Die Another Day

It's definitely [Pierce] Brosnan's worst Bond film.

The film is a frantic roller-coaster ride from which you emerge exhausted, with a massive blur in the head.

It's the same old Bond.

Strange, is it not, how the regular bombardment of thrills can have quite the opposite effect of the one intended.

In a year when Austin Powers has scoffed at 007 as a joke and xXx has scoffed at him as an anachronism, Die Another Day is a fluffed opportunity to assert that nobody does it better.

A vigorous 20th installment that is as strong on action as it is weak on the interpersonal stuff.

The over-reliance on epic CGI effects results in a few chinks in the spectacle (the tidal wave looks like a video game effect), but the thrill-topping succession of death-defying disasters and unbelievable battles... just don’t stop coming.

Producing this milestone film is an unenviable task of immense responsibility. Unfortunately, the result is a clumsy homage –an attempt to concoct a grand confection with ingredients of varied quality and a baker that wasn’t up to the task.

It really doesn't matter how Lee Tamahori directed the film or what Neal Purvis and Robert Wade did with their script  because Die Another Day was screwed from the moment that The Bourne Identity opened in theaters.

Despite the invisible car, the atrocious theme song, the bewildering Madonna cameo and Toby Stephens’ dreadfully dull villain, there is one thing about Die Another Day that proves to be an inarguable success: Halle Berry.