BEFORE: Pierce Brosnan wraps up his Bond stint tonight, carrying over from "The World Is Not Enough", leaving me with just one Bond film to go. It's been a long, occasionally frustrating three weeks, but it's almost over. What happens next? After "Skyfall" I'm going to transition to sci-fi, and I'll start the Summer Countdown to Comic-Con. I don't know if I'll get them all watched in time, but if I have to leave for San Diego in the middle of superhero movies, that's one way to go.
THE PLOT: James Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul who is funding the development of an international space weapon.
AFTER: This one got real topical, with depictions of North Korea - Bond is held captive there and tortured for several months. In 2002 torture was heavy in the news, no doubt. And the depiction of General Moon from Korea, possibly a stand-in for Kim Jong Il and his crazy son seems very prophetic.
This may be the flashiest, most exciting, Bond film to date, with some of the wildest stunts - however, some of the wildest stunts can also be the most unbelievable stunts. Can you really start a helicopter from a dead stop, with no pre-flight checks, while it's falling to the ground? I don't know, get the Mythbusters on the phone. I think they already investigated Bond's creative use of the ejector seat in this one, but I don't remember the result.
This one also borrows heavily from previous Bond films, becoming sort of like a "Greatest Hits" collection. Being the first Bond film of the new Millennium, they had plans to have cameos from all of the previous Bond babes, but those plans were scrapped. Maybe confronting Bond with all of his past conquests was a bit too much like therapy. Instead they had Halle Berry dress in a bikini similar to Honey Rider's from "Dr. No", gave the villain the WWIII goal from "Moonraker" and a laser satellite borrowed from "Diamonds Are Forever", and had Bond escape from a crashing plane in a method similar to one seen in "The Living Daylights".
They continued mixing things up with the Bond babes, too - Halle Berry's character serves a double function, since she's sort of an agent herself, she counts as an ally AND a Bond babe. But wait, there's more...
LOCATIONS: North Korea, Hong Kong, Havana, Iceland.
VILLAINS: General Moon, Gustav Graves, Zao
BABES: Jinx Johnson, Miranda Frost
ALLIES: M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, Jinx Johnson, Damian Falco
PASTIMES: Surfing, ice-racing, fencing, para-sailing (kite-surfing?)
CARS: Aston Martin Vanquish with machine guns, ejector seat and special camouflage "paint job".
Also a Ford Fairlane.
GADGETS: Switchblade gliders, laser watch
THEME: "Die Another Day" by Madonna
Also starring Judi Dench, John Cleese, Samantha Bond (all carrying over from "The World Is Not Enough"), Halle Berry (last seen in "Catwoman"), Tony Stephens, Rosamund Pike (last seen in "Johnny English Reborn"), Rick Yune, Will Yun Lee, Michael Madsen (last seen in "Kill Bill Vol. 2"), with a cameo from Madonna.
RATING: 7 out of 10 land mines
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