Die Another Day

Die Another Day is the twentieth James Bond movie, released in 2002. It is also the last movie in the series to star Pierce Brosnan in the title role. While the film received mixed reviews from critics, the movie is widely considered to be one of the worst James Bond movies ever made, alongside A View to a Kill.

Plot
After a mission gone wrong, James Bond (Brosnan) gets imprisoned by the North Korean military. 14 months later, he is traded for KPA officer-turned-terrorist Zao (Rick Yune) as part of a prisoner exchange. When he gets discharged by MI6, he becomes a rogue agent to continue his hunt for Zao.

While hunting down Zao, he is joined by NSA agent Jinx (Halle Berry). Eventually, the two come across billionaire and diamond mogul Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), who may or may not have connections with the North Koreans.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Overuse of surfing scenes throughout the film, which adds nothing but serves as filler.
 * 2) Unbelievably terrible and very noticeable computer-generated effects, especially during the para-surfing scene. They even managed to screw up the iconic gun barrel sequence at the beginning by adding in a CGI bullet, which completely ruins the illusion.
 * 3) The film tries way too hard to throw in homages and references to earlier James Bond movies while hoping the audience won't notice the entire plot is also copied from earlier Bond movies. The main storyline is essentially copied from Diamonds Are Forever, which was already considered one of the weakest Bond films, with elements of Licence to Kill (Bond's brief stint as a rogue agent operating outside of MI6) tacked on.
 * 4) Weirdly placed product placements, such as British Airways, Philips, Smirnoff, The London Underground, and Aston Martin (Though, to be fair, Aston Martin was typical for all Bond films). This led to some calling it "Buy Another Day".
 * 5) It comes across as a self-parody in several scenes, such as a henchman named "Mr. Kil" and the fact that one of Bond's gadgets is an invisible car.
 * 6) You'd think after 14 months of captivity, someone would have fished those diamond fragments out of Zao's face before trying to put an entirely new look on him.
 * 7) Schizophrenic and headache-inducing editing with overuse of poor slow-motion effects.
 * 8) Outlandish moments that come close to the worst of the Roger Moore films ("gene therapy" turns a Korean man Caucasian, and Bond somehow knows how to fight with a broadsword and stop his own heart).
 * 9) The acting isn't too good for most of the cast, especially for Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.
 * 10) Bad theme song by Madonna, with awful autotune and lyrics to boot (such as "I'm gonna close my body now.").
 * 11) Cringeworthy dialogue full of unfunny puns about sex and masturbation.
 * 12) So much hammy acting occurs that Madonna can seem like a natural part of the film's world.
 * 13) The film seems to treat Jinx as more the main character than Bond at some points, suggesting that the producers were using the film to set up a stand-alone Jinx film (which was in development at one point, but canceled after Catwoman bombed).
 * 14) Bond, at one point, catches the idiot ball and forgets to check if his gun is still loaded before facing down the bad guys.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Mostly good action scenes, such as the hovercraft chase that opens the movie and the car chase on ice.
 * 2) The idea of Bond being captured is a good premise and leads to the imaginative use of the traditional opening credits sequence.
 * 3) The fencing sequence is not well explained and lacks common sense, yet it is a great action sequence with outstanding choreography and pacing.
 * 4) The girls are pretty, even if not helped by their characterization (Halle Berry) or acting (Rosamund Pike).
 * 5) Pierce Brosnan is still doing an excellent job as the main character.
 * 6) John Cleese is a decent replacement for the late Desmond Llewelyn as Q.
 * 7) The original James Bond theme is still used.
 * 8) If you are a fan of the campier elements of James Bond films, you might like it.

Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, with a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Its action may be a bit too over-the-top for some, but Die Another Day is lavishly crafted and succeeds in evoking classic Bond themes from the franchise's earlier installments." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed and average reviews". However audience and fans of the series critically panned the film, fans panned the story, CGI effects, produced placements, and its unoriginal story, leaving just a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes score.

Despite the mixed reviews that Die Another Day received when released, a retrospective comment piece in 2020 stated that it is “considered by many to be the worst entry in James Bond’s canon” and compares unfavorably to The Bourne Identity (released several months previously), which “ushered in a new era of violent, gritty action-espionage movies” and gave rise to the “stripped-down, no-nonsense” Bond of Daniel Craig starting with Casino Royale.

Trivia

 * 1) The late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, who was a James Bond fan, got hold of a copy of the film, and he thought it was so bad that he declared James Bond to be an enemy of North Korea.

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