Die Another Day is James Bond’s 20th turn on the silver screen and it’s also the best Bond movie of the past decade. After 40 years of following the same formula, Bond has become a true franchise and Die Another Day does nothing to stray from the cliches, which is exactly what makes it so great.
Resisting the temptation to update Bond by putting him on some sort of anti-Middle East terrorism mission, the filmmakers chose to eschew the current concerns of the real world and use a classic plot stand-by: good old diamond smuggling. Die Another Day’s plot could easily have been put together in the days of Roger Moore or Sean Connery — all of the standard Austin Powerisms are neatly packed into it’s deliciously ridiculous storyline. There’s an evil villain with a scientifically impossible weather changing device with which he plans to take over the world, identity-changing medical techniques, loads of fancy gadgets obtained through a visit to Q (John Cleese), bad one-liners, glamourous black-tie parties and the requisite buxom Bond girls. There aren’t any sharks with lasers on their heads, but it gets close.
Pierce Brosnan has graduated from being ’’the new guy’’ and has taken his place as a classic Bond. Debonair and capable of taking on the explosive action scenes, he finally seems completely comfortable with taking on Bond’s cliches, while still making the character his own. Halle Berry’s performance as American agent Jinx is tolerable — although following with the film’s American vs. British undertones, Berry’s character is loud and a wee bit uncouth and lacking in worldly charm. While that does at times make her on-screen presence annoying, physically, she makes a great Bond girl and she certainly holds her own in the action sequences. Rosamund Pike (who plays Bond’s other love interest), on the other hand, puts in a solid performance as an uptight English publicist/double agent.
The movie is stolen, however, by Toby Stephens, who plays the delightfully arrogant Gustav Graves, an Icelandic diamond tycoon who Bond is sure is up to no good. His performance is both skillful and campy, which sets the tone for the entire movie. This is a film that pays homage to Bond’s history without taking itself too seriously. Director Lee Tamahori wisely put his ego aside and rather than trying to be an artiste and take Bond to new heights, he played it cool by using the tried and true to his advantage. Die Another Day is over-the-top, absurd, slightly sexist and filled with unintentional hilarity. And, when you’re talking James Bond, that amounts to near perfection.