Fan Verdict - Die Another Day

Each month, a different James Bond film is selected for review, rating and discussion by the largest online community of 007 fans - the Keeping The British End Up forums.

Fans rated the following elements of the movie on a 1-10 scale (10 being best): Bond, Babes, Villains, Humour, Sadism, Snobbery, Action, Locations, Gadgets, Music and 'Tilt' - a rating to account for any qualities not captured in the main categories.

Also up for discussion were the 'best bits' of the movie, including: most 'Bondian' moment, funniest scene, best line, best location, best action sequence, best Bond girl and best overall performance.

Die Another Day overall score: 4.2

 


Above: Cover art for the "Die Anothre Day" score, composed by David Arnold...



Most 'Bondian' Moment
Winner: Bond checks into a 5-star hotel in Hong Kong. A complementary masseuse is deployed to 007's bedroom with the offer of a good time. Bond sees through the ruse and unmasks the seemingly friendly hotel manager as Hong Kong intelligence.

Funniest Scene
Winner: Escaping the MI6 containment unit onboard a boat in Hong Kong harbour, Bond makes his way to his regular hotel. Unshaven and in rags, 007 waltzes into the lobby and books a room.

  Rating Results
Category Average Score
Locations
6
Bond
5.4
Babes
5
Snobbery
4.8
Action
4.6
Sadism
4.3
Humour
3.9
Music
3.8
Villains
3
Gadgets
2
Overall 4.2

Best Line
Winner: "Plenty of ice, if you can spare it."
Honourable mentions: "Time to face gravity."

Best Location
Winner: Havana, Cuba.
Honourable mentions: Ice Palace, remote Iceland.

Best Action Sequence
Winner: Posing as a diamond smuggler, James Bond meets with corrupt Colonel Moon of the North Korean army and trades diamonds for weapons. But, at the last moment, a message reaches Moon that Bond is not who he appears to be, launching the Colonel and the MI6 man into a high octane battle aboard fast moving hovercraft in the DMZ.

Best Bond Girl
Winner: Miranda Frost.

Best Overall Performance
Winner: Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost.


What The Fans Said
Below are selected quotes from reviews by Keeping The British End Up members. Click here to read all the reviews in their entirety.

"Die Another Day is the Bond movie I like to refer to as, "the tale of two halves"... from the opening gun barrel up to the fencing in London, the film is actually not that bad - and is fairly enjoyable.. while in Cuba though, the story starts to lose it's grasp on reality a little, by the introduction of DNA Replacement Therapy, to change one's appearance." -- hASEROT

"The typical 'thinly-veiled battle of egos' between Bond & villain is botched: Graves brutally tries to injure Bond at a fencing club. Surely this would be reported on in the press. The writers continue their past-time of setting up characters and then betraying them when they make Miranda Frost an Olympic-level fencer...who just cannot win a match against the most incompetent NSA agent. It quickly becomes apparent that the writing is nothing but window-dressing to the action sequences. The one-liners sound like they were dreamed up by a horny teenager or for a children's spy movie, and as a result, none of them are tongue-in-cheek." -- Louis Armstrong

"Die another day should have been a great balance of fantasy and intrigue. In moments this is achieved and Pierce Brosnan gives a largely charismatic performance as 007 but the 40th anniversary should have given us a film to remember and should certainly have given us a great swan song for Brosnan. As Michael Madsen's Falco orders, "You put your house in order" and bring us back to basics Bond. It seemed that despite fan opinion, James Bond would return to die another day. Cubby may have been turning in his grave at the CGI and crass dialogue but as we approach the 50th anniversary, all we can say is thank the lord for Daniel Craig and Casino Royale." -- JamesC

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