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rating)
Viewed at Pacific Place
Rated PG-13; running time of 120 minutes
Genre: Action
Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade
Directed by: Lee Tamahori
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, Will Yun Lee, Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, John Cleese, Michael Madsen, Lawrence Makoare, Colin Salmon, Madonna
WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW.
The Digest
It's another day in the life of favorite british spy. This time 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is in North Korea on the ugly side of the DMZ and is trying to facilitate a trade of diamonds for weapons with a young Col. Moon (Will Yun Lee) and Moon's right hand man, Zao (Rick Yune). After which he would blow up everyone and move on to his next assignment. Things go horribly wrong when his cover is blown. He kills Moon and maims Zao then he finds himself being held and tortured for 14 months.
When his government reluctantly trades for his freedom he finds that he has been disgraced and his reputation ruined. M (Judi Dench), believing that James cracked under pressure, turns her back on him and with that his agency and country follow suit.
James is determined to clear his name and it is made much easier when M has a change of heart and invites him back into the fold. With that James heads of to Cuba to track down the agency mole that blew his cover, as well as, capture Zao who is out and about.
While in Cuba James crosses path with a beautiful agent who goes by the name of Jinx (Halle Berry) who is there on a mission of her own that mirrors what James is trying to accomplish. Both of them prefer to work on their own, but they can't do it alone. How much time and resources will the waste before they figure that out and can they survive the fall- out if they go it alone?
The Dish
James rarely loses anything and in this outing he loses everything that he still holds dear (except his ability to get every woman in bed... more on that later) - his freedom, his reputation, his job... that was something that I hadn't seen before. He needed to be humbled and he needed to learn that he couldn't do everything on his own. He even got his ass royally kicked. Wow James Bond is human. Imagine that. The only thing that could have made it better for me would have been if his charms didn't work on the ladies. Let him suffer once in awhile. I'd love to see him end up in clinic needing penicillin, if only to put the breaks on his need to bed just about every woman he comes across.
And my girl Halle. Her character was right on time. it was high time we saw a woman who could keep up with James in all aspects. Instead of crying "Oh James save me!" she was more like, "aight move out of my way- I got this." That was cool. She even had the upper hand in the obligatory sex scene. He is the one who woke up to the bed being empty of her side. She got what she wanted then she cut out. I loved it. There has been some discussion about some of the things her character said and I truthfully did not have a problem with her comments. So you she punctuated a sentence with "bitch". So have I. I've even said "Yo mama" on a time or two. I do not think the point was to make her character 'blacker". Sometimes, "Yo mama!" is the perfect substitution for "F**k you!" I didn't see it as any more than that.
There were problems, of course, but they were same problems in every other 007 flick. Outlandish, unrealistic, and unbelievable stunts; bad one-liners; plot holes you can fit a Mack truck in. But to expect anything different will live you forever unfulfilled. All you can do is hope that it isn't worse than normal and in this case it was a little better than what we're used to - not much better, but a little.
The Directive
Hands down the best Pierce Brosnan James Bond to date even if it is a bit long. Check it out.
I'm glad they decided to let James Bond die another day because this was one 007 flick that I'm glad was made.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2002
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