Friday, July 11, 2003 | 8:40 a.m.
It's hard to believe that even with hours of deleted scenes, documentary footage and assorted miscellany that a DVD set can fall short of expectations. Such is the case with the two-disc DVD set of "Die Another Day" (MGM, $29.98). Nowhere on the DVDs -- not in Pierce Brosnan's and Halle Berry's commentary track, or the making-of documentary -- does anyone mention that the 20th film of the James Bond franchise is a thumping bore.
Some come close. Near the end of his commentary track, Brosnan wishes that the next Bond film could be un-rated "and really explore the darkness of this guy." Director Lee Tamahori and screenwriters all but surrender to the 19 films that came before, loading the film with dozens of references to the Bonds that came before. But neither party says what they're obviously thinking: The formula no longer works.
Yet for the first half-hour of "Die Another Day," there's a thin bead of hope. Before the movie gets deeply into the Madman-With-a-Space-Laser plot shared by at least 60 percent of the Bond films, Bond himself is nearly destroyed: he is captured by the North Korean military and tortured. After he's released in a spy trade, he's shunned like a pariah; his superior (the magnificent Judi Dench) thinks he "hemorrhaged information" under duress.
Alas, it's not to be. What could have been the most fascinating Bond movie since Pierce Brosnan took over the tuxedo -- Bond's struggle to redeem himself -- dissipates within 45 minutes, as producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson slam the story back into the mold. "It's their show," says Brosnan in the commentary, with just a hint of frustration in his voice.
It is indeed their show, as dismal and overlong a film as "Goldeneye" or "The World is Not Enough." Such is the producers' devotion to late producer and franchise creator Cubby Broccoli's character that they won't let him leave home; is it any wonder Bond's beginning to act like a prisoner of war?
And funnily enough, producers of other films meant to counter-program Bond are using the exact same formula. Vin Diesel's "XXX" was Bond with a techno/metal soundtrack; the "Tomb Raider" movies are Bond with an X chromosome. Only Doug Liman's terrific "Bourne Identity" worked from a fresh blueprint -- there's no war for the safety of the world, no high-tech gadgets, but only the continuing battle for a man's soul.
"Die Another Day" doesn't have time for any of that soul-searching. It has Halle Berry to push uphill -- a terrific actress, but too glamorous for government work. (The producers reportedly tried to get "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's" Michelle Yeoh to return -- the saving grace of "Tomorrow Never Dies" -- but Yeoh couldn't fit the film into her schedule.) There are space lasers to destroy, in-jokes to tell, knives to throw. It is relentless.
What did we ever like about the Bond films, anyway? Looking at "Die Another Day," the answer is easy: everything that film doesn't have. We can't admire the scenery, as it passes by too quickly; we can't admire the cars, as they're taking turns exploding or doing things we know they can't do; we can't respect Bond, because his creators have made him a figurehead.
It won't be the space laser that will do Bond in. He'll die of old age, just like everyone else. "Die Another Day" finds him with one foot in the grave, and the other just inches from landing in the dirt.
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