Thursday, November 28, 2002
HAPPY THANKSGIVING - CS will be off until Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The Movie Club will be back next week to discuss Steven Soderbergh's 'Solaris' and the intriguing question (posed by Sam) about which type of "bad film" is the worst. I'll also have a review of Philip Noyce's 'Rabbit-Proof Fence'.
E-mail CinemaScoped@hotmail.com or start a discussion in the Feedback Forum
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
MOVIE CLUB: DIE ANOTHER DAY
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Bond, a historical perspective
In his last post, Sam wondered: "Are their guiltless Bond gourmands out there?" In fact, there are, including my friend Chris Kaduce, who has written in with a nicely-detailed historical perspective on 'Die Another Day' and the Bond franchise. But before I get to Chris' remarks, I wanted to mention that I think Eric is really onto something when he discusses the commercialization of James Bond. It's not a startling notion really; the marketing of Bond has been in high-gear ever since Brosnan revitalized the series -- with BMW, most notably -- but 'Die Another Day' really could be seen as simply a 130-minute commercial. Eric writes: "Bond transforms from a gruff refugee to Rico Suave in a matter of minutes with the new Norelco super razor." It's funny because what struck me as odd about the scene where we see Bond shaving is that they don't show him actually shave off the the thick beard he developed in the North Korean jail; they just show him smoothing himself up afterwards with the electric razor because that is what they are selling. (I can't recall if the Bond people are in bed with Norelco, or another company, but I know I have seen the ads). Also, Eric reminded me that the Madonna cameo is, in fact, really bad -- so bad she makes Halle Berry look like...well...an Oscar winner. To Madonna's credit, however, I saw the movie Sunday and I still haven't been able to get that damn techno theme song out of my head. I'm sure Eric was up in the aisles doing the "Robot" during the credits. Now to Chris' analysis:
Critic proof? Perhaps -- like any franchise movie, you know what you're getting when you walk up to the box office window. It's hard to criticize DAD for being what it is. But part of the amazing 40-year success of the Bond franchise is that is has shifted ever so slightly through the years, while remaining true to the essence of what it means to be James Bond. Little boys dream of being Superman or Batman---once they grow up, they dream of being James Bond: a guy who knows exactly what to do and say in every situation, in control of every predicament, who lives for the moment.
In the 60's, the emphasis was on the suave and debonair aspect of the character. Bond got to do things, see places, and bed women that you would never experience. The plots were relatively small in scope (watch 1961's Dr. No now, and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about), and the series had the feel of gilded detective series. Bond was cold and almost inhuman (although not as dark as in the books), and this character was maintained throughout most of the 60's. The lone exception: the underappeciated On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which had it featured Sean Connery, would probably have gone down as the best Bond film ever.
In the 70's, Bond was forced to change, not only to reflect the movie times, but to ward off a bunch of hokey rip-off series (Man from UNCLE, Our Man Flint). The films Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and the Man With the Golden Gun reflect the times in which they were made--the Smokey and the Bandit, gratuitous car chase, crash and shoot 'em up films most Gen X guys grew up on.
Roger Moore is credited (or denounced) as giving Bond an almost comical, campy feel throughout his 7 films. The wisecracking, push-button-to-eliminate-danger Bond lasted until Moore's last film, 1985's View To a Kill. In an effort to make the franchise edgier, Timothy Dalton was cast as Bond in 2 relatively-disappointing films (from a financial perspective). Dalton was also brought in to replace the nearly fossilized Roger Moore (although Dalton is only 3 or 4 years younger than Moore). It turns out that the producers had the right idea, but the wrong time and the wrong guy. Pierce Brosnan's more psychologically vulnerable Bond (along with copious product endorsements) has brought the franchise back to box office gold.
3 of the last 4 Bond movies have dealt with the betrayal of someone close to James. Our hero feels pain, shoots women, and visibly shows anguish and sorrow. It may not sound like much, but these characteristics were taboo for the first 16 films of the series. DAD takes the vulnerable Bond to the extreme, showing our hero looking disheveled and being tortured in a North Korean prison. Can you imagine Roger Moore in such a position? He'd be more likely to double-poke the interrogators eyes, Stooges-style.
