Die Another Day [VHS] [2002]
The 20th “official” 007 outing released in the 40th anniversary year of the series, Die Another Day is big, loud, spectacular, slick, predictable and as partially satisfying as most Bond movies have been for the last 30 years. Pierce Brosnan gives his best Bond performance to date, forced to suffer torture by scorpion venom administered by a North Korean dominatrix during the Madonna-warbled credits song. He traipses from Cuba to London to Iceland while feuding with a smug insomniac millionaire
Price: [wpramaprice asin=”B00005JLBD”]
[wpramareviews asin=”B00005JLBD”]
Nixon [Blu-ray] [1996] [US Import]
Brand new and sealed!! Please note this is the region free USA edition!! Get it quick!! Get it now !!
Price: [wpramaprice asin=”B0019PL2JI”]
[wpramareviews asin=”B0019PL2JI”]
Anything but the ultimate,
Even in a world full of hyperbole, calling this frankly rather shoddy downgrade an `Ultimate Edition’ is taking liberties with the language that border on the actionable. Whereas the first 2-disc release of the 20th EON Bond film boasted a huge array of extras, this supposedly new and improved version drops nearly all of them and merely throws in a few scraps of filler instead. Gone is the 76-minute documentary `Inside Die Another Day,’ replaced by a couple of shorter featurettes and some video footage of the location scout. And while the excellent 51-minute `Script to Screen’ documentary on the difficult screenwriting process previously only available on the R2 DVD is retained along with the `Shaken and stirred On Ice’ featurette, gone are the storyboard-to-film comparisons, multi-angle action sequences, title design and digital grading featurettes, gadget briefings, music video and featurette and even the 8 TV spots and 3 theatrical trailers from the original issue to be replaced by an exotic locations featurette. With so many of the extras being dumped, it’s a wonder that the film itself (in apparently exactly the same transfer as previously available) still contains the same audio commentaries and interactive featurettes it had first time round. Frankly, there’s no reason whatever to buy this if you already have the original 2-disc release.
As for the film itself, Die Another Day seemed surprisingly impressive first time round but doesn’t hold up well to a second viewing for a number of reasons – and not only because Daniel Craig and Casino Royale have taken the series to new heights since. Initially at least DAD seemed to be trying to make one of the series’ periodic efforts to take itself more seriously. The pre-title sequence is particularly strong, and the film is plot-led with a good premise that it explores far more effectively than License to Kill – Bond screws up, gets captured and finds his license to kill revoked and has to go it alone. But to many wrong choices are made in the casting of those both in front of and behind the cameras to do it full justice.
Pierce Brosnan is certainly a major problem here, getting lazier in the role far sooner than his predecessors. He takes too much for granted and doesn’t seem to be putting much effort into it in the assumption that he’s got it down pat, when in reality he’s starting to go to seed – certainly he must be the only man to come out of 14 months of torture in a Korean prison chubbier than when he went in, something his tendency to spend much of the opening of the film with his shirt off and hidden under a bushy Monty Python castaway beard only exacerbates.
He’s not helped much by his co-stars either: Halle Berry, who seems to become a worse actress with each successive film, really can’t handle sass or wisecracks, which is a shame since that’s almost all her part consists of, and their initial meeting exchange of innuendoes seems more like eavesdropping a married man picking up a hooker to prove he’s still got it than anything else. Rosamund Pike’s other fatale femme fares a little better purely on he grounds that, while an extremely one-dimensional performer, to least her limited abilities fit the part. Toby Stephens’ villain is a bigger problem. While it’s a neat touch that he models himself on an unflattering portrait of Bond’s vanity, Stephens actually seems to be basing his performance on Rik Mayall’s caricatured MP Alan B’stard from sitcom The New Statesman, and the results aren’t pretty – a largely ineffectual screen actor, it’s no accident that he needs to don an electronic suit of armour to become a credible foe for Bond in the final punch-up. Curiously, two of the better performances on display come from bit-players John Cleese (pleasingly restrained) and Michael Madsen as a distinctly unimpressed company man. Even Madonna’s unnecessary cameo as a lesbian fencing instructor is considerably less painful than her terrible title-song, easily the series’ worst until the abomination that was foisted on Quantum of Solace. Still, the resulting overly enthusiastic swordfight is okay but would probably have been even better had they hired William Hobbs to choreograph it instead of Bob Anderson (Anderson may have coached Errol Flynn, but only in some of his worst films).
