|
 Movie A |
Video A- | Audio A+
| Extras A | Recommended!
Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephends, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune,
Judy Dench, John Cleese
director Lee Tamahori | MGM
2002 | Action | PG-13 | 132 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DTS-ES | Dolby Digital
5.1 EX
Summary:
Pierce Brosnan returns as James Bond in this 20th 007 episode that celebrates the franchise’s success to date.
For this episode, James Bond goes into North Korea to assassinate a renegade Colonel who sells weapons in exchange for South African conflict diamonds.
In the process of this mission, our favorite British agent is captured by the North Koreans.
He is tortured for months for counter-intelligence against his fellow British spies.
Of course, James Bond refuses to take this cyanide (it would be quite the short movie if he did), so he can
Die Another Day and be of future use to the MI-6 agency.
Finally, the agency makes a trade for Bond.
Needless to say, “M” is upset with his capture, but is even more so at Bond’s new status within the agency:
“You're no use to anyone now.”
That’s tough for anyone to hear, let alone our superhero James Bond.
The agency holds him under tight security for observations, but 007 makes an easy escape and attempts to find the traitor that tainted his reputation and destroyed his career as a “double 0”.
Following a lead, he heads to Cuba where he meets up with Jinx (Halle Berry), a undercover agent for a three-letter U.S. national security agency (Oops, did that spell “NSA”?)
The word play in that “Dr. No” / Ursula Andress tribute scene is something.
Together, yet separately, they chase a relatively new, self-made, international mogul who happens to sell diamonds that are structurally identical to South African conflict diamonds.
Gadgets? But of course.
Agent 007’s visit to the “Q laboratory” is always a special treat for fans.
But for this 20th Bond film, this is especially true as the facility is filled with relics from previous James Bond movies.
See how many of these artifacts you can spot and name the particular Bond film.
As long-time Bond fan, I will miss the late Desmond Llewelyn, in his famous and enduring role as “Q”.
Visually, the DVD transfer is near perfect.
A few dust specks mars what would otherwise be a perfect video transfer.
I believe this is the first James Bond DVD to feature a DTS-ES
soundtrack. Finally, we can experience the full glory of this awesome sound mix.
Madonna’s title song is, shall we say unique, with its unusual use of sound levels.
When I first saw Die Another Day in the movie theaters on its opening show, I had thought that the film stock was defected, as the sound kept cutting in and out.
Leave to Madonna to always try new techniques.
As a DVD, MGM released a doozie: a two-disc set with a dedicated second disc for bonus features and a DTS soundtrack option for the movie.
There’s several featurettes that takes advantage of DVD-Video’s multi-angle feature.
One of the reasons for the second disc is so that the first disc can accommodate the data-hogging
DTS-ES soundtrack.
Even so, if only all James Bond DVDs were released this way going forward.
I too would then have reason to Die Another Day. I
unconditionally recommended this DVD.
Special Features: There's plenty of bonus
features on this 2-disc special edition DVD to please most Bond film
collectors.
Disc 1: feature film with these bonus
features:
-
audio commentary with director Lee Tamahori and
producer Michael G. Wilson
-
audio commentary with Pierce Brosnan and
Rosamund Pike
-
MI6 DataStream: trivia track with video
streaming
-
DVD-ROM features
Disc 2: Special features disc with:
-
Inside Die Another Day: mission
briefings featurettes
-
Mission Desconstruction
-
Scene Evolutions: featurettes showing
storyboards and storyboard/final shot comparisons; DVD player
"angle" buttons cannot be used
-
Hovercraft Chase
-
Car Battle
-
Interaction Sequences: multi-angle
featurettes showing different camera angles, including a
four-camera composite; use the "angle" button on your
DVD player to dynamical switch between the various camera angles
-
Hovercraft Chase
-
Blades
-
Car Battle
-
Antonov Fight
-
Title Designs: a featurette that shows how
the title sequence was made, using a number of composite layers
including the live action background, CGI composites, diamond
refractions
-
Digital Grading: a featurette explaining
how the grading process (adjustments for color temperature, color
saturation, exposure) was performed in the digital domain
-
Equipment Briefing: profiles of James Bond
special equipment used in the movie
-
Surfboard (with special modifications)
-
Standard issue watch
-
Switchblade personal jet glider
-
Ultra-high frequency single digital sonic
agitator unit
-
Aston Martin V-12 Vanquish (codename:
Vanish) automobile
-
Image Database: photo galleries
-
Cast portraits
-
Special shoot
-
Sets & locations
-
Stunts & special effects
-
Vehicles & gadgets
-
Ministry of Propaganda
-
Trailers & TV spots: 2 teaser trailers,
1 theatrical trailer, and TV spots
-
Madonna music video "Die Another
Day"
-
Making of Madonna's "Die Another
Day" music video
-
"007: Nightfire" trailer
-
Making of Electronic Arts "007:
Nightfire" video game
-
DVD-ROM features
-
other great MGM releases: trailers of Evelyn,
Windtalkers Director's Edition DVD, Agent Cody Banks,
Bulletproof Monk
DVD released on 6/3/2003 | Reviewed 7/13/2003
List $29.98 | online $19.46
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-NS725P progressive scan DVD player, Sony
KP-65WV600 65" rear projection HDTV-monitor (16:9 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable
ULT V1000 Ultra Series THX component video cable, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
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