ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Die Another Day (2002)

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 2001 to 2010
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:28 pm    Post subject: Die Another Day (2002) Reply with quote




Frankly, there aren't any bad Bond movies with Pierce Brosnan, and this the best of the bunch when it comes to sci-fi FX.





Ya gotta love a movie with a villain who uses gene therapy to change himself from a nasty North Korean to an uppity British jackass.

He's got an ice castle in the Arctic and a boffo satellite in orbit with a ray Darth Vader would give one of his remaining body parts to get his black-gloved hands on.






Halle Berry is hotter than the heat beam the bad guy uses to melt the pack ice! (Oh, and Rosamund Pike is responsible for some serious global warming, too.)


_


The climax involves multiple battles between the good guys and the bad guys aboard a massive military aircraft flying over North Korea while the satellite-based heat beam blasts all the land mines in the DMZ so the North Koreans can invade South Korea!

Like . . . wow . . .

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Sep 23, 2022 2:15 pm; edited 9 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
scotpens
Starship Captain


Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 871
Location: The Left Coast

PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 4:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't speak for the movie since I haven't seen it, but it has absolutely the worst title song of any Bond film. Maybe Madonna's "Die Another Day" was meant to be "edgy," but it just sounds grating, dissonant and ugly.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Krel
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We disagree greatly on this on Bud. I saw the trailer for this one, and went NOPE! When I saw it on cable, I didn't regret my decision one bit, not even Michael Madsen could help it. Matter how hot Halle Berry was, this one was just too ridiculous, even worse than "Moonraker"! And that's saying something.

Much as I like him, the Bronsnan Bond movies never clicked with me, but this one was the end. I just couldn't bring myself to pay to see it at the show. I have not seen a Bond movie at the show since, and I will not with the dead fish they have in the role now.

After the movie came out there was some talk that they were going to do some movies with Halle Berry as her character from this movie, with Michael Madsen continuing as her Handler. Then the production company came out and said there there would be, under no circumstances, ANY movies with Halle Berry. I wonder what went on behind the scenes there.

David.
Back to top
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
No matter how hot Halle Berry was, this one was just too ridiculous, even worse than "Moonraker"! And that's saying something.

Well, we can agree to disagree, I suppose . . . but I'm afraid I'll still have to kill you, old boy. Pity. 'Twas rather of fond of you, s'matter of fact. Sad

As for this movie being "too ridiculous", good heavens, sir! Which Bond movie wasn't too ridiculous? Shocked

Take, for example, the casting of Roger Moore in the first place (a mistake), and then his retention in the role long after he was well past the age for anybody but his mother to be glad he was having so much fun, and finally (one ridiculous step even further) the presence of poor Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny after she had begun to look like the aforementioned mother of Roger himself!

By the time they got to Octopussy they were practically having Lois just wave at Roger from the outer office while he was talking to M. Any closer and we'd think she was Queen Elizabeth in a cameo!

I think Moonraker is actually one of Roger's better Bond movies (all that nifty space stuff). Or the others were even worse, I don't know which.

As far as the Connery Bond movies go, Goldfinger was terrific — and they never made another one with Sean that was half as good. Compare the "big climax" in Diamonds Are Forever (on a very small, so-called oil platform) to the big space battle in Moonraker.

Oh, and about Daniel Craig. I guess I don't care for his Bond for the same reason the Godzilla fans didn't like the movie made in 1998. Craig is Bond in name only. He's way too serious. He needs a chilled glass of the ridiculous — shaken, not stirred.

