentially better than anything since GE. I mean, the pre-title sequence is fantastic, Bond being put to torture is just as good, his escape while extraordinary, feels like something Fleming would've written, the sword fight in the club is good, the action in the clinic is good, the M-Bond scenes are as good as ever... It's all good, man.
.... Then it goes to Iceland. Sigh. I don't need to repeat the criticism here, but suffice to say, for me, the jokes became unbearing at this point. This is a beef that I have with TND as well, but they did load Brosnans Bond with a LOT of one-liners and jokes, too many of them not working at all, either. I like the car chase, but I'd have preferred it if wasn't an invisible car. Basically, I wish the rest of the film carried in that time of the first half.
But, I still enjoyed it. Its way better than I remembered it, and I do think it works, despite its glaring flaws. Its way better than QOS, at least.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Lots of discussion on the Pros and cons of DAD here.