Die Another Day Blu-Ray Review
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 11.02.2008
It is arguably the worst James Bond movie amongst the fans. How does Pierce Brosnan's swan song hold up now that it's hit Blu-Ray?
Director: Lee Tamahori Writer: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade Cinematographer: David Tattersall
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan ... James Bond
Halle Berry ... Jinx
Toby Stephens ... Gustav Graves
Rosamund Pikes ... Miranda Frost
Rock Yune ... Zao
Judi Dench ... M
John Cleese ... Q
Michael Madsen ... Damien Falco
I saw this Bond movie in theaters and remember hating it. It was exciting and got my adrenaline pumping, but it seemed Bond’s time might be coming to an end. It wasn’t The Bourne franchise that made me believe that, though. It was a little movie called XXX which, at the time, I felt was a better James Bond movie than Die Another Day.
Oh, what was there to hate about this movie? Let me count the ways. The Bond theme song, always a big moment, was horrible. I don’t mean it was a bad Bond song, I mean it was a horrible sin inflicted on my ears. Six years later and, yes, I still believe it is an abomination. Madonna has made some good music over her career. Some of her songs can even be considered great. Die Another Day was a low point in her musical career, a low point in the James Bond musical catalogue and was a horrible way to start the movie.
The opening title sequence was a spectacular torture sequence, where a captured James Bond was taken to the brink of death in a Korean prison camp. The scenes were so brilliant that it made the song seem like an even bigger albatross. Imagine this same sequence with a Bond song of old and you would have a great start to this latest Bond adventure. Madonna also appeared in the movie in a small role. Not much better performance there.
I remember when I saw the movie in the theater there was a scene with James Bond surfing. I thought at the time it was quite possibly the worst use of blue screen I had ever seen. There are two scenes in the movie with Bond surfing, the first at the beginning and another in the arctic later in the film. If I remember right, it was this first scene that gave me the most troubles in the theatrical version. I know from the featurettes that the surfing was not blur screened, but was actual professionals surfing and shot by helicopter. However, I am certain the close-up shots were green screened and the switch from real surfing to CGI was a shock to the senses. However, this Blu-Ray cleaned it up quite nicely. The second scene in the ice water doesn’t fare as well, as it still looks fake, but neither of the scenes are as bad as I remember them being.
Now, there are a number of bad things about this movie. The first problem I have is the Invisible Car. Casino Royale was a way to ground Bond back into reality in much the same way For Your Eyes Only grounded it after the over-the-top Moonraker. Well, the over-the-top extravaganza of Die Another Day was the breaking point leading to Casino Royale. James Bond has some cool gadgets and there is even a joke about him getting his twentieth watch, but when he is given the invisible car, the movie just hit a wall.
He drives the invisible car to a giant Ice Palace owned by the bad guy.
Ice... Palace...
Invisible... Car...
The movie is not all bad, though. The story itself is a solid addition to the Bond catalogue. The torture sequence and the following ostrization of 007 by his own agency was well executed and worked well in the context of the story. The Americans continuing to exert their dominance over the British government was also a nice touch, and Michael Madsen carries just the right amount of arrogance to represent the self proclaimed super power.
The first half of the film was very gritty and actually foreshadows of where the franchise would go with the Daniel Craig Bond. If the second half of the movie continued with this style, it might have ended up being a better film. The question of where James Bond stands in the world we live in today is an important one and I think this movie did everything it could to answer that question. I just don’t think it accomplished this in a satisfactory manner. Bond still proves to be the man at the end of the day but it all wrapped up a little too cleanly and might have been better to leave a little grey area at the end of the film.
I also like the aspect that James Bond is clearly an assassin in this movie, as I like the man with a “License to Kill” better than the generic secret agent. Pierce Brosnan was always a good James Bond, adding a level of danger to the suave demeanor. He is a nice mix between Sean Connery and Roger Moore. It is too bad his films never let him live up to his full potential, forcing him to take a back seat to the CGI.
