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Die Another Day is directed by Lee Tamahori. The film
stars Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, and co-stars Halle Berry,
Judi Dench, and John Cleese. ***
James Bond is captured and held as a hostage following
a mission gone horribly wrong. When he is finally freed
in exchange for another prisoner, he finds himself hot on
the trail of a mysterious millionaire, who like so many
characters in the James Bond series, isn’t all that he seems.
It’s up to Bond to do battle with a new threat and prevent
a super weapon from being used against the world. ***
Prior to this, Pierce Brosnan appeared in three James
Bond films. The first one, Goldeneye, was the best James
Bond movie since the sixties. The two that came after weren’t
great films, but they were at least “average” level. It
was the closest thing the Bond series had to a hot streak”
since the glory days of Sean Connery as Bond. ***
How could they screw up THIS bad? ***
Die Another Day is the film that was supposed to celebrate
the 40 year anniversary of the James Bond franchise. Instead,
it ends up as a two-hour-plus farce that seems obsessed
with referencing as many past films as possible, relying
on gadgetry more than any Bond film in the past, and jam-packing
as much CGI in as could be possibly put in one film. Not
to mention it has Halle Berry, who is tragically miscast
(she’s a fine actress, but just doesn ’t seem right as a
Bond Girl.) Die Another Day makes the series die today.
It’s not hard to see why the next film in the series was
a reboot. ***
The story is as campy and over-the-top as anything
EON was doing in the past few decades, and that’s saying
a lot. In the 30 year period that came before this film,
we’ve seen Bond do any number of campy things – drive a
moon buggy, fight the midget from Fantasy Island, go to
space, dress like a clown, fight on top of a blimp, and
ride a cello case down a snowy mountain. I thought I’d seen
it all. Here you’ll see 007 racing an invisible car across
a glacier, and even meet Madonna in a fencing school… If
reading this summary of the movie makes you ill, imagine
how bad seeing it will make you cringe. ***
David Arnold returns to score the film, something he
has done since 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. As always his
scoring gets the job done, and he has proven himself as
the series’ successor to John Barry. Madonna’s theme song,
on the other hand, is just as cringe-inducing as the film
itself (and this is coming from a Madonna fan – who owns
just about every release she has ever put out!) ***
Long story short, there’s not much going on here. Actually,
let me reword that. There’s TOO much going on here, and
due to the farcical nature of it all, the movie never quite
hits the mark. Agent 007 has a licence to kill – and here
the franchise succeeded in killing its audience. 1 star
out of 5. ---
Image and Sound:
Several years ago, the James Bond movies (which had
seen a ton of home video releases already) underwent an
extensive, frame-by-frame restoration. A good deal of print
damage and dirt were removed in an effort that took several
years to complete. ***
The end result is, to put it simply, well worth it.
***
Lowry Digital Images knows how to restore movies. Their
restoration of the James Bond back catalogue is, hands down,
the greatest restoration job this reviewer has EVER seen.
This film is no exception. They have taken movies, that
are in some cases, nearly half a century old, and made them
look as good as they day when they premiered in theatres,
if not better. The image is clear throughout, without any
sort of issue. From what I can tell, no DNR was used in
these transfers, and there is a staggering amount of detain
not noticeable in any standard-def release of the movie.
Lowry did one hell of a job restoring this franchise. ***
As if the image restoration wasn’t enough, the films
now have lossless audio tracks. If you’ve got a speaker
set, you’ll be able to experience these films (both audio
and visual-wise) like you never have before.
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