"Dont blow it all at once ": Die Another Day Appreciation Thread

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  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    X3MSonicX wrote:
    I totally agree - DAD is a pretty good Bond film ! Top 10 material.

    Idk why but i guess that you're being ironic lol

    I was serious - DAD is among the breed of Bond films I love, like MR, DAF, YOLT, MR, TSWLM, TMWTGG

    I generally agree with you and like the other films you mentioned in varying degrees.

    DAD is not in my top ten but it has some good moments.
    I liked the beginning Korean scenes and the sword fight scene in particular.


  • edited February 2012 Posts: 229
    double post sorry
  • Posts: 229
    Oh dear, oh dear. There's always someone who has to take it too far.

    Tell me Grant - which lunatic asylum did they get you from?
    Tastes differ, luckily for Steven Seagal people like Daltoncraig007 exist otherwise he would have been jobless.


  • 002002
    Posts: 581
    Die Another Day has a very good half but fails in the second act (the iceland scenes and beyond) atleast its better than Qantum of Bloody Solace
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,556
    I have always said it's important to have sci-fi/fantasy Bond films such as DAD, MR etc. in the series. Could you imagine if all 23 films were straight up spy thrillers like DN, FRWL, FYEO, CR? Some might have lost interest IMO. I like the idea of the sci-fi/real/sci-fi/real pattern in Bond. Appeals to a wider audience, and there was always elements of sci-fi fantasy in Fleming's work.

    My view of DAD has never changed since it hit the big screen. Very fun escapism. And I've never understood all the criticism about the invisible Aston. The technology does exist. Therefore, it's not really 'far-fetched', but actually ahead of it's time. I can't say the same for the CGI surfing, though. However, I'd much rather watch DAD over films like DAF and AVTAK.
  • Parts I liked about DAD:
    -Opening credits, loved the fire/ice thing.
    -Sword fight.
    -John Cleese.
  • Since I looked at the Invisible Car concept from a different perspective a few weeks ago, my opinion of this 2002 release has risen slightly, but make no mistake about it, it's without question one of the most tedious, belligerent and annoying Bond releases out there. Yes as mentioned above (post) , it does has some redeeming qualities such as there are some fun bits and action scenes and I can appreciate some would rather take this over Diamonds or View to a Kill as a watching pleasure, I can understand that, but the fact remains most are sincere enough to accept it as a stain on the franchise and one of the most lamest and forgettable entries since records began. For all the fun parts and interesting bits there will always be something waiting around the corner with this movie that will make you want to hurl your TV through the nearest window. I fail to understand the need to constantly bring this film up in new threads as it will never change in that is simply a poor Bond adventure and overall film
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    HAHAHA. The only good thing to come of all this was the immense laugh I had when I saw this thread name and discovered it was serious! DAD's only purpose is to serve as a lesson learned. It is the shotgun to the head Bond film, and has the decency to end soon enough. All the positives the film could've had are wasted potential. The torture scenes could've been great, but nothing was done with them. Nothing with Bond making mistakes during the film because of his weakened psyche, or choking under the pressure of the mission. He goes about things like he always does. The truth is that the entire Brosnan era is just wasted potential for a great Bond and for Brosnan to show what he can do, but the scripts never touched on it and Pierce had to deal with it. Too bad, I say.
  • Die another Day did have some redeeming qualities such as a good teaser on the hovercrafts, Sword fight with Graves, (I'm struggling to think now), and , and - well there must have been other examples, I'm merely stating it wasn't all one way traffic with regards to poor fare and ridiculous nonsense, I was going to say it's even more tolerable than A View To A Kill and Moonraker in that respect but realize now that both Moore outings are actually better than this one

    I'm not going to get drawn into another Brosnan sniping match

    Ok fair enough he's not the best 007 ever and never will be, but the Irishman gave us at least one and a half excellent films in his tenure and I thank him for that, it wasn't all his fault for some of the berating his films get, but some just can't look beyond the point that because Brosnan was star turn he automatically shoulders the blame, but Yes by the same token he must take his share of the responsibilites for his four outings
  • 002002
    Posts: 581
    Well Brosnan is the bond i grew up with but i also saw video tapes of Connery, Moore and Dalton so i would like to combine all their personalites and physical looks into one person- so then i can proudly say that Brosnan, Connery, Dalton and Moore are my favourite bonds imagine a 4 headed bond with 8 hands, 4 guns and 8 legs..

    Craig and Lazenby not even close (though i will give an exception for Casino Royale)
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited February 2012 Posts: 14,556
    You've created the mother of all monsters!