As for DAD, my biggest complaint was the number of reused plot elements already seen in past Bond films. There's the satellite solar laser (Diamonds Are Forever), the MI6 double-agent (Goldeneye), the property-destroying sword battle (Moonraker), the laser cutting table (Goldfinger), the Hong Kong hideout (The Man With the Golden Gun), the secret, new-face-on-old body science lab (Diamonds Are Forever). There's paying homage to the past, and simply recycling old ideas. But that's about it -- well, that, and having Mr. Blonde as the American spy boss.
E-mail CinemaScoped@hotmail.com or start a discussion in the Feedback Forum
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Bond, a historical perspective
In his last post, Sam wondered: "Are their guiltless Bond gourmands out there?" In fact, there are, including my friend Chris Kaduce, who has written in with a nicely-detailed historical perspective on 'Die Another Day' and the Bond franchise. But before I get to Chris' remarks, I wanted to mention that I think Eric is really onto something when he discusses the commercialization of James Bond. It's not a startling notion really; the marketing of Bond has been in high-gear ever since Brosnan revitalized the series -- with BMW, most notably -- but 'Die Another Day' really could be seen as simply a 130-minute commercial. Eric writes: "Bond transforms from a gruff refugee to Rico Suave in a matter of minutes with the new Norelco super razor." It's funny because what struck me as odd about the scene where we see Bond shaving is that they don't show him actually shave off the the thick beard he developed in the North Korean jail; they just show him smoothing himself up afterwards with the electric razor because that is what they are selling. (I can't recall if the Bond people are in bed with Norelco, or another company, but I know I have seen the ads). Also, Eric reminded me that the Madonna cameo is, in fact, really bad -- so bad she makes Halle Berry look like...well...an Oscar winner. To Madonna's credit, however, I saw the movie Sunday and I still haven't been able to get that damn techno theme song out of my head. I'm sure Eric was up in the aisles doing the "Robot" during the credits. Now to Chris' analysis:
Critic proof? Perhaps -- like any franchise movie, you know what you're getting when you walk up to the box office window. It's hard to criticize DAD for being what it is. But part of the amazing 40-year success of the Bond franchise is that is has shifted ever so slightly through the years, while remaining true to the essence of what it means to be James Bond. Little boys dream of being Superman or Batman---once they grow up, they dream of being James Bond: a guy who knows exactly what to do and say in every situation, in control of every predicament, who lives for the moment.
In the 60's, the emphasis was on the suave and debonair aspect of the character. Bond got to do things, see places, and bed women that you would never experience. The plots were relatively small in scope (watch 1961's Dr. No now, and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about), and the series had the feel of gilded detective series. Bond was cold and almost inhuman (although not as dark as in the books), and this character was maintained throughout most of the 60's. The lone exception: the underappeciated On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which had it featured Sean Connery, would probably have gone down as the best Bond film ever.
In the 70's, Bond was forced to change, not only to reflect the movie times, but to ward off a bunch of hokey rip-off series (Man from UNCLE, Our Man Flint). The films Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and the Man With the Golden Gun reflect the times in which they were made--the Smokey and the Bandit, gratuitous car chase, crash and shoot 'em up films most Gen X guys grew up on.
Roger Moore is credited (or denounced) as giving Bond an almost comical, campy feel throughout his 7 films. The wisecracking, push-button-to-eliminate-danger Bond lasted until Moore's last film, 1985's View To a Kill. In an effort to make the franchise edgier, Timothy Dalton was cast as Bond in 2 relatively-disappointing films (from a financial perspective). Dalton was also brought in to replace the nearly fossilized Roger Moore (although Dalton is only 3 or 4 years younger than Moore). It turns out that the producers had the right idea, but the wrong time and the wrong guy. Pierce Brosnan's more psychologically vulnerable Bond (along with copious product endorsements) has brought the franchise back to box office gold.
