Die Another Bond.
Me, Mike and Jason went over to Greenhills after closing down Comic Quest to watch the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day. As with Chamber of Secrets, we got tickets beforehand so we could just zip in and watch without any problems. Watching at Theater Mall is pretty cool since the seats are comfy and new; the only bad thing is that during the last full show we always tend to miss the snack bar popcorn. No popcorn tonight, but we had Doritos to satisfy us.
Die Another Day sees Pierce Brosnan taking once again the role of our favorite secret agent. At the start of the film, Bond replaces an illicit diamond dealer to assassinate a North Vietnamese colonel named Moon, who is producing special weapons for use against the west. Everything is going smoothly until Bond's cover is blown, apparently by a traitor. After a hovercraft chase and battle, the prologue sequence ends with Moon falling over a waterfall to his death, and Bond getting captured by NVA troops and being thrown into prison! This somewhat perilous beginning made us all think that DAD would be a very different and perhaps more gritty Bond. Well, at least I thought that until the sexy CG intro title sequence came on with a horrid Madonna song. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?
Anyway, Bond spends the next 14 months in the North Vietnamese prison, but he is eventually released in an exchange with an NVA soldier and saboteur named Zao, who served under the late Colonel Moon. Later, Bond knows finds out that he is being accused of disclosing information to the enemy under torture. Disgraced and distrusted, Bond eventually goes on his own after Zao to get the only thing he has left... revenge. The trail leads Bond to a magnate named Gustav Graves and a plot that may threaten the safety of the world... naturally.
Okay, I've read several reviews which praised DAD as the 'best Bond in a long time', but I have to say... well, yeah... compared to trash like The World is Not Enough, I can accept that. On the one hand though, Die Another Day is enjoyable with nice scenes set in a ice hotel and sexy Halle Berry . However, it also has a lot of cons. It is yet again another stab at trying to be 'realistic' and true to the headlines (this time with the North Koreans as the baddies). There are some glaring scenes like Bond surfing that just screams BLUE SCREEN! Yet again, the villains are nowhere near as compelling as classic Bond baddies. Zao is no Oddjob or Jaws... he's just some Vietnamese soldier (albeit a good one) who tends to get his face messed up. You can pretty much see who the 'secret' traitor is a mile away, plus I have to say the secret behind Gustav Graves is a STRETCH. Some action setpieces, like the car dogfight is a bit clunky, and I have to say... why does Captain Amazing from Mystery Men suddenly appear at the finale? What the Hell?
All in all, I have to say DAD is the best of Brosnan's Bonds... but it demands LOTS of suspensions of disbelief... far more than we (Mike, especially) could muster before we just had to shake our heads and go, 'Silly, silly."
Heh. Whatever. We had a great laugh after the showing though. Heh.
Me, Mike and Jason went over to Greenhills after closing down Comic Quest to watch the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day. As with Chamber of Secrets, we got tickets beforehand so we could just zip in and watch without any problems. Watching at Theater Mall is pretty cool since the seats are comfy and new; the only bad thing is that during the last full show we always tend to miss the snack bar popcorn. No popcorn tonight, but we had Doritos to satisfy us.
Die Another Day sees Pierce Brosnan taking once again the role of our favorite secret agent. At the start of the film, Bond replaces an illicit diamond dealer to assassinate a North Vietnamese colonel named Moon, who is producing special weapons for use against the west. Everything is going smoothly until Bond's cover is blown, apparently by a traitor. After a hovercraft chase and battle, the prologue sequence ends with Moon falling over a waterfall to his death, and Bond getting captured by NVA troops and being thrown into prison! This somewhat perilous beginning made us all think that DAD would be a very different and perhaps more gritty Bond. Well, at least I thought that until the sexy CG intro title sequence came on with a horrid Madonna song. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?
Anyway, Bond spends the next 14 months in the North Vietnamese prison, but he is eventually released in an exchange with an NVA soldier and saboteur named Zao, who served under the late Colonel Moon. Later, Bond knows finds out that he is being accused of disclosing information to the enemy under torture. Disgraced and distrusted, Bond eventually goes on his own after Zao to get the only thing he has left... revenge. The trail leads Bond to a magnate named Gustav Graves and a plot that may threaten the safety of the world... naturally.
Okay, I've read several reviews which praised DAD as the 'best Bond in a long time', but I have to say... well, yeah... compared to trash like The World is Not Enough, I can accept that. On the one hand though, Die Another Day is enjoyable with nice scenes set in a ice hotel and sexy Halle Berry . However, it also has a lot of cons. It is yet again another stab at trying to be 'realistic' and true to the headlines (this time with the North Koreans as the baddies). There are some glaring scenes like Bond surfing that just screams BLUE SCREEN! Yet again, the villains are nowhere near as compelling as classic Bond baddies. Zao is no Oddjob or Jaws... he's just some Vietnamese soldier (albeit a good one) who tends to get his face messed up. You can pretty much see who the 'secret' traitor is a mile away, plus I have to say the secret behind Gustav Graves is a STRETCH. Some action setpieces, like the car dogfight is a bit clunky, and I have to say... why does Captain Amazing from Mystery Men suddenly appear at the finale? What the Hell?
All in all, I have to say DAD is the best of Brosnan's Bonds... but it demands LOTS of suspensions of disbelief... far more than we (Mike, especially) could muster before we just had to shake our heads and go, 'Silly, silly."
Heh. Whatever. We had a great laugh after the showing though. Heh.
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