Those overbearing special effects are what end up dragging the movie, and the Brosnan era down. It scales the gamut, from the invisible car to the ice castle to the excruciatingly slow exploding plane. I don’t mind the overblown chase scenes, both on ice and in mine fields, because that is what James Bond is all about. But when the character of Bond is overshadowed by the CGI, there is a problem and this was the movie that proved change was needed.
The Video
The video is solid, all the colors bright and vibrant. I was surprised because some of the shots that bothered me when I saw this in the theater look to have been fixed in this transfer. I would argue there were less problems to fix than the older Bond films, but regardless it is an amazing transfer.
The Audio
The audio track on this Blu-Ray is spectacular. Presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, all the action sequences are explosive and the dialogue is leveled out perfectly. This one is just about perfect.
The Package
Commentary by Actors Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike - Unlike Roger Moore’s commentary tracks on his releases, Pierce Brosnan is open and funny during his conversation. He mentions From Russian With Love and Goldfinger are the best Bond films and then admits that if you can have one good Bond movie to your name, you did good. His track is filled with small trivia and anecdotes and is a very, very fun track to listen to. By the way, Rosemund Pike doesn’t appear on the track until almost an hour into the track.
Commentary by Director Lee Tamahori and Producer Michael G. Wilson - The second commentary track is much more technical than the actors’ track. If you take this commentary and combine it with Brosnan’s comments, you get all the information you need. Brosnan’s is more fun but this one is more educational.
M16 Datastream - This is a trivia track with bonus picture-in-picture video interruptions throughout the movie. The trivia is really boring and well, trivial, but the PIP is very interesting with behind the scenes footage playing over talking heads discussing the scene in question. It is a nice track and a great addition to the production.
From Script to Screen (51:40) - Well, my first observation was the surfing scenes at the beginning were not blue screened and are real professional surfers shot from a helicopter. Count me completely shocked. I still think part of the close ups were blue screened, but I have to face facts that it was partially real. This feature is twice as long as the ones on the older films and instead of being a talking head feature about the film, it is a timeline feature made during the making of the film. It is a very concise feature and touches on almost everything. I love these documentaries, so this was a treat for me.
Shaken and Stirred on Ice (23:35) - This feature details the Icelandic shoot, and goes into great detail on the construction of the palace and the car chase on the ice.
Just Another Day (22:39) - A camera crew follows the cast and crew through one day of shooting. The scene they are shooting is the parachute landing in front of Buckingham Palace. This was a pretty fun little piece.
The British Touch: Bond Returns to London (03:32) - This is a short feature about working with British Airways during the shoot. Interesting trivia: the stewardess who gave Bond his martini on the plane is Roger Moore’s daughter.
On Location with Peter Lamont (13:51) - Peter Lamont is the production designer. This is a pretty boring feature that looks at many of the sets and locations. Lamont himself almost put me to sleep with his descriptions.
007 Mission Control - As with all the Blu-Ray’s, this is a glorified pick a scene feature that is a waste of space and time. Actually, I was able to use it to quickly find the Madonna cameo to show my wife that embarrassing scene, so I guess it has its uses.
Image Database - I like the pictures but I am going to beat a dead horse into the ground. There needs to be a PLAY ALL feature for these galleries.
The 411: Die Another Day was a huge disappointment and one that marked the end of Pierce Brosnan’s career as 007. However, the faults of this film do not lie on the actor playing James Bond. The story had a possibility to be a good addition to the Bond mythos, but director Lee Tamahori seemed to care more about high concept CGI than character development. Brosnan had a chance to really stretch the Bond character but the script crippled his every attempt. He was trying but when he got rolling they threw in an Invisible Car or an Ice Palace. The movie is lackluster, but this Blu-Ray is worth your money because of the special features alone. This one is stacked and these features help pull the worth of this high definition disc up to the level of the better movies.