3 of the last 4 Bond movies have dealt with the betrayal of someone close to James. Our hero feels pain, shoots women, and visibly shows anguish and sorrow. It may not sound like much, but these characteristics were taboo for the first 16 films of the series. DAD takes the vulnerable Bond to the extreme, showing our hero looking disheveled and being tortured in a North Korean prison. Can you imagine Roger Moore in such a position? He'd be more likely to double-poke the interrogators eyes, Stooges-style.
As for DAD, my biggest complaint was the number of reused plot elements already seen in past Bond films. There's the satellite solar laser (Diamonds Are Forever), the MI6 double-agent (Goldeneye), the property-destroying sword battle (Moonraker), the laser cutting table (Goldfinger), the Hong Kong hideout (The Man With the Golden Gun), the secret, new-face-on-old body science lab (Diamonds Are Forever). There's paying homage to the past, and simply recycling old ideas. But that's about it -- well, that, and having Mr. Blonde as the American spy boss.
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
MOVIE CLUB: DIE ANOTHER DAY AND MORE
From: Sam Hallgren
To: Adam Kempenaar; Eric Baker
Subject: Baddest Movie In The Whole Damn Town
Maybe it's Timothy Dalton's fault. I don't think I've seen a Bond movie since "The Living Daylights." And despite Adam's contention that Mr. Brosnan is the best Bond of all time, I still don't have an interest in seeing "The World Is Not Enough" or any other Bond film. I have, tucked away in some compartment of my brain, a pubescent fondness for "Octopussy" and "For Your Eyes Only," which, together with the two Dalton Bond films, account for my complete Bond education. Maybe I saw "Goldfinger" on TV once, but I can't remember. Some might call me a philistine or a traitor to my sex. I came of age during one of the series’ darker periods, and I have never bothered to remedy that fact. So I get my guilty pleasures elsewhere. Or is Bond not a guilty pleasure? Am I minimizing the cultural impact of the series? Are their guiltless Bond gourmands out there?
As to the title of my post, I am not accusing the new James Bond movie of being a terrible movie (I haven’t seen it), nor do I suggest that Adam has implied as much from his review of the film. The title of this post in an effort to engage the readers (and Adam and Eric) in a conversation that may help me answer a question that occurred to me as I thought about the film I saw last night: "13 Conversations About One Thing." "13 Conversations," as Joey Cotton misogynisticly -- but accurately -- relates in the Feedback Forum, is a terrible film. Of this there is no question. According to his review on 8/20, Adam liked the film. He calls it "intelligent and engrossing." I found it intellectually lazy and pretentious. One of my least favorite combinations. There are characters in the film with interesting stories. Any one of them would have made for an interesting character study. Unfortunately the director, Jill Sprecher, has such a limited imagination that she can't find the means to tell a single story with a coherent arc. The first fifteen minutes of the film offer an intriguing visual aesthetic, and Sprecher sets a thoughtful and patient tone. But after carefully introducing her bruised and broken characters, she abandons them to an hour and fifteen minutes of self-indulgent conversation. It is a conversation Sprecher is having with herself; and it couldn't be less enlightening or interesting. The end is contrived, and a symptom of the film's half-baked "what-the hell" quality. Here are two recommendations that accomplish what Sprecher’s film could not (to show that I am not a slave to Aristotelian structure like Joey Cotton): "Waking Life" (sure it's pseudo-intellectual and indulgent; but at least it's honest about it); and "My Dinner With Andre" (it could be called "One Conversation About 13 Things;" it's fascinating -- like listening to your two favorite college professors having a wine-fueled conversation).
What I meant to say when I brought up "13 Conversations" (which, by the way, sits at the bottom of my "films of the year" list with "XXX"), was something about categorizing bad films. There are countless bad films out there; but how many TYPES of bad films are there. "XXX" goes in the "big budget/incompetent action filmmaker" pile (anything with Arnold after T2); "13 Conversations" goes in the "lazy and pretentious" pile ("American Beauty"); "Road To Perdition" goes in the "style over substance prestige picture" pile ("A Beautiful Mind;" "Forrest Gump"). And on and on. Give me some help here, guys. Bad films. What do we do with them? And which kind of bad film is your least favorite? This might be a good time to elaborate on the select group of films that get this response from me when the credits roll: "that director just shit on my face" (also known as the "Robert Zemeckis"). Details to follow.
