White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Heroes Are Forever: James Bond is Cool.

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. Movie Review by Rob Barrabee of The Yonkers Tribune. November 27, 2003:Above all else, James Bond is cool. He’s cool in the way he orders his martinis. He’s cool in the way he seduces his women. He walks cool, he talks cool, he even gets beaten up cool. In Die Another Day, the latest addition to the 40 year-old James Bond franchise, his coolness shifts into an even higher gear; his coolness, in fact, carries the film.

While making its way towards the climax, for example, Die Another Day devotes a good deal of its time to, surprise surprise, a car chase. Almost unbelievably, though, I would actually venture to say that, in this case, it’s time well spent. Car chases are perhaps the most overused element in all of action film, but James Bond’s car chases are different. They are better. How come? Coolness, pure and simple.

James drives an incredibly cool car (an Aston Martin, with all the best fixins); he drives it in an incredibly cool locale (the icy plains of Iceland); and, most importantly, even while driving, he behaves in a manner that can only be described as, you guessed it, cool (at a crucial moment in the chase, Bond’s car flips, and, as it does so, viewers are treated to a close-up of his face.

His expression shows no signs of even the least bit of distress; he is calm, collected, and cool, even in the midst of this life threatening car accident. He sits in a flipping car exactly as he would sit in the padded chair of a ritzy hotel dining room, pondering the wide selection of entrées).

All of this coolness is why I watch James Bond movies. It is why companies like Ford and Sony happily fork over millions for the privilege of placing their products somewhere inside James Bond’s world (Die Another Day reportedly has over $120 million in product placement deals). It is why, after forty years and twenty films, James Bond is still going strong.

The Usual Plot

Shifting from coolness to “as usuals,” the film’s plot, as usual, is stuffed full of ludicrous political intrigue (North Korea, South Korea, US interference, demilitarized zones, blah blah blah). As usual, the film’s characters never show more than kitchen-sink depth (which is not much). As usual, the action sequences vastly overshadow both the ludicrous plot and the shallow characters (more on that later).

As is becoming usual, Pierce Brosnan plays Bond with style and flare (all that aforementioned coolness would not be possible without him). As is altogether unusual, the film’s trademark Bond girl (played by Halle Berry) is quite a fighter in her own right (although she still manages, on a couple of occasions, to get herself into classic Damsel-In-Distress situations).

Returning to as usual, the villains of the film (played by Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, Rosamund Pike, and Will Yun Lee) are delightfully quirky and delightfully wicked (a killer satellite dish, diamonds-in-the-face, et cetera).

Q and M (John Cleese and Judi Dench) are, as usual, scene stealers, and Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) is completely infatuated with her boss, as usual.

In the previous paragraph, I commented, among other things, on the frequency of action sequences in the film. To better grasp this frequency, I have set up a comparison, and the comparison is this: relatively speaking, there are more action scenes (chases, explosions, shoot-outs, sword fights, cliff dives, et cetera) in Die Another Day than there are “as usuals” in the previous paragraphs. Get the idea?

Lack of Mystery

Because of all the chases, explosions, shoot-outs, sword fights, cliff dives, et cetera, the element of mystery in James Bond movies has become increasingly sparse. It is still there, of course, just not as much as it should be. To make up for this shortage, I have included in this review (along with the last paragraph’s “comparison”) a mystery of my own. For the very first time, I have written into a review a legitimate spoiler, but it is shrewdly hidden. If (and only if) you have already seen the movie, feel free to go back and see if you can find it.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, forget about my spoiler and get to the theater fast, because, despite its numerous flaws, Die Another Day is pretty cool. Die Another Day, directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, and Judi Dench. Running time: 123 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for action violence and sexuality).

Note: WPCNR is pleased to bring back the CinemaFanatic, Rob Barrabee, of The Yonkers Tribune with his "take" on the latest James Bond film in a theater near you, as they say in the trailers


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