Die Another Day

Pierce Brosnan returns for his fourth and final appearance as agent 007. It started great but then fades. It introduces the delicious Halle Berry as NSA agent Jinx. She makes a great Bond girl.

James Bond is sent to North Korea to kill a renegade colonel selling weapons for diamonds. He is double crossed by someone and is captured. An American agent is killed and 007 is suspected to have cracked. He is quickly returned in a trade for Zao but now British intelligence doesn't trust him. Bond runs away to track down Zao himself. He finds him working for British billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens). They go to the ice hotel to play with his ray beam satellite.

The North Korean start has some decent action, but it's the fact that he's captured that makes it great. When he had to go to the Chinese for help, I thought this could get interesting. The high point of the movie has to be Halle Berry coming onshore with that bikini. From there, the movie slowly grinds down with one silliness after another.

The worst has to be the villain played be Toby Stephens. His character is unimaginative and can be best describe as a twit or a douche. I was hoping for threatening. Then there's the ice hotel. That just screams trying too hard. And finally the ray beam satellite. It's been done so many times. The movie started off with some grittiness, but slides into cartoon action.