From: Sam Hallgren
To: Adam Kempenaar; Eric Baker
Subject: Baddest Movie In The Whole Damn Town
Maybe it's Timothy Dalton's fault. I don't think I've seen a Bond movie since "The Living Daylights." And despite Adam's contention that Mr. Brosnan is the best Bond of all time, I still don't have an interest in seeing "The World Is Not Enough" or any other Bond film. I have, tucked away in some compartment of my brain, a pubescent fondness for "Octopussy" and "For Your Eyes Only," which, together with the two Dalton Bond films, account for my complete Bond education. Maybe I saw "Goldfinger" on TV once, but I can't remember. Some might call me a philistine or a traitor to my sex. I came of age during one of the series’ darker periods, and I have never bothered to remedy that fact. So I get my guilty pleasures elsewhere. Or is Bond not a guilty pleasure? Am I minimizing the cultural impact of the series? Are their guiltless Bond gourmands out there?
As to the title of my post, I am not accusing the new James Bond movie of being a terrible movie (I haven’t seen it), nor do I suggest that Adam has implied as much from his review of the film. The title of this post in an effort to engage the readers (and Adam and Eric) in a conversation that may help me answer a question that occurred to me as I thought about the film I saw last night: "13 Conversations About One Thing." "13 Conversations," as Joey Cotton misogynisticly -- but accurately -- relates in the Feedback Forum, is a terrible film. Of this there is no question. According to his review on 8/20, Adam liked the film. He calls it "intelligent and engrossing." I found it intellectually lazy and pretentious. One of my least favorite combinations. There are characters in the film with interesting stories. Any one of them would have made for an interesting character study. Unfortunately the director, Jill Sprecher, has such a limited imagination that she can't find the means to tell a single story with a coherent arc. The first fifteen minutes of the film offer an intriguing visual aesthetic, and Sprecher sets a thoughtful and patient tone. But after carefully introducing her bruised and broken characters, she abandons them to an hour and fifteen minutes of self-indulgent conversation. It is a conversation Sprecher is having with herself; and it couldn't be less enlightening or interesting. The end is contrived, and a symptom of the film's half-baked "what-the hell" quality. Here are two recommendations that accomplish what Sprecher’s film could not (to show that I am not a slave to Aristotelian structure like Joey Cotton): "Waking Life" (sure it's pseudo-intellectual and indulgent; but at least it's honest about it); and "My Dinner With Andre" (it could be called "One Conversation About 13 Things;" it's fascinating -- like listening to your two favorite college professors having a wine-fueled conversation).
What I meant to say when I brought up "13 Conversations" (which, by the way, sits at the bottom of my "films of the year" list with "XXX"), was something about categorizing bad films. There are countless bad films out there; but how many TYPES of bad films are there. "XXX" goes in the "big budget/incompetent action filmmaker" pile (anything with Arnold after T2); "13 Conversations" goes in the "lazy and pretentious" pile ("American Beauty"); "Road To Perdition" goes in the "style over substance prestige picture" pile ("A Beautiful Mind;" "Forrest Gump"). And on and on. Give me some help here, guys. Bad films. What do we do with them? And which kind of bad film is your least favorite? This might be a good time to elaborate on the select group of films that get this response from me when the credits roll: "that director just shit on my face" (also known as the "Robert Zemeckis"). Details to follow.