The direction adds to the problems. Lee Tamahouri is a maddeningly variable director, and too often it’s his weaknesses on display here. For a series that prides itself on globe-trotting, he has a very poor sense of place (aside from the Iceland scenes, this is the first Bond film that really looks like they were afraid to leave the studio backlot) and his handling of action isn’t always effective – indeed, the car chase actually looks like several shots are missing. Still, at least they manage to just about get away with the science behind the invisible car more effectively than the awful CGI that undermines the series’ reputation for…
Read more
Was this review helpful to you?
|Die Another Day, 2006 double disc Ultimate Edition – Pierce Brosnan goes out on a low,
Ugh. It is hard to know where to start with this film. For the 20th big screen outing for James Bond Pierce Brosnan dons his tuxedo for the fourth and last time. The producers felt that a celebration of the previous films was required, however, this horrible mishmash seems to celebrate the worst, not the best of the series.
The script writers seem to have taken all their inspiration from Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker, undoubtedly the two worst Bond films made (until this one). Brosnan has to contend with an incomprehensible plot involving diamonds in space, Korean politics, ice palaces and invisible cars, a daft pantomime villain and some really REALLY terrible dialogue. Oh, and Madonna gets involved with both the acting and theme song, just to make things even worse. Brosnan, who was very good indeed in his first two appearances in the role, just gives up and coasts through on autopilot.
It’s a pity. The film starts out really well with a great pre title sequence and hovercraft chase, followed by his capture and torture in a Korean camp. Then Madonna’s `music’ starts up and the whole film goes down the tubes. If it could have kept the gritty tone of the intro it would have been superb. But things go wrong almost immediately. Bond making his heart stop and feigning death is the first big mistake, it is just too silly and unbelievable. Halle Berry jinxes the whole thing with a wooden performance worthy of Thunderbirds. And as for Toby Stephens as the supervillain – oh dear oh dear oh dear. And don’t get me started on the laughable invisible car or truly terrible ice palace.
As well as bad acting and script writing there is some truly awful directing. Most of the stunts now seem to be badly done CGI effects which really grate and detract from your viewing pleasure. The director uses several camera trick, slow mo shots etc to try and liven things up but they are just annoying. I could go on and on.
It’s a pity, I can see what the producers were trying to do but they really over egged the attempt at nostalgia and hired the wrong script team, director and actors. No wonder they `rebooted’ the series after this.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Not as bad as I remember!,
When I first saw this film I thought it was terrible with daft gadgets and plot.
On watching it again I can see that it is not too bad. It is the classic Brosnan formula that was used in the last few Bond films, which is something I missed in the Quantum of Solace.
The action is still there and is memorable unlike some of the squences in the new bond film.
This is fun film to watch if you want some entertainment on a wet Saturday night.
Not too bad at all and the end of an era for Bond!
Was this review helpful to you?
|Dense, complicated drama, worth the 3 hour running time,
Oliver Stone’s exhaustive biopic of the American president might have seemed excessive (over three hours long, covering his life from childhood to death), if it weren’t filmed in such an audacious and imaginative way as this. All the triumphs, defeats, heartaches, fears, doubts and mistakes of the man are covered and hardly any are washed over or ignored. The Watergate scandal is inevitably covered the most here, and keeps the fascination burning throughout. All the cast are brilliant, particularly Anthony Hopkins as Nixon himself, who makes the role his own and commands great screen presence in every scene he’s in. You will be captivated and fascinated throughout, with the pace of the film never lagging, always moving forward.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Like the man himself, great but very flawed,
First of all, I give the film itself 5 stars – the Director’s Cut, at 3 and 1/2 hours, is a true epic in scope and depth, an excellent (often highly dramatic) portrayal of many things – Nixon himself, America going through intensely difficult social/cultural changes, the power structure of America, as well as many more elements of history and human nature which could take up more space than I have here, and that it is best that the viewer discover for themselves.
