Die Another Day DVD review

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Dom Robinson reviews

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MGM

Cert:
Cat.no: 23751 DVD
Running time: 127 minutes
Year: 2002
Pressing: 2003
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 36 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX, DTS 5.1 ES
Languages: English
Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing, Dutch
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
RRP: £24.99
Extras: MI6 Datastream, Inside Die Another Day, Shaken and Stirred – On Ice,Mission Deconstruction, Equipment Briefing, Image Database, Ministry ofPropaganda, Region 2 Exclusive, Two Audio Commentaries.

Director:

Lee Tamahori

(Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, The Edge, The Guide, Mulholland Falls, Once Were Warriors, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Thunderbox, TV: The Ray Bradbury Theatre, The Sopranos)

Producers:

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson

Screenplay:

Neal Purvis and Robert Wade

Music:

David Arnold

Cast:

Die Another Day, or ‘Bond 20’. Can you find the plot?

Well, there is one but it’s nothing to write home about. Bond (Pierce Brosnan)finds himself locked up in a cell for 14 months after bumping off Colonel Moon(Will Yun Lee) in spectacular style, much to the annoyance of hisfather. However, imprisonment with the Moons of Korea is a more attractiveoption than spending time with the Moons of Albert Square, but just as he’sgetting into doing time Bond is released in a trade for an enemy calledZao (Rick Yune) who has a bit of a skin problem after James showed himthat diamonds are not a man’s best friend.

There’s a hospital that’s helping patient achieve new identies with DNAtransplants and Zao’s their latest customer, but after a chase with Bond heleaves diamonds behind that came from lucky billionaire Gustav Graves whichlook exactly like African conflict diamonds, whatever those are but that doesn’treally matter.

Along the line there’s a feisty female known as Jinx (Halle Berry) whohas her own reasons for going after Zao and together they have to find whatreally links their Korean friend with Graves – and hope to put both of themin one.

Pierce Brosnan gets the Lynx effect
with the gorgeous Rachel Grant.

Die Another Day features an explosion in a hospital, swordfighting,an explosion in an ice palace, a car chase, a treacherous MI6 employee, a newproject from Graves called “Icarus” which harnesses the sun’s energy and causehavoc where intended elsewhere – so another explosion or three then, it harksback to previous Bond films such as Jinx coming out of the water, a laDr. No, plusa line from Toby Stephens when he says “Diamonds are for everyone”,an air-sucking moment likeGoldfinger‘s,the dodgy shoe fromFrom Russia With Love.and the jetpack fromThunderball.It’s just too self-referrential to be a worthy contender.

See some incredibly iffy CGI work as Bond rides the big one, or dodges GeneralMoon’s early attempts to give him a good flaming. Even the one-liners arepredictable. There’s uncredited cameos from model Anna Edwards asScorpion Girl, a brief appearance in the ice palace from model CatherineMcQueen and aging songstress Madonna, who performs the appallingtheme tune, as swordplay watcher Verity.

It does end up as two hours of mildlydiverting fluff, albeit far from a classic Bond by any means and not one I’dparticularly want to see again. I’m not a fan of Halle Berry’s and most of therest of the cast leaves me cold, like the scenery. Rosamund Pike lookscute when she lets her hair down but in any other scene with Brosnan there’sabsolutely zero chemistry, particularly in bed. Only Rachel Grant asthe masseuse known as Peaceful Fountains of Desire brings a warm glow to myheart…

New to Bond – flying cars!

Filmed and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, it’s as crisp andclear as you’d ever want a disc to look. While there’s some dodgy CGI,there are moments of special effects that look fantastic such as theplane falling apart in one section.

This is the first Bond to get a two-disc release and it allows the film tobenefit from both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surrounx EX and DTS 5.1 ES sound formats.I chose the latter and it’s a real workout for your system. From the lasersshooting all over the shop as Jinx is trapped to just about anything thatinvolves an explosion the split-surround effects are to die for. While thefilm itself is rather lame, the AV experience is demo quality.

“Now I see the light!”

As mentioned above, this is the first two-disc release for a Bond film andthe extras are as follows:

MI6 Datastream:After you’ve seen the film once, watch it again with text appearing onscreenall the way through that gives more detail about all aspects of it.
Inside Die Another Day (76 mins):A lengthy look behind the scenes, looking at opening surfing sequence, the hovercraftchase, the Cuba that wasn’t, the role of John Cleese as Q now that he’sfully taken over from Desmond Lewellyn, the ice palace, the car chase andthe post-production work applied to the movie. Presented in anamorphic 16:9widescreen, this can be more engaging than the film it’s talking about.
Shaken and Stirred – On Ice (24 mins):Placed within the ‘Inside…’ menu – Action, stunts and set design at theice palace.
Mission Deconstruction (33 mins):Scene Evolutions describe storyboard-to-film comparisons for thehovercraft chase and the car battle, Inter-action sequences providemulti-angle viewings of the hovercraft chase, the car battle, the swordfightingand the fight scenes in the film’s climax, Title design looks at thedesign of the title sequence – surprisingly – and Digital Gradingis a process that digitally-enhances the entire film to make it look exactlythe way you want it to.
Equipment Briefing (5 mins):An inside look at the Bond weapons this time round. Short but sweet in mostcases, but there’s a longer look at the Aston Martin Vanquish. This sectionis voiced by someone trying to sound like John Cleese and not the man himself.
Image Database:The cast, the sets, the locations, the stunts, the special effects, thevehicles and the gadgets. It’s all here.
Ministry of Propaganda (25 mins):Trailers and videos, starting with a theatrical trailer (16:9 anamorphic, 2mins), two teaser trailers (one in 2.35:1 anamorphic, the other 16:9 anamorphicand a minute long each), plus TV spots (8 of them totalling just over 4 minutes,all in 16:9 letterbox).
Following the music video for Madonna’s Die Another Day theme (16:9letterboxed, 4½ mins) comes a “making of” featurette for it (2.00:1letterbox – strange ratio, 4 mins). There’s a trailer for the 007Nightfire game (4:3, 1½ mins) which appears to use Pierce Brosnan’slikeness but not his voice and then a “making of” the game where the creatorsget to talk about what made it tick (4:3, 3½ mins)

Finally there’s a trailer for the James Bond Collector’s Edition DVD boxset (3½ mins)(see here for more detailsalthough note that the boxset is now deleted. Still, at least it did includeThe Living Daylights which was missing as a single-disc title when MGMforgot to renew the licence for it)
Region 2 Exclusive (52 mins):Another behind-the-scenes featurette with more info about the film andapparently is exactly what it says on the tin.
Two Audio Commentaries: One featuring director Lee Tamahoriand producer Michael G Wilson and the second with Pierce Brosnanand Rosamund Pike, with Pierce commenting that both Cadiz, Spain andHackney Wick in London are used as doubles for Cuba.

There are 36 chapters to the film, so four more than a usual major MGM release,subtitles in English for the hard of hearing and Dutch, plus exceptionalmenus which have short amounts of animation and sound repeating over and over,all in keeping with the theme of the film.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS

OVERALL

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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