MOVIE CLUB: DIE ANOTHER DAY
From: Eric Baker
To: Sam Hallgren; Adam Kempenaar
Subject: Lady Madonna
I'm including a link to my Daily Iowan review of 'Die Another Day' though I know it's self-serving and my editor made several of the transitions awkward. But I thought it would cut down on the repetition. Sitting in the front row, I really did feel like Alexander DeLarge. As I state in my review, virtually everything Adam points out is dead-on. My favorite is Adam's listing of the plot segments laundry-list style, which is probably how the screenwriters did it. They knew, like everyone else, that no one is coming to see a coherent story. I could go on about how asinine certain plot segments are, but they only serve to bridge action-adventure sequences. Because of that, I agree with Adam that this movie didn't need to be 130 minutes long, but then nobody in my packed theater seemed to mind too much. A word about the changing role of Bond films, as I see it: I can't compare how audiences felt about the films in the 60s and 70s, but I sense there was a wanderlust for the cheeky swashbuckler who was able to get out of tight spots and save the world over the course of two hours. Now I think Bond -- and this may just be an overreaction to the glut of marketing partnerships with Bond films -- represents the same kind of thing travel magazines and car commercials do: a lifestyle attainment. Bond isn't just a sleek British agent who scores with all the chicks; he's something closer to you if you buy this new sports car. Bond transforms from a gruff refugee to Rico Suave in a matter of minutes with the new Norelco super razor. Back to the movie... Halle Berry was, well, passable. I mean, she's hot, so I didn't think she had a problem with sexiness, but I think she did run into problems with her dialogue. On the other hand, she's not doing anything they didn't ask Toby Stephens to do: over-the-top showmanship in the grand tradition of Bond melodrama. I felt her awkwardness came across when she was trying to imbue Jinx with sexiness while spouting corny lines, rather than just letting her actions speak for her. This is an action film after all. For some reason, my editors at the Daily Iowan always see fit to cut out good lines from my reviews, so I leave you guys with my judgment of Madonna's cameo: "Madonna has reached the point in her career where she is best served by cameos, as her grating schtick is not given enough screen time to gnaw away at an audience’s resolve." Look at what happened when they gave her a whole movie? She was swept away.
E-mail CinemaScoped@hotmail.com or start a discussion in the Feedback Forum
From: Eric Baker
To: Sam Hallgren; Adam Kempenaar
Subject: Lady Madonna
I'm including a link to my Daily Iowan review of 'Die Another Day' though I know it's self-serving and my editor made several of the transitions awkward. But I thought it would cut down on the repetition. Sitting in the front row, I really did feel like Alexander DeLarge. As I state in my review, virtually everything Adam points out is dead-on. My favorite is Adam's listing of the plot segments laundry-list style, which is probably how the screenwriters did it. They knew, like everyone else, that no one is coming to see a coherent story. I could go on about how asinine certain plot segments are, but they only serve to bridge action-adventure sequences. Because of that, I agree with Adam that this movie didn't need to be 130 minutes long, but then nobody in my packed theater seemed to mind too much. A word about the changing role of Bond films, as I see it: I can't compare how audiences felt about the films in the 60s and 70s, but I sense there was a wanderlust for the cheeky swashbuckler who was able to get out of tight spots and save the world over the course of two hours. Now I think Bond -- and this may just be an overreaction to the glut of marketing partnerships with Bond films -- represents the same kind of thing travel magazines and car commercials do: a lifestyle attainment. Bond isn't just a sleek British agent who scores with all the chicks; he's something closer to you if you buy this new sports car. Bond transforms from a gruff refugee to Rico Suave in a matter of minutes with the new Norelco super razor. Back to the movie... Halle Berry was, well, passable. I mean, she's hot, so I didn't think she had a problem with sexiness, but I think she did run into problems with her dialogue. On the other hand, she's not doing anything they didn't ask Toby Stephens to do: over-the-top showmanship in the grand tradition of Bond melodrama. I felt her awkwardness came across when she was trying to imbue Jinx with sexiness while spouting corny lines, rather than just letting her actions speak for her. This is an action film after all. For some reason, my editors at the Daily Iowan always see fit to cut out good lines from my reviews, so I leave you guys with my judgment of Madonna's cameo: "Madonna has reached the point in her career where she is best served by cameos, as her grating schtick is not given enough screen time to gnaw away at an audience’s resolve." Look at what happened when they gave her a whole movie? She was swept away.
