With Graves and Xao Bond plays cat-and-mouse on island just off Cuba, in a London fencing club, on a souped-up Korean cargo plane, and in the aforementioned ice palace. In the bedroom Bond must play cat-and-mouse with Jinx and an icy beauty named Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), both of whom cannot be trusted. Darker elements of “Die Another Day” include a title sequence in which Bond is taken prisoner for fourteen months by a renegade Korean general and beaten daily.
Back are Bond’s ever irate but forgiving supervisor M (Judi Dench) and the equally irate spy gizmo designer Q (lanky comic genius John Cleese, stealing every scene he’s in). As Jinx, Berry doesn’t take things very seriously, and always seems to have her eyes only half-open around Bond, as if a little voice in her mind keeps saying “is this guy for real?” Like Jinx and all Bond movies, “Die Another Day” has a sense of humor about itself. Doctors confirm Bond’s identity after he is rescued from Korea by the condition of his alcohol-blasted liver, and when Xao offers Mr. Kill a pistol to dispatch a chained-up Jinx, Kill scoffs at the idea with the words “I use laser” before firing up an infinitely more complicated industrial-strength laser.
Cries are always being made for Bond to “update,” especially now with the success of Vin Diesel in the 007-knockoff “XXX.” In some ways Bond has updated—his gizmos, guns, soundtrack, and the flavor of the villains out to conquer the world—but in most ways he’s fine just the way he is. Whatever passing fads that could be considered updating would only die out in a few years and make 007 look dated. Deep down we know that every trendy thing XXX represents—extreme sports, tattoos, leather jackets—will become passé, while nicely-tailored tuxedos, fast cars, good wine, and Bond’s always impeccable haircut will take a lot longer to go out of style. As for his sexism and womanizing, well, somehow that’s just funnier now that it’s less acceptable than in the 1960s.
Maybe after I’ve seen “Die Another Day” a time or two more it will gain the comfort and familiarity of so many of its older brothers, and the pacing won’t bother me. With all the money “Die Another Day” has made it doesn’t look like the Bond franchise is going to die any day soon. I’ll drink to that.
Finished December 10th, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Friday & Saturday Night