With an olive. Very Happy

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Sep 23, 2022 1:59 pm; edited 4 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
scotpens
Starship Captain


Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 871
Location: The Left Coast

PostPosted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
As for this movie being "too ridiculous", good heavens, sir! Which Bond movie wasn't too ridiculous? Shocked

From Russia with Love. It was only the second of the Saltzman-Broccoli Bond films, so the formula hadn't yet set in. It's pretty much a straightforward espionage thriller with no fantastic content, no far-out gadgets, no over-the-top stunts or chase scenes. And, except for the dated Cold War politics, it still holds up rather well.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Krel
Guest





PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 12:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Take, for example, the casting of Roger Moore in the first place (a mistake)

I don't believe so. Roger Moore can be very serious and deadly in parts, when the script calls for it. See "The Wild Geese", "Ffolkes", even "For Your Eyes Only" as examples. The blame for the change in tone of the Bond movies came directly from the producers. They deliberately decided to take the movies in a different direction after Sean Connery quit the part to avoid comparisons between the two different Bonds. It didn't work.

Roger Moore was actually the second choice to play Bond over Sean Connery, but he was still doing "The Saint" at the time. They also considered him too young looking for Bond, even though he is three years older than Sean Connery.

The first pick for Bond was Patric McGoohan. He turned the role down because he thought the character of Bond was immoral. It is a shame though, if you watch him in "Ice Station Zebra", you can see that he would have been THE James Bond.

What most people forget about Bond, is that he is an Intelligence Agent, but not a Spy, he is an Assassin. The Spies point out the potential danger, and Bond is sent in to eliminate the target. Or he is sent in to determine whether or not the target(s) needs to be killed to stop the danger.

David.
Back to top
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3401
Location: New York

PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have always greatly enjoyed the Bond films. The very first one I ever saw at the theater was Thunderball.

Gadgets, gals, espionage, colorful villains, action, stunts, world conquering plots. What's not to like?

DAD had that fascinating ice palace, another tricked-out Bond car, & that incredible ending on board that massive military aircraft.

Rosamund Pike (sigh!) will be providing the voice of Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds Are Go! CGI TV show.

Derek Meddings created much of the 007 films Special FX. He was a legend in that field.

One of the coolest models he created was Atlantis for The Spy Who Loved Me. The aquatic Lotus automobile was also something to behold.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
scotpens
Starship Captain


Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 871
Location: The Left Coast

PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
One of the coolest models he created was Atlantis for The Spy Who Loved Me. The aquatic Lotus automobile was also something to behold.

It was also physically impossible. There was no room inside the real car for the wheels to retract, not to mention the diving planes and propeller array that popped out of nowhere. Or the necessary pumps and ballast tanks.

(Of course, the movie sub was a hollow Lotus body shell converted into a "wet sub" that was manned by a diver in full scuba gear.)

Link: http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1061050
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rocky Jones
Astral Engineer


Joined: 17 Dec 2014
Posts: 225
Location: North Texas

PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I liked Brosnan well enough and tolerated the silliness of this one. I couldn't really forgive them for doing that whole ice boat scene in CGI, though. Like many Bond films, this one had a dynamite pre-credit opening and the rest of the film couldn't live up to it's promise.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
The Spike
Astral Engineer


Joined: 23 Sep 2014
Posts: 266
Location: Birmingham. Great Britain.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sigh Another Way.

Die Another Day is directed by Lee Tamahori and written by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, Rosamund Pike, John Cleese, Judi Dench and Michael Madsen. Music is scored by David Arnold and cinematography by David Tattersall.

Bond 20 and 007 is captured and tortured by the North Koreans after being betrayed by an MI6 mole. After being exchanged for a deadly enemy operative, Bond has his 007 status revoked and is forced to go rogue to find who the mole is.

As the Bond franchise celebrated 40 years of being, the film to mark the occasion, ironically, forgot the subtle ingredients that make up the best Bond movies. What we get is a chaotic movie, excess is the order of the day, with Eon allowing Tamahori to stack up scene after scene of video game standard ideas. There is no lack of effort here, the heart is full of good intentions, but some big cheese in a suit should have reined the director in. It's also a sad day in the Bond universe when a Bond film uses homage's to homage itself, only for that idea to tire itself out as well. There is barely any time for reflective silences, for a show of character depth, on the odd occasion the film slows down, gasping for air, Tamahori rushes into the next bit of noise annoys. While the action is often as laughable as the dialogue. This may have made a pot load of cash, but few serious Bond fans would have returned to see this again at the cinema. It's Bond for the non Bond fans, a lazy popcorn no brain for the gamers who just want crash, bang and wallop with no substance. Ssshh, did someone say Batman & Robin?