This is potentially Oliver Stone’s best film, and a tragic shame that it has been so overlooked, especially in the U.S. (Stone says as much on a commentary track). Performances all round are fantastic, especially the exceptional Anthony Hopkins. The film is at times difficult, but giving it patience, thought and attention will hopefully yield very worthwhile benefits.
The film receives some worthy extras. On the film disc, Stone features on TWO solo commentary tracks for this film – so much does he have to say and discuss about the film, its background and many related issues. Fascinating listening and worth returning to again. On the extras disc there is an hours worth of deleted/extended scenes, again with optional commentary by Stone, and an hour long interview with Stone by Charlie Rose.
All of this should automatically garner a 5 star rating, but it is the presentation of the film itself which loses a star, probably two if I was feeling more critical. The film is presented in its original ratio of 2.35:1, but is presented non-anamorphically. This in itself isn’t a disaster as the main print is very good, but the extra footage is of significantly lower quality (some of it looks like it comes from a video source!) and hence when it is zoomed the picture looks, at times, awful. Nixon has some great photography, especially some of the wonderfully low lit scenes in the Whitehouse, but the presentation of the picture doesn’t do it justice by half. I feel that for a film of this quality proper restoration and integration of the extra footage should have been undertaken. Sadly that isn’t the case. Secondly, the film disc comes with both Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 tracks. ‘Great’, I thought, as a big fan of DTS. However, during playback of the DTS track there is VERY audible distortion during at least two scenes that I can clearly remember, when Nixon is shouting – this is incredibly amateurish on the part of those mastering the disc, and both the picture and sound problems are a serious let down to the efforts of the filmmakers, and a serious disappointment to a lover of the film.
However, I would still suggest that this 2-disc set is well worth purchasing. It’s the only available director’s cut, the extras are very good indeed, and you can get it very cheaply through z-shops. Remedying the problems would probably mean splitting the film onto two discs to allow encoding space for an anamorphic picture, a proper remastering of the sound and restoration of the ‘new’ footage, but I’m not holding my breath for that particular 3-disc set! Ultimately though, unless you are fanatical about picture and sound quality, this is a superb piece of cinema which deserves to be seen, even more so in this cut, and I heartily recommend this set.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Citizen Nixon,
‘Nixon’ comes off as a greater success than Stone’s ‘JFK’, in part due to the subject of the film itself. President Nixon always had an awareness of his place in history and did much to construct and protect his public image. Oliver Stone’s mixture of drama and documentary footage allows the audience to disengage somewhat from the subject and contemplate the historical legacy of this much maligned president. Stone has been obvious in his references to two great fictional American icons, Citizen Kane and Willy Loman of Arthur Miller’s ‘Death Of A Salesman’. The story of the film is close to ‘Kane’ in its investigation of the trappings of power, but Nixon’s personal character has all the eager despair and bewildered arkwardness of Willy Loman. Probably the last American President who best representated the American Dream through his rise from a lowly grocer’s son, Nixon nevertheless remained paranoid about his position in the halls of the elite and like Loman felt the over bearing need to prove his abilties.
Unlike Stone’s ‘JFK’ information and detail are not as important as mood and nuance. Shooting from the bottom up, Stone tries to artifically create the ambience of power but instead the low-lighting, sinister looks and b&w flashbacks creates a pseudo-narcotic atmosphere. An obvious allusion to Nixon’s alleged pill-popping.
Time and time again Stone has been attacked for the historical inaccuracies of his movies. However most American historians contemptuous of the purported ‘scientific’ basis of history espoused by Marxist historians, would be the first to confirm that history isn’t a minor fact obsessed ‘science’.
Was this review helpful to you?
|