Pierce Brosnan got worse as James Bond as the years went on - this was his fourth time out and not only was he becoming distractingly old, his continuing inability to say a funny line remains amazing. He is wound uptight and anxious, limiting the impact of this entry, which has many fine moments. Or at least, it does at the beginning - the second half is just plain silly.
The action sequences are back to their high standard, with some truly spectacular and thrilling segments: an opening hovercraft chase through the mine-riddled DMZ in Korea, a full blooded fencing match that turns roughhouse, a shootout in a dodgy clinic in Cuba.
The story isn't bad either - finally, the opening sequence from The Man with the Golden Gun is used... Bond is captured and spends a long time in Communist captivity, and returns a possible rogue (although why wasn't he brainwashed as in the novel?) It reuses the novel Moonraker device of the villain assuming an identity of a rich person who then seeks revenge against the West, something which pops up in a lot of movies (A View to a Kill, Goldeneye).
But still... the script has problems. The team of Purvis and Wade would later be rewritten by Paul Haggis and from this I see why (NB I know it's hard to tell who wrote what based on film credits and I'm making the following judgement on the assumption that they contributed more to this one): they've got plenty of good ideas but don't always seem to make sense. For instance, the fencing match between Bond and Graves (Toby Stephens) is exciting... but not really motivated, there's no point to it, it doesn't add any new information, or pay off in an interesting way. (Yes it prompts Graves to invite Bond to Iceland but surely he could have done that anyway). It's cute how Graves turns out to be a North Korean general... but to have become a billionaire that's that famous so quickly? The finale of the Iceland sequence has Bond driving against time to save Jinx (Halle Berry) who he barely knows... he ignores the villains escaping with a top secret laser and instead goes for some bit of tail.
While watching the latter I thought to myself "that's something Roger Moore's James Bond would do" and this movie more than ever seems to seek to recapture the spirit of the Moore Bonds, with its invisible car, sexually harassing Bond and really silly CGI surfing in Icelandic waters sequence.
American Bond girls are normally the worst and this does nothing to break the mould. Jinx is a decent character - spunky, tough, brave, good name - and Halle Berry is pretty, but she's just too nice and, well, Halle Berry to be believable as a kick arse action hero. (She is no Michelle Yeoh.) At times she seems like the star of some cheesy 90s straight to DVD flick... and adding to that is Michael Madsen as her boss. (When Madsen and Berry do a scene with Judy Dench and Pierce Brosnan, it's like a mashup of action movies)
Rosamund Pike is beautiful and has two effective moments - being an ice queen as she strips off her clothes and hops into bed with Bond, and then randomly appearing at the end dressed in leather pants and bra wielding a sword while on a plane. But she feels underutilitised - as if she's missing a scene or something.
Rick Yune is an excellent villain henchman, Toby Stephens a irritating villain (he does his best but plays the part in an overly flaring nostrils style, rather like Rik Mayall as Iron Man), John Cleese makes an unwelcome return as Q, Madonna is jarring although her title tune was okay, Samantha Bond is fine as Moneypenny.
Setting the action in Cuba, North Korea and Iceland is fresh; I'm not surprised the South Koreans were offended by the finale, which has the Americans completely in charge of their country's defence; occasionally the visuals are far too influenced by the Fast and the Furious and XXX. This wasnt as bad as some claim - it's got some great bits - but a fine first third is thrown away.