James is forever

The action is rougher, Pierce Brosnan is tougher, the film is more realistic than ever before. A colossal piece of production engineering, the 20th Bond, as usual, anticipates reality.

George W. Bush has pinpointed North Korea as a threat to world peace. But in his new adventure, James Bond, fingers it even earlier as the place where evil resides. Played by a tougher, rougher, annealed looking Pierce Brosnan in his fourth outing, 007 has a bizarre adversary from those coldblooded latitudes - an assassin called Zao (Rick Yune) who got blown up in a diamond explosion and has a face still studded with high-carat jewels. Bond's given bruising treatment too - he's betrayed, captured, tortured and imprisoned long enough to grow a beard until a hostage exchange takes him back to mother 'M' (Judi Dench) thirsting for revenge. And romance - which this time is provided by exotic Halle Berry as a slinky character called Jinx. Doing homage to Ursula Andress, Halle, too, emerges from the brine in a bikini (orange this time) with hunting knife accessory in a white leather holster.

She suffers torture from a diamond-cutting machine - it only puts more polish on her. Toby Stephens is the Western villain, a tax-sheltered resident of Britain who parachutes into Buckingham Palace to receive a knighthood. Bond has a whole new set of gadgets, including a programmed surfboard, and some familiar ones for old times' sake - like the Aston Martin in which he duels with the villain (in a Jag) on a frozen Icelandic lagoon, around 50ft high icebergs and through tunnels straight into the villain's ice palace. Die Another Day is an understatement - James is forever.

Die Another Day
Cert: 12A

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