As the film unfolds in a blur of sledgehammer editing and lack of restraint, not to forget CGI that is shameful, the cast struggle to keep the good ship Bond afloat. Brosnan is on smug auto-pilot, this film proving to be a sad farewell for him from a role he had previously graced with some distinction. Berry is gorgeous but looks awkward with the action scenes and can't carry off the chirpy aspects of the script, though in her defence she's not done any favours by the writers and Tamahori is more concerned with showcasing her twin assets. Pike is OK, sexy and feisty, if a little difficult to accept as a MI6 agent. Stephens, who went on to do very good acting work later in his career, hams it up for all he is worth. Meant to be a shadow characterisation of Bond, Stephens plays Gustav Graves as some posh cartoon character from a Brit sit-com, a world away from the much needed dastard villain opposing Bond. His motives unclear and a victim of one of the film's more berserker twists. Yune is fun with his diamond studded face and old pros Cleese and Dench at least come out of it with reputations still intact. While Madsen is criminally underused.

Elsewhere on a technical front there's also not much to shout about. Madonna's title song, the worst in the series by far, is only beaten in awfulness by her cameo in the film. Tattersall's photography barely registers above the ordinary, with sub-standard location filming not helping either, and Arnold's score is about as far removed from Bond flavours as it can get. There are some good scenes within, a machismo pumped sword fight between Bond and Graves and a laser beam (hello Goldfinger my old friend) dodging fist fight stand tall above the messy quagmire, but the memory of the good sequences are quickly vanquished once the "invisible car" is put to field duty use! And with that there really is no more to say about the "quality" of Die Another Day. For Bond fans it's about a 5/10 movie, for casual blockbuster fans after a cheap thrill it will no doubt score higher.

_________________
The quality of mercy is not strnen.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17020
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, I guess I'm just a sucker for Bond movie silliness, and this one has some marvelous examples of the super-spy's heroic moments.

For example, the amazing sword fight between Bond and the villain is equal to anything in Pirates of the Caribbean and just about any Errol Flynn movie you could name! The combatants even switch swords several times during the fight, starting out with fencing weapons and ending up with broadswords!

I love it!
Very Happy

______________ James Bond vs Gustav Graves


___________


IMDB has 180 trivia items for this movie. Here's some of the more interesting items from their list, denoted by the blue text.
________________________________

The book that 007 picks up from the Cuban sleeper along with a revolver, is 'A Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies', written by James Bond. Ian Fleming, an avid birdwatcher, named Bond after the author.

Note from me: Kudos to the filmmakers for sneaking in this fascinating fact about the legendary author.

Pierce Brosnan disliked the gadgets and overblown effects of this film. He suggested to the producers that the series go back to its more low key, darker roots. Ironically, after Brosnan left, the next Bond film was the low key and darker Casino Royale (2006) which was stripped of gadgets and extravagant visual effects and stunts.

Note from me: The folks here on All Sci-Fi who aren't fond of the Brosnan films will appreciate Pierce's feelings in this matter.

For the sword fight, film makers increased the film speed to make it look as if the actors were moving faster than they actually were.

Note from me: They did this extremely well, because I love that scene and would have noticed the alteration if it hadn't been done skillfully.

Roger Moore actively voiced his displeasure with the film, citing the invisible car and the weak CGI as being a low for the series.

Note from me: This was a bit short-sighted of Roger in view of the fact that technology has inched its way closer to making invisible cars a reality over the last 15 years. (Welcome to the 21st Century, Roger! Having said that, consider this next trivia item.)

When Q explains how the Vanquish works, he is explaining technology that the US Air Force is actually developing for use in a new "daylight" stealth aircraft. However, the "invisibility" capability is only useful at extreme distance (miles), and would not in any way be as good as depicted on the car in this film.

