neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Die Another Day
	Lee Tamahori Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, John Cleese, Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Michael Madsen 2002		Assuming that the producers of "XXX" and "The Bourne Identity" want their vehicles to replace the James Bond films as big-screen secret agent franchises for the 21st century, "Die Another Day" is a telling title for a new gewgaw from the 007 machine. A Bond movie is never a bomb at the till, even today, but it's also no longer THE bomb. So it goes with "Die Another Day," latest in the Bond series and the fourth to star Pierce Brosnan as indestructible, world-saving, babe-bedding British spy 007. It starts strong as Bond is caught behind enemy lines in North Korea. Heavenly Halle Berry appears as mysterious vixen Jinx. Rick Yune is a grotesque villain. Judi Dench as Bond's boss M and John Cleese as weapons master Q are up to snuff. An hour in, it feels like the best Bond since Brosnan took on the role in "Goldeneye" and updated the suave Cold War relic. Then Madonna shows up in an embarrassing cameo, and a major CGI action sequence set in Iceland's frozen wastes is so phony that nearly all is lost. Amid the violence, double entendres and sci-fi trappings, the references to earlier Bond flicks make you long to see them instead.