Actor: Pierce Brosnan
US Release Date: 22 November 2002
US gross, $160.2 million
Worldwide gross, $ 424.7 million
Second most successful Bond movie at the Box Office.
World Premier - 19th November 2002, London
Locations: PukchOng Coast, North Korea, Korean DMZ, Hong Kong,
Havana, Sierra De Los Organos, Isla Organos, Cuba, London,
Vatnajokull, Iceland.
Source for above info: The " mother " of all James Bond books - James Bond: The Legacy.
Happenstance
The movie starts with the trademark opening shot of Bond
shooting into the camera but with a bullet whizzing toward
you.
Three surfers surf in the moonlight (a awesome scene) and land
on a North Korean beach. One of the surfers pulls off his mask
and we see the face of Pierce Brosnan back on his fourth
mission as 007. Bond is posing as a South African agent
exchanging “conflict” diamonds for weapons with a
decadent North Korean Colonel Moon (he is not a werewolf,
though). Here he meets Moon’s second in command, Zao
(Rick Yune) who contacts a traitor in MI6 to check out
Bond’s real identity. Bond’s cover is blown and so
he escapes in a high-speed chase in hovercrafts, over a road
packed with land mines. During his escape he blows up the
briefcase with C4 explosive in the face of Zao who now gets a
“sparkling personality” due to the diamonds in his
face. Bond dodges flamethrowers and machine-gun fire and jumps
all over hovercrafts. This bang bang action is reminiscent of
the start of
Tomorrow Never Dies"
. Later Moon falls into a waterfall and Bond is left dangling
to a bell.
Bond: Saved by the bell.
But then something happens which never happened in the 40
years of James Bond. Bond is captured by the rest of the North
Korean commies, and as the mandatory credits roll over the
title Madonna song, images of Bond babes cast in melting gold
are superimposed on the torture to Bond: beatings, scorpion
injections, his face held under ice water.
What just happened! Is this the same 007 who could outwit
sharks, piranhas and moonwalk in outer space? Is this going to
be an unBondlike adventure?
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who wrote the screenplay had
earlier in
The world is not enough
, played with Bond’s invulnerability by giving him a
dislocated shoulder. This incarnation and torture is very Ian
Flemingish and throws the Bond formula for a twist.
Coincidence
Bond is tortured for 14 months before emerging with a very
un-chic look and finally starts looking like Robinson Crusoe meet
Castaway Hanks. The only difference is that here there is no
volleyball to chat with for him. The only company Bond has is a
group of scorpions. Maybe he called them Wilson.
He doesn’t even get a Q gadget led escape and the hirsute
and bearded Bond, ready for “Cast Away 2,” just bids
his time. As he is Mr. Cool, he doesn’t break under the
interrogation. And the British keep their stiff upper lip and
deny his existence, and Bond rots in jail for 14 months.
Finally he is traded off for Zao who is now an international
terrorist. Bond is kept in a glass room (like Hannibal) under
observation by doctors who note that throughout the torture his
internal organs are quite good except for his liver (the martinis
taking their toll). M (Dame Judi Dench) is furious Bond did not
kill himself and believes Bond gave up secrets under torture. M
wants to send Bond to the Falkland Islands for evaluation. M
looking Mini-Me like 4 feet tall to Bond’s 6 feet, revokes
007’s 00 status.
M: “While you were away, the world changed.”
But Bond’s mojo is not in his 00 status. Bond escapes from
his medical prison (on a Brit ship) in Hong Kong. He walks into a
5 star hotel in prison issue pajamas still wet from his swim with
a hippie look and asking for his usual room. Quite a twist from
the chic looking Bond asking for a “Shaken not stirred”
martini, but surprisingly this entire thing actually works.
Something like this was attempted in
License to Kill
, this movie really works on this level when we see Bond working
on his innate skills and talent.
There’s just something cool about how you can take away
everything away from Bond, but he’s merely too cool to give
a damn. Bond isn’t about Tuxedoes and gadgets which movies
like XXX (Vin Diesel) and Tuxedo (Jackie Chan) think. James Bond
is THE man. Throw anything at him and he will handle it. All
credit to Brosnan and Lee Tamahori (the director).
In the hotel, he is visited by a Chinese masseuse who calls
herself Peaceful Fountains of Desire (what was that, come
again?). But Bond smells a rat (served with Soya sauce) and he
disarms the sexy masseuse who’s got a gun strapped to her
thigh and then smashes the mirrored wall and sees that Chinese
spies are videotaping him. For penance for being Peeping Toms,
the Chinese offer him free tickets and passports to Castro’s
Cuba. The city of Cadiz in Spain stands in for Havana because I
don’t think Fidel will allow James Bond to land on his
commie land. In Cuba he meets an old Universal Exports contact
after some spy gibberish about cigars. “One man’s
terrorist is another’s freedom fighter,” says the
contact when he is asked about Zao. Bond coolly borrows a finny
‘50s Fairlane and a revolver and a pair of binoculars from
the Cuban.
Here he is planning to drop into a plastic surgery clinic when he
sees an American NSA agent named Jinx (Oscar winner Halle Berry),
emerge from the ocean, just as Ursula Andress did in
Dr. No.
. She even wears a bikini similar to Andress’ with a knife
sheath on her hip. The only difference is that the bikini is
orange colored. Then follows our mandatory double entrende
introduction with the babe. Bond introduces himself as a visiting
ornithologist. Casually scanning his crotch area, Jinx remarks,
“That’s quite a mouthful.” After talking about
birds, Bond teaches Jinx about the birds and the bees. After a
night of passion, Bond follows Jinx to the health clinic where
DNA transplants are transforming Zao into a Caucasian. Bond and
Jinx destroy the clinic and along with it destroy Michael
Jackson’s only hope of regaining his disintegrating face.