Note from me: Like I said earlier, Roger Moore's criticism of the invisible car becomes less valid every year. Very Happy

The ice palace took approximately 6 months to construct.

Note from me: For my money, the ice palace concept is wonderful, the execution is flawless, and the exciting action scenes an ice palace makes possible are all part of what sets this movie well above some of the stogy films from previous Bond incarnations.

The frozen lake in Iceland that is the location for some car chases, does not freeze very often naturally. This is due to its closeness to the sea and its high salt content.

When the filmmakers had troubles getting the Icelandic lake to freeze properly, they considered filming the car chase scenes on ice in New Zealand. To rectify this situation the river that links the lake to the sea was dammed and within two days the entire lake was frozen to a depth of over 2 meters. Once they solved that problem, filming could take place in Iceland as planned.


Note from me: Oh . . . my . . . god! They changed the salinity level of the water to get it to freeze! Talk about your clever use of science to get the job done. Impressive!

All the Aston Martins used in the ice high speed chase had to be converted to four wheel drive.

Note from me: Not only was I impressed as hell with the modern Aston Martin that Bond drives in this movie (much cooler than any of Brosnan's previous cars), I love the fact that the filmmakers actually modified the car mechanically for the film to make it drive better — not just to give the car prop gadgets. Very Happy

For the first time, the famous gun barrel sequence now includes a bullet zooming by after Bond fires. This idea was suggested by director Lee Tamahori.

Note from me: I didn't actually notice the bullet going by when I watched this movie recently, but I did start wondering why the POV shot from inside the gun barrel always shows "blood" flowing down!

Why would the blood of the man Bond shoots drips down inside the barrel of the gun the victim was holding? Shocked

The use of hovercraft by the North Korean Army to circumvent the minefields of the DMZ is entirely fictional. However the science show 'Mythbusters tested the concept and found it totally plausible.

Note from me: Okay . . . so . . . this movie has given President Kim Jong-Un-Stable Mentally an actual way to drive an invading army right over the DMZ and invade South Korea?! Shocked

Dammit, I spent 13 months in South Korea between 1968 and 1969 as an Air Force Security Policeman, and I met a 19-year-old girl named Moon Ok Song who "turned the boy into a man" (as they say).

For that reason, I'm hoping the North Koreans don't ever watch this movie!

The movie's title song "Die Another Day" sung by Madonna debuted in the US Charts on 19 October 2002 and peaked at the No. #8 spot. The song was nominated both for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song.

Note from me: Scotpens said he disliked the title theme for this movie, and when I watched it while writing this post, my teeth ached during the credits. Yes indeed, it's the worse Bond theme ever. Sad

Although it ranked fifth in the box office on its opening weekend in South Korea, there was protest at the movie's depiction of Americans giving orders to the South Korean military. The film dropped out of the top ten by its second week and one theater in Seoul pulled it from the screens in response to the protests. Some smaller theaters that usually get second-run movies refused to pick it up.

Note from me: Recently it occurred to me that a new series of Bond-like films could be made which are set in South Korea, with their own intelligence agency presented as being just as cool and hi-tech as the MI6 in the Bond movies! Very Happy

The beauty of this idea is that their arch-enemy is NOT Russia . . . it's North Korea, who is now as dangerous as Russia ever was during the Cold War, ruled by that crazy Kim Jong-Un-hinged, who is developing missiles to launch against America!

The movie would have a South Korean "James Bond" with far better marshal arts skills than Bond ever did, and it would include a few secondary characters from both the British and American intelligence agencies who would be a bit less impressive than the South Korean super-spy! Our South Korean Bond would rescue these guys several time during the movie! Very Happy

Please bear in mind, guys, that James Bond and his glitzy British organization were entirely fictitious. The South Korean version I'm suggestion would also be a glorified version of anything that country actually has.

But the villains of his story — the North Koreans — are as evil and crazy as anything we've ever seen in a Bond movie! Shocked

I love the idea! How 'bout you guys?
Very Happy
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies from 2001 to 2010 All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group