Monday, November 25, 2002
MOVIE CLUB: DIE ANOTHER DAY
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Still better than 'XXX'
When Eric first raised the idea of discussing 'Die Another Day', I objected on the grounds that there were too many more "important" films playing in Chicago for me to spend my time and money on than the latest Bond opus. But there's perhaps an even better reason. Bond films, like any movie made explicitly for entertainment only, especially a popular franchise, is absolutely critic-proof. Criticize any Bond movie for being predictable, having a stupid, convoluted plot, and bad acting and you'll get the same response -- "Nobody is going to a Bond flick to see great acting or artistic cinematography, etc...It's just about having fun!" The Deacon proves my point in the Feedback Forum when he mentions a time that the two of us, along with Eric and a few other chums, went to see the first Pierce Brosnan effort, 'Goldeneye', when we shared a flat together in London. Here's how he tells it: "...during the pre-credits sequence Adam actually says out loud - "No Way!" when Bond motocycles off the cliff and skydives into a plane -- I mean really, who questions the astrophysics of a Bond movie?" So there you have it. You can't criticize any of the ridiculous stunts in a Bond movie because, well, that's what a Bond movie is all about. As pure entertainment goes, you could do a lot worse than 'Die Another Day' -- like, say, 'XXX'. If you believe the hype, then you know that Vin Diesel has supposedly rendered Bond obsolete, but the key difference is that 'XXX' director Rob Cohen is such a terrible filmmaker that he makes any rotating Bond helmer look like Steven Spielberg. There's probably no sense in discussing the plot since every Bond flick essentially follows the same storyline -- Bond thwarts madman bent on world domination -- with new villains and hot chicks rotated in. 'Die' has something to do with North Korea, DNA replacement therapy, a gigantic "laser" that harvests the power of the sun like something out of 'Superman IV', and the more I thought about the plot later, the more I realized how little sense it actually made. But again, who goes to a Bond film for a sensible plot? One thing I did like about 'Die' is that we get to see a haggard, torutured James Bond; one who actually thinks he is about to die. I don't know, but I'm guessing that's a first for the franchise. And for what it's worth, I think it's possible that Brosnan is, in fact, the best Bond ever, despite all those so-called purists who say "Sean Connery" simply because they think it makes them cool to do so. But Brosnan brings a certain acuteness and intelligence to Bond that none of his predecessors had. Furthermore, unlike Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton, Brosnan is a halfway-decent actor. I also didn't mind the token madman, a rich egomaniac named Gustav Graves, played by Toby Stephens. (Which reminds me...during our time in London, Eric, The Deacon and I saw Mr. Stephens on stage playing Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'. He's a talented actor, though he playes Graves with the same childish temperament that he imbued Coriolanus with. As our former English prof, the venerable Ed Moore, so aptly put it: "Coriolanus doesn't CRY!!") Among my criticisms: 1) With a few more performances such as her turn here as Jinx, an American spy who teams up with Bond, Halle Berry may just deserve to have her Oscar taken away. She's just plain awful trying -- laboring, I shold say -- to play a sexy, bad-ass. It's like you can see the strings attached to her mouth as she talks, especially through all of the sexual innuendo which Brosnan has mastered. I've heard talk about spinning her character off into her own series and I personally think this is a great idea because the Unintentional Comedy potential would be unlimited. 2) The token goofy-looking henchman, Zao (Rick Yune), has a properly goofy look -- shaved head, albino skin, bright blue eyes with fragments of shrapnel stuck in his face -- but so what? He's not nearly scary enough as he doesn't really boast any interesting fighting skills. 3) Finally, as much I hate to fall back on this criticism, can anyone honestly say that at 2 hours 10 minutes the movie isn't at least 20 minutes too long? There came a point after one of the big set pieces -- and all this movie is is brief moments of dialogue stuck inbetween large set pieces -- where I simply didn't care what was going to happen next. I felt a little like Malcolm McDowell in 'A Clockwork Orange' after his little forced viewing session. 'Die Another Day' didn't excite or offend; it just left me numb.
