Bond is back in 'Die Another Day'

In his 40th year, James Bond has become the most successful franchise in film history, providing his audience with the staples of espionage: fast cars, faster women and stuff blowing up. Lee Tamahori's new installment into that long tradition, "Die Another Day," lives up to its predecessors.\nStarting with one of the best Bond action sequences to be shot on celluloid, our "double O" agent is chased across a landmine-peppered field in North Korea on hovercraft. Throughout the film, Bond becomes the globetrotting, PP-7-packing, explosion-inducing agent we have all come to know, but this is not what makes "Die Another Day" one of the best Bond films in recent decades.\nTamahori has directed a film that moves from the high-gloss, untouchable image of Bond we are familiar with and has replaced it with a gritty, more vulnerable Bond. As Madonna's electrical chirping trips rhythm over the opening titles, Bond doesn't make his usual grandiose escape. Instead, we are shown images of Bond being tortured by his North Korean captives over the span of a year. \nWhen our film begins, Bond is a man who has been completely stripped physically and emotionally, barely recognizable with a bushy beard and long hair. Even upon his release, M, fearing Bond might have been leaking information, says, "The world has changed...You're of no use to us anymore." And like that, Bond is no longer 007, but "double O" loser.\nOf course, none of these unconventional shenanigans actually last. This is, after all, James Bond, and you just can't keep a good spy down. But the first act of the film, in which we are suddenly shown a side of Bond that brings him closer to human than superhuman, is arguably its strongest. Brosnan does his best job yet in the role of our good man James, actually portraying the vulnerability of Bond just as believably as the sheer suaveness.\nLikewise, Halle Berry gives an interesting performance as American NSA agent Jinx, who also plays with some of the more stereotypical, conventional roles in which woman have usually found themselves next to Bond.\nWith the second act and by the stunt-riddled climax, "Die Another Day" becomes more and more the conventional Bond film we are used to. And while slightly formulaic, there's no denying the simple escapist entertainment of completely suspending disbelief. For your money, this Bond will leave you shaken, stirred and waiting for the next one.