“Die Another Day” (star)(star)1/2
“Die Another Day” is a Bond film for people who choose restaurants for their large portions. It’s stuffed with supersized action sequences, explosions, fights, gadgets, product placements, double-crosses, nudge-nudge one-liners, the works.
This fourth Pierce Brosnan entry in the series is positioning Bond for the future, with an overload of computer-generated effects, while offering multiple references to the early Bond films (or do you call them ripoffs?) and a throwback kind of spy plot. Too bad we don’t get a throwback kind of memorable villain instead of yet another sneering meglomaniac.
The movie looks sharp, as does Halle Berry in a role that otherwise adds zippo to the story, but it ultimately wears us down with set piece after set piece. You leave feeling like you’ve endured a long work-out without your pulse ever racing. PG-13.
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Read the full review on metromix.com or in the Chicago Tribune’s Friday section.