E-mail CinemaScoped@hotmail.com or start a discussion in the Feedback Forum
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Still better than 'XXX'
When Eric first raised the idea of discussing 'Die Another Day', I objected on the grounds that there were too many more "important" films playing in Chicago for me to spend my time and money on than the latest Bond opus. But there's perhaps an even better reason. Bond films, like any movie made explicitly for entertainment only, especially a popular franchise, is absolutely critic-proof. Criticize any Bond movie for being predictable, having a stupid, convoluted plot, and bad acting and you'll get the same response -- "Nobody is going to a Bond flick to see great acting or artistic cinematography, etc...It's just about having fun!" The Deacon proves my point in the Feedback Forum when he mentions a time that the two of us, along with Eric and a few other chums, went to see the first Pierce Brosnan effort, 'Goldeneye', when we shared a flat together in London. Here's how he tells it: "...during the pre-credits sequence Adam actually says out loud - "No Way!" when Bond motocycles off the cliff and skydives into a plane -- I mean really, who questions the astrophysics of a Bond movie?" So there you have it. You can't criticize any of the ridiculous stunts in a Bond movie because, well, that's what a Bond movie is all about. As pure entertainment goes, you could do a lot worse than 'Die Another Day' -- like, say, 'XXX'. If you believe the hype, then you know that Vin Diesel has supposedly rendered Bond obsolete, but the key difference is that 'XXX' director Rob Cohen is such a terrible filmmaker that he makes any rotating Bond helmer look like Steven Spielberg. There's probably no sense in discussing the plot since every Bond flick essentially follows the same storyline -- Bond thwarts madman bent on world domination -- with new villains and hot chicks rotated in. 'Die' has something to do with North Korea, DNA replacement therapy, a gigantic "laser" that harvests the power of the sun like something out of 'Superman IV', and the more I thought about the plot later, the more I realized how little sense it actually made. But again, who goes to a Bond film for a sensible plot? One thing I did like about 'Die' is that we get to see a haggard, torutured James Bond; one who actually thinks he is about to die. I don't know, but I'm guessing that's a first for the franchise. And for what it's worth, I think it's possible that Brosnan is, in fact, the best Bond ever, despite all those so-called purists who say "Sean Connery" simply because they think it makes them cool to do so. But Brosnan brings a certain acuteness and intelligence to Bond that none of his predecessors had. Furthermore, unlike Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton, Brosnan is a halfway-decent actor. I also didn't mind the token madman, a rich egomaniac named Gustav Graves, played by Toby Stephens. (Which reminds me...during our time in London, Eric, The Deacon and I saw Mr. Stephens on stage playing Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'. He's a talented actor, though he playes Graves with the same childish temperament that he imbued Coriolanus with. As our former English prof, the venerable Ed Moore, so aptly put it: "Coriolanus doesn't CRY!!") Among my criticisms: 1) With a few more performances such as her turn here as Jinx, an American spy who teams up with Bond, Halle Berry may just deserve to have her Oscar taken away. She's just plain awful trying -- laboring, I shold say -- to play a sexy, bad-ass. It's like you can see the strings attached to her mouth as she talks, especially through all of the sexual innuendo which Brosnan has mastered. I've heard talk about spinning her character off into her own series and I personally think this is a great idea because the Unintentional Comedy potential would be unlimited. 2) The token goofy-looking henchman, Zao (Rick Yune), has a properly goofy look -- shaved head, albino skin, bright blue eyes with fragments of shrapnel stuck in his face -- but so what? He's not nearly scary enough as he doesn't really boast any interesting fighting skills. 3) Finally, as much I hate to fall back on this criticism, can anyone honestly say that at 2 hours 10 minutes the movie isn't at least 20 minutes too long? There came a point after one of the big set pieces -- and all this movie is is brief moments of dialogue stuck inbetween large set pieces -- where I simply didn't care what was going to happen next. I felt a little like Malcolm McDowell in 'A Clockwork Orange' after his little forced viewing session. 'Die Another Day' didn't excite or offend; it just left me numb.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