    Brosnan, Connery, Dalton and Moore starring in: OctoBond! Combine Craig and Lazenby to star in: On Her Majesty's Royale Casino!
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    M_Balje wrote:
    years later, how amazing it have been with the thrill of the gunbarrel scene with Moon almost kill his henchmen, if there show more of his fight kills then only that and the sword fight.

    As always I am humbled by the brilliance of the Balje. I completley forgot the bit where Moon kicks the crap out of the punchbag and then opens it up. Great moment. Just a real pity its forgotten Moon is a bit handy and he has to turn into Robocop/the Emperor for the lame final fight.
    Ok fair enough he's not the best 007 ever and never will be, but the Irishman gave us at least one and a half excellent films in his tenure and I thank him for that, it wasn't all his fault for some of the berating his films get, but some just can't look beyond the point that because Brosnan was star turn he automatically shoulders the blame, but Yes by the same token he must take his share of the responsibilites for his four outings

    Whatever you think of his tenure I would even go as far to say that apart from us poor mugs in the audience Brozza is the biggest single victim of DAD. He was a popular Bond and easily had one if not two more left in him but was denied the chance because EON so monumentally f***ed up DAD they had to go right back to bascis. It seems unfair that its Pierce who had to carry the can for Babs and MGWs mistakes.

    In this instance EON a bit like the FA - constantly sacking the manager when the root cause is their corporate ineptitude.
  • Posts: 774
    BAIN123 wrote:
    Volante wrote:
    My favourite part of DAD is when it finishes.

    Wizard said no bum jokes like that.

    Couldn't stop myself. Anyone who didn't think of saying it has far greater self control than I.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited February 2012 Posts: 14,556
    Actually I like when DAD finishes, because that means I can watch it again. :)

    *prepares to shield face from back-hand slap*
  • 002002
    Posts: 581
    another reason why die another day was bad was because it came at the worse possible time: 2002- the year in which CGI was abused in nearly every film- (LOTR-justifyiabe) and lets not forget that the role of secret agents drastically changed since Vin Disel Agent XXX appeared in which secret agents have to be extreme sports nuts... then there was the techno music and the MTV Generation

    so Babs and MGW wanted to appeal to the younger generation (big mistake) and still have continuity refrences for the older generations..unfourtunately they botched it up. i mean the first half of Die Another Day (till Iceland which is estimated 30mins) was really promising and then it just feel to pieces...

    its a shame because Brosnan and Pike really gave excellent peformances- especially Brosnan who shined and the scenes in Cuba were really well done. im glad that he did Everything or Nothing but still its not the same that they kicked him out so soon...sure he is older but then Roger Moore was older in FYEO and OP and he gave two of his best peformances in those stories..brosnan needed a FYEO

    EON have really sunk low..sure they managed to do a good job with Craig in Casino Royale but since then with Qantum of Solace and the spin-off game material such as Bloodstone and Goldeneye Reloaded they have destroyed it by making the bond series "too realistic" taking away the badass villians (- i mean what happened to The Treveylan, Max Zorin, Franz Sanchez?) now we have villians like Mr. White a charater so weak and pathetic-it makes Largo from Never Say Never Agian look threatening and not to mention the new Alec Treveylan- which has become greedy bussinessmen, podgy and so annoying)

    and away the gadgets-honestly a F**! smartphone!! what happened to the laser watch? (Batman in The Dark Knight has better gadgets so why cant MI6 give him awesome things like that)

    Atleast they did alright with the bond girls (oh hang on Camille was a depressing bore)
  • edited February 2012 Posts: 11,189
    What about

    "You know you're cleverer than you look"

    "Hmm still better than looking cleverer than you are"

    OR

    "Maybe you've been down here too long"

    Witty lines in a (mainly) witless film.

    Plus I like Brozza's delivery of the line: "Well the fun is about to come to a dead end". The irony is terrific.
  • Posts: 1,492
    002 wrote:
    (- i mean what happened to The Treveylan, Max Zorin, Franz Sanchez?) now we have villians like Mr. White a charater so weak and pathetic-

    Franz Sanchez was taken from the newspapers in 1989. He was based on the devilish General Noriega. Half politician,half gangster. Nothing wrong with Mr White. He looks very sinister particularly when he is lurking at the end of CR in Venice.
    002 wrote:
    and away the gadgets-honestly a F**! smartphone!! what happened to the laser watch? (Batman in The Dark Knight has better gadgets so why cant MI6 give him awesome things like that)

    Because gadgets are not exotic anymore. Everybody has them. Its hard to come up with things noone has seen before.
    002 wrote:
    Atleast they did alright with the bond girls (oh hang on Camille was a depressing bore)

    i would say the Craig Bond girls have been the best since the eighties. They are multi-layered which allows the actresses to perform better. You have the troubled Vesper - mixed up emotional woman with conflicting loyalties who changes during the course of the film. And Camille who is Bonds emotional soulmate during the film as she is grieving just as much as him and moving in the same direction. Shes an adult character for an adult film.

    Not a silly named cliche.
  • edited February 2012 Posts: 11,189
    Vesper was good but I've never been a big fan of Camile. Just didn't have that "special something" in my mind. Although to be fair Olga played her well.

    (Olga Kurylenko, wow - now there's a mouthful)

    Mr White was ok but we just haven't really seen enough of him. He was in QoS for about 5 minutes (somehow managing to survive being locked in the boot of a car that was shot at while travelling at around 70mph) then disappears after the interrogation scene - only reappearing briefly. Unlike Royale his presence isn't as sinister. Judging by Christensen's comments it seems that we won't be seeing much more of Mr White (unless a different actor plays him of course).

    As for the silly named cliche - give me Xenia Onatopp ANY day of the week :p

    Also, what about Strawberry Fields? That's kind of a throw-back to the "silly named" Bond girl isn't it?
  • Posts: 1,492
    BAIN123 wrote:
    As for the silly named cliche - give me Xenia Onatopp ANY day of the week

    She's the epitome of the silly named cartoon cliche Bond girl. One dimensional with no character and played without any nuance. Shes what Austin Powers made fun off.
    BAIN123 wrote:
    Also, what about Strawberry Fields? That's kind of a throw-back to the "silly named" Bond girl isn't it?

    And unless you looked at the end titles you didnt know she was called Strawberry. Otherwise she was just "Fields".
  • edited February 2012 Posts: 11,189
    actonsteve wrote:
    BAIN123 wrote:
    As for the silly named cliche - give me Xenia Onatopp ANY day of the week

    She's the epitome of the silly named cartoon cliche Bond girl. One dimensional with no character and played without any nuance. Shes what Austin Powers made fun off.

    So? I'll agree with characters like Jinx they went too far but with Xenia it worked. She's entertaining, strong, sexy, insane and memorable. I like that in a Bond girl. Listen to Haphazard's analysis of Xenia. I'm with him all the way on that.

    Plus, AP made fun of Bond but in a light-hearted way. Mike Myers LOVED 007.

    If anyone almost destroyed the credibility of Bond it was MGW and BB - not Austin Powers. I'm tired of hearing that argument.

    I still think the worst "character" in the series (other than Jinx) was Mr Kil. At least Xenia Onatopp sounded funny. With Mr Kil they just couldn't be ar*ed to even come up with a funny name.
  • Posts: 3,333
    Some of you must have seen the Director's Cut of DAD because the version I saw was the biggest load of claptrap from beginning to end. It will take one helluva bad Bond movie to push this junk up from the bottom of the pile. I still cringe at the lasting shot of Moneypenny spawled across her desk making out to a holographic Bond. What a way for Brosnan to take his final bow!!
  • They gave him that name so Brosnan could answer back with an equally mundane response 'Now that's a name to die for'

    Xenia was an adequate name, but Onatopp, she's supposed to be Georgian, is just another example of putting silly names in sometimes otherwise serious (Bond) adventures, and then of course she crushes men with her thighs just for good measure. Also people need to realize that Brosnan was not totally without blame for the disaster of the last picture, Yes Yes it was not all his own doing but I've said before maybe he shouldn't even have been there. It wasn't as bad with Connery in Diamonds but Mr Brosnan was clearly out of shape and had put on a few pounds and I just felt he was inappropriate this time around, it would of been the right time to leave after TWINE, Brosnan could of left on a high instead of embarrassing himself a few years later
  • Hi everyone. This is my very first post on this site - not actually sure why I chose this particulat thread to start with but here goes:
    While DAD is definitely in my bottom five I do find some fine moments in it.
    - Entire PTS is solid. Great surfing.
    - Capture and torture. I don't mind this being shown over the titles...and I even kind of like Madonna's song.
    - Terrific introduction of Cuba
    - Sword fight at Blades. One of my favorite scenes from the series.
    - Most everything in Iceland is bad but I do kind of like the dueling car chase, despite how implausible it is at every...umm...turn.
    It's a better film than MR, LALD, and QOS. In fact, I think QOS is BY FAR the worst film in the series...just to start off my intro here with a bit of controversy.
    Look forward to communicating with you all!!!
  • Posts: 5,634
    This is just a license for some more Die Another Day bashing

    Mr Rocket Gun 83 is correct enough in saying there are certain redeeming features as outlined above such as the Teaser on the hovercrafts in Korea is actually well done, up to the part where Brosnan swings on a bell and the awful Madonna intro comes into play, the idea of having some of the storyline beforehand and after entwined in the titles was a neat touch, but spoiled by the sub standard piece of crap music that accompanied it

    I fall asleep usually when the Cuba (Spain) scenes are on, or fast forward until Brosnan gets to Iceland

    Very entertaining sword fight with Toby Stephens, one of the true highlights of the entire picture

    Car chase at the Ice palace was quite well done, Invisible Car idea now doesn't seem quite so bad as first intended, but still something they could of done without

    NOT better than Moonraker, but gives it a run for it's money in the absurdity stakes and no mistake

    Then I read Better Film (Die Another Day) than Live and Let Die and in one spontaneous moment just lost all interest in anything else said

    :-<
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    I think it would have been better without the sci-fi/face-changing storyline which was a step too far, even for Bond.

    Either make Moon the main villain (having miraculously survived) or keep Graves but give him a different motivation against South Korea (something about the war?).
  • Posts: 12,837
    002 wrote:
    Die Another Day has a very good half but fails in the second act (the iceland scenes and beyond) atleast its better than Qantum of Bloody Solace

    this. Except I wouldn't say all the 2nd act was bad.
  • Posts: 12,837
    002 wrote:
    another reason why die another day was bad was because it came at the worse possible time: 2002- the year in which CGI was abused in nearly every film- (LOTR-justifyiabe) and lets not forget that the role of secret agents drastically changed since Vin Disel Agent XXX appeared in which secret agents have to be extreme sports nuts... then there was the techno music and the MTV Generation

    so Babs and MGW wanted to appeal to the younger generation (big mistake) and still have continuity refrences for the older generations..unfourtunately they botched it up. i mean the first half of Die Another Day (till Iceland which is estimated 30mins) was really promising and then it just feel to pieces...

    its a shame because Brosnan and Pike really gave excellent peformances- especially Brosnan who shined and the scenes in Cuba were really well done. im glad that he did Everything or Nothing but still its not the same that they kicked him out so soon...sure he is older but then Roger Moore was older in FYEO and OP and he gave two of his best peformances in those stories..brosnan needed a FYEO

    EON have really sunk low..sure they managed to do a good job with Craig in Casino Royale but since then with Qantum of Solace and the spin-off game material such as Bloodstone and Goldeneye Reloaded they have destroyed it by making the bond series "too realistic" taking away the badass villians (- i mean what happened to The Treveylan, Max Zorin, Franz Sanchez?) now we have villians like Mr. White a charater so weak and pathetic-it makes Largo from Never Say Never Agian look threatening and not to mention the new Alec Treveylan- which has become greedy bussinessmen, podgy and so annoying)

    and away the gadgets-honestly a F**! smartphone!! what happened to the laser watch? (Batman in The Dark Knight has better gadgets so why cant MI6 give him awesome things like that)

    Atleast they did alright with the bond girls (oh hang on Camille was a depressing bore)

    I agree on pretty much all of this. I mentioned the smart phone on the 50th anniversary video game thread, its not cool, its just annoying and boring. Something like a laser watch is ok, because its a cool gadget but it doesn't go too far.
  • Posts: 54
    The best thing about DAD is the idea of having Bond captured, tortured, traded (he does not even escape), distrusted and having to escape to find the one who betrayed him.
    What they did with the idea is the problem.

    The film could have been about him searching for the traitor while being hunted by MI6 and other agencies. It should have ended with Bond killing him/her (it does not necessarily have to be Frost).

    Great potential, missed opportunity.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    DArtagnan wrote:
    The best thing about DAD is the idea of having Bond captured, tortured, traded (he does not even escape), distrusted and having to escape to find the one who betrayed him.
    What they did with the idea is the problem.

    The film could have been about him searching for the traitor while being hunted by MI6 and other agencies. It should have ended with Bond killing him/her (it does not necessarily have to be Frost).

    Great potential, missed opportunity.
    Absolutely. I've said it so many times before. The entire Brosnan era was a missed opportunity.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,159
    I wouldn't call DAD 'good'. If you were to say 'enjoying', then yes. For example, I find Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D enjoying. Wouldn't dream of calling it 'good' though. A clear distinction needs be made.

    FRWL is good. CR, IMO at least, is good. DAD has some things going for it that provide a lot of fun for sure but 'good' means something else. If anything, DAD is a guilty pleasure film for me.
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