Author: Jimmy Jung
Forty years ago, when "Dr. No" first hit the screen, audiences around the world were introduced to a new kind of cinematic action hero: James Bond. This debonair Englishman with a taste for well fitted tuxedos, aged Dom Perignon and gorgeous women might well have seemed like any staunch British aristocrat rather than the world's most infamous super spy. What made Bond an action star, however, was his elite "00" secret agent status, a profession that required him to globetrot, equipped with a license to kill, in search of egotistical villains bent on world domination.
This duality of Bond's character -- style and action -- is essential to any proper 007 adventure. Maintain only the former, and audiences are faced with a man of glamorous tastes who merely moves from one superficial scene to the next. In a word, dull. Yet if the film only has aspects of the latter, Bond becomes just another action star, and the film is no different from any other Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure.
The 007 series has maintained its uniqueness, not to mention appeal, by incorporating Bond's stylish tastes along with explosive action and over-the-top stunts. Although successful for over 30 years, this formula has been threatened since Bond resurfaced into popular culture in the mid- 1990s with the dawn of the Pierce Brosnan era. The problem does not lie with Brosnan: he fits into Bond's tux relatively well. Instead, it lies with the series' producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who have tried to transform 007 films into mere action films.
So where does 007's new adventure, "Die Another Day," the 20th official movie in the Bond series, fit in? Is it a throwback to the Bonds of a bygone era, or have the producers again decided to ditch style in favor of pyrotechnics? The answer is both.
Let's begin with the good news: from the opening gun barrel sequence all the way through the brilliant scene between Bond, M and Q in the London Underground, "Die Another Day" is a Bond film at its best. For his first outing as a 007 director, Lee Tamahroi ("The Edge," "Along Came a Spider") includes all the fun subtleties of the old Bonds, ranging from 007 being offered the presidential suite at a Hong Kong hotel, only to later discover a hidden camera behind the room's dressing mirror, to smoking a Cuban cigar while driving in a vintage Cadillac along the Cuban coastline.
"Die Another Day" also includes nostalgic references to the early 007 films, such as Hallie Barry's bikini clad Jinx emerging from the Caribbean (reminiscent of Honey Ryder in "Dr. No") and the various gadgets festooning Q's office, including the rocket pack Sean Connery used in the pre-title sequence of "Thunderball."
The film's finest moment, however, is a fencing match between Bond and the wonderfully sinister Gustav Graves, in which we see Bond, true to form, defeat the villain at his own game. This scene is void of high-tech weapons, yet more exciting than the special effect-driven action sequences of recent Bond movies.
Unfortunately, this classic 007 fun soon ends and is replaced by one ridiculous action sequence after the next.
Bond is nearly buried by a melting ice palace (looking more like a ride at Disney World), surfs gigantic, ice strewn waves in the Arctic ocean (a scene that will literally have you laughing) and escapes near death thanks to his trusty invisible car, leaving one to ask: have we waited 40 years for 007 to transform from Sean Connery to Wonder Woman?
Furthermore, the film's climax is a far cry from its previous brilliance -- Bond's swagger is replaced by a standoff between he and Graves, with the latter looking more like Robocop than his former elegant and sinister self. Although the first hour of "Die Another Day" showcases Tamahroi's ability to balance exciting action with style, when combined with the latter half, it merely serves as a reminder of what Bond was and teases the audience with what this film could have been: a great James Bond adventure.
Like Bond's previous two outings, "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The World is Not Enough," "Die Another Day" presents a Bond more dependent on his weapons and less dependent on his wit, cunning and skill. As a result, we are left with a Bond diluted of his former self. Why have the series' producers decided to strip the character of his original attributes?
The answer is simple: to fit the cookie-cutter mold of the modern action hero, a mold that aims at appealing to the most lucrative demographic--teenage boys. When Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman first brought Ian Fleming's character to the screen in the early 1960s, espionage and all its mysterious glamour was sexy.
The youth of today, however, are raised on Kid Rock, the Extreme-Games and "Doing the Dew;" therefore, it comes as no surprise that they find Vin Diesel's tattoo laden secret agent XXX so appealing.
Of course Bond's producers could not scrap John Barry's classic Bond theme and replace it with a score rewritten by Limp Bizkit. But they indeed have developed Bond movies that come at the audience guns blazing yet bereft of the style, charm and class that have enabled 007 to endure for almost half a century.
Bond Heavy on Stunts, Light on 'Je ne Sais Quoi'
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