These opening sequences are the most satisfying ones in Bond
movies for a long time. Any other actor other than Connery did
not show this level of coolness for Bond. That means a lot. Even
a Shakespearean actor like Dalton couldn’t do this but a TV
actor like Brosnan succeeds and shows the level of acting he has
gained over the years.
Later, we get to the mandatory villain who wants to take over the
world. Enter Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens, Maggie Smith (Harry
Potter’s Professor McGonagall)’s son) the mandatory
rich megalomaniac. His parachute entrance to the film for the
British press is the most audacious introduction for a Bond
villain.
Bond meets Graves at Blades, a fencing school. Bond’s
fencing instructor happens to be Verity (Madonna, who
surprisingly doesn’t suck).
Verity: “Do you fence, Mr. Bond?”
Bond: “I can keep my tip up,”
Verity: “I see you handle your weapon well.”
Later Graves and Bond engage in a destructive fencing match with
fencing swords, sabers, broadswords and finally fists. They end
up wrecking the gent’s club, even slashing up
Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy.” The fight is really
fantastic. Bond finally succeeds in thrashing Graves who is
training for the Olympic team.
Verity’s student is Olympic champion Miranda Frost (Rosamund
Pike). Graves invites Bond to the unveiling of Icarus, a space
thingy (like the ones Dr. Evil makes), in Iceland. Graves has
built an enormous ice palace especially for the presentation.
Bond has to visit Q (John Cleese) for the gadgets before he goes
to wreck the villain’s ice palace. Here Bond plays with
mementos of previous Bond adventures - a jetpack from
Thunderball
, the poison-tipped shoe in
From Russia with Love
, the croc-mobile from
Octopussy
, the scuba equipment from
Thunderball
. Q gives Bond an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish with missiles, pop-up
machine guns, ejector seat and invisibility (yes, invisibility).
Q also gives him an ultrasonic ring to shatter glass.
Then we are treated to a stunning view of the world’s
biggest igloo, an ice palace build in the western coast of
Iceland. Bond meets Miranda and Jinx here. Things move fast from
now on. Miranda is a MI6 agent.
Miranda Frost tells Bond, “I know all about you, 007. Sex
for dinner, death for breakfast.”
In reply, Bond explains his Big Bang theory to Miranda and has a
defrosting session with her.
Bond meets Jinx. Jinx gets captured by baddies. Bond saves Jinx.
The good thing in this part is that Jinx is tied down and
tortured with a laser, like Connery’s Bond was in
Goldfinger"
. Bond comes to know that Graves is planning the destruction of
the world through the use of Icarus which carries the solar power
to barbeque you before you can spell barbeque. Here we come to
know exactly who has lived to die another day and also who was
the traitor who caused Bond’s betrayal. The traitor part is
quite straightforward but the identity of the person who has
lived to die another day is quite a twist.
Then the explosions and the stunts begin. There is fight between
Bond and mandatory disposable henchman (named Mr. Kill, “a
name to die for” quips Bond) in a lab where laser cutters
run amok. Bond leaps into an ice glider and races just ahead of
Icarus’s sunbeam that’s trailing him. In the process he
breaks Graves’s speed record (Is there anything Bond cant
do, other than not escaping from a commie prison?).
The deadly sunbeam sends Bond off a cliff into the sea below,
where a falling glacier creates a mega tidal wave. Bond surfs
again on this tidal wave and this scene is to be seen to be
believed. The Bond of
The spy who loved me"
who skied off a cliff and sailed down in a parachute is back.
Later Zao and Bond have a cool car chase when Zao’s Jaguar
tries to outmatch Bond’s Aston gadget for gadget. This is
the first time a No.2 has equal gadgets as Bond and hence the
chase is enchanting. Then the Jag tails the Aston Martin up the
ramps of the hotel through curtains of melting ice water as Bond
races to rescue Jinx from drowning. Jinx endures a drowning, like
Denise Richards in
The world is not enough
. Bond manages to use the invisibile car to make Zao disappear
and saves Jinx.
Enemy Action
Everyone heads back to North Korea on a cargo plane that blows
up. Jinx tries to prevent the jet from crashing while fighting a
babe versus babe duel with Miranda. Bond and Graves (in a Robocop
outfit) fight in another section of the plane.
Finally all ends up well and the bad guys get their due
(mandatory item).
At the end there is a fantastic piece with Moneypenny (Samantha
Bond, who has started to look like Judi Dench, who plays M)
continuing the fine tradition of all Brosnan Bond’s.
Jinx: “Leave it in, I want to play with it”
It’s a diamond Bond has placed in her navel. Roger’s
jokes have made a comeback here.
This is a movie much better than all the Bonds since
'For your eyes only'
. Lee Tamahori, the director made “The Edge,” with Alec
Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins and a bear. Here he gets a bigger budget
and better actors than a bear. Almost every character from
Miranda Frost, Zao, Graves (who played Clint Eastwood in Space
Cowboys), and Jinx is top class. Jinx and Bond’s chemistry
is not so hot and also some of the action seems a bit dragged
out. But what do you expect, Citizen Kane?
Anyone who doesn’t like this movie deserves to spend the
rest of his days in the North Korean prison tortured by
scorpions. This piece has rambled on for a long time but what the
heck, I really liked this movie.
This movie proves finally that Pierce Brosnan IS Ian
Fleming’s James Bond, 007. Bond cleans his Walther P99 and
places it under his pillow before having a shag. Yes, James Bond
rules…
With the fantastic record-breaking opening of $47 million, this
movie had and the super fast run to $100 million that this movie
enjoyed, James Bond will return in
Casino Royale
.
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