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

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  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    That's a good way to look at it and spot on....
  • shamanimalshamanimal
    Posts: 623
    You just know David Arnold was told, when they were making Casino Royale, "No dance bollocks*"


    *Copyright Saxondale.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    The score in CR is beautiful...DAD just went all out for the fun element,an over the top film ala MR ,and its box office return proved it was popular at the time it was shown.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    shamanimal wrote: »
    You just know David Arnold was told, when they were making Casino Royale, "No dance bollocks*"


    *Copyright Saxondale.
    Thank goodness for that!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited March 2017 Posts: 18,273
    barryt007 wrote: »
    The score in CR is beautiful...DAD just went all out for the fun element,an over the top film ala MR ,and its box office return proved it was popular at the time it was shown.[/quote]

    Yes, and there's of course been much revisionism about how successful (and how well it was received by critics and fans alike) in the years since it was released in late 2002. It's still at the bottom of my list, mind, but still.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    DAD's problem wasn't its box office. Neither was MR's for that matter.
  • barryt007barryt007
    edited March 2017 Posts: 19,339
    I just think its getting a mini revival as the Craig Bond films are all heavy going and quite emotional and serious.
    DAD is just a laugh from beginning to end,you can switch your brain off and go with the flow.
  • GamesBond007GamesBond007 Golden Grotto
    Posts: 66
    I have a great time watching DAD; being one of the few who can enjoy either side of the spectrum I think it's a fun anniversary popcorn flick. However it's a film I enjoy more in retrospect than I may have if the series had kept that course.

    I don't have many issues with the film...

    - Some god-awful dialogue from time to time "Yo momma" being the worst of it
    - Halle Berry
    - The landspeeder and Tsunami sequence
    - Madonna's theme song
    - VR gadget sequences
    - Michael Madsen as Damien Falco
    - Bond stopping his heart and mentally triggering it back up again on command
    - Those hilariously bad goggles that Graves wears and that reveal of them LOL
    - The ridiculous change from Colonel Moon to Gustav Graves the billionaire diamond horder featuring a massive ice palace and a giant laser satellite in the sky who gets knighted by the queen in less than 18 months

    Even that last one I can deal with, it's simply the time frame in which it occurs that actually bothers me. If it was say... 5 years at least, then I'd be more accepting.


    Most of the CGI is relatively low scale and does little to bother me. They typically utilize live action with computer graphics. Even the Antonov plane is a miniature with some collision added in post to wrap CG fire and smoke around. The invisible Aston Martin is fun stuff in my opinion. Obviously their are limits to these things, I'd never want to see an invisible car in TWINE or Skyfall, but it works fine in an exaggerated Bond film like this one.

    I'm actually a fan of Zao as a henchman, he has a very unique look and gets some great action sequences with Bond.

    A few other things I like are...

    - Costume designs by Lindy Hemming
    - Locations are great
    - Set designs are brilliant
    - Some of the best action in the series (car chase on ice, fencing sequence, hovercraft)
    - Solid score from David Arnold
    - Anniversary elements (once again, fun for a one time thing but not something I need again)

    I could go on but I'd spend an hour on this post. I find most of the stuff that bothers me makes up for a rather small percentage of the film and everything else ranges from okay to great in my opinion.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    Posts: 10,591
    Die Another Day houses quite possibly my favorite Arnold score.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    It is good...especially the Aston vs Jaguar ice lake battle...brilliant score.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Apart from a couple of very bad CGI sequences, I do enjoy DAD.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    edited March 2017 Posts: 7,124
    I had a blast watching it the other day. I'd prefer DAD over a couple of others for sure.
  • shamanimalshamanimal
    Posts: 623
    When the film came out, there was a guy on a usenet forum, (which was called alt.fan.jamesbond), who wrote a long, gleaming review and ended up saying it was "quite possibly the best Bond ever". He was quite well known in the 'Bond world', I can't remember his name. Anyway, at the time, that statement wasn't laughed at the way it would be today. Most people went with 'classic Bond first half, disappointing second half'. I think Casino Royale made DAD a poor film, as much as DAD makes itself poor, if that makes any sense.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    It certainly wouldn't have helped its cause having such a massive,classy,totally different Bond film following on straight from it,for sure.

    The Craig era really hasn't helped DAD gain much respect.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    There's something very overt (especially the innuendo), by the numbers and check box like about the film, but it certainly has its moments, which are quite memorable. A caricature if there ever was one, but a highly entertaining film nevertheless. Just don't try to analyze it critically.
  • shamanimalshamanimal
    Posts: 623
    I'd go so far as to say Die Another Day and Casino Royale are easily the two most stylistically opposed Bond films to run chronologically.
    Compare Bond meets Jinx, to Bond meets Vesper. Another universe. It's like comparing Moonraker to From Russia With Love.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    @shamanimal, that's a good point. I've always felt that MR & FYEO were also quite diametrically opposed as well, accentuated by the fact that they featured the same Bond actor. What a tonal shift!
  • shamanimalshamanimal
    Posts: 623
    Yes, I'd say FYEO and MR are another 'odd couple', and Octopussy is kind of a mix of the two. But they're all in Rog's universe. The Craig era was a massive re-boot, and if I'm honest, it took me a while to get into it.
    The world certainly changed while he was away!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    You think the Wizard will appreciate his thread named as an actual appreciation thread for DAD?
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    Posts: 10,591
    I expect a rant from him (that will inexplicably involve Nikki van der Zyl) any moment now.
  • GetafixGetafix
    edited March 2017 Posts: 11,425
    He hasn't posted for weeks. He
    Must be too busy denying his staff their basic rights and wallowing in the post Brexit bonfire of regulations
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,179
    @barryt007, thank you for being so cool with how we handled things. We appreciate that. :)
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    You think the Wizard will appreciate his thread named as an actual appreciation thread for DAD?

    The Wiz did start this thread. Maybe he's busy writing the new season of Mrs. Brown Boys?

  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    DAD isnt the worst. That's TWInE
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,423
    What about SF, @Getafix? ;)
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Getafix wrote: »
    DAD isnt the worst. That's TWInE
    +1
  • GetafixGetafix
    edited March 2017 Posts: 11,425
    royale65 wrote: »
    What about SF, @Getafix? ;)

    My issue with SF is that I was massively disappointed.

    It's not that it's a bad film although I really do think it's very good. It's that I feel it squandered so much potential from Casino Royale and quantum solace.

    Those two films reset the series and suggested really interesting new directions in which way in which the series could move.

    Skyfall for me was just a really retrograde step. Didn't suggest anywhere new or interesting for the movies to go.

    I was slated on here at the time for saying it but that still how I feel.

    I feel a similar way about spectre. Although I think it's more enjoyable film Skyfall I really don't think Mendez has taken the bond movies in a very interesting direction. Spectre in a way is the film that I was expecting after skyful.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,179
    bondjames wrote: »
    Getafix wrote: »
    DAD isnt the worst. That's TWInE
    +1

    +2

    TWINE is dull. At least DAD isn't.

  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    Twine is the absolute nadir of the series for me
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,179
    TWINE, at least IMO, takes itself far too seriously, whereas DAD knows it's having fun. I actually prefer the more serious Bond films, but by that I mean the ones I can take seriously. TWINE, for the life of me, I cannot take seriously. Neither can I take DAD seriously. But neither does DAD take itself seriously. When they wrote TWINE, it feels like Purvis & Wade were going for complexity, maturity, intrigue and drama. Instead, we get a highly convoluted plot, convenient coincidences, a lot of soap opera and the dullest bits of action ever committed to 007 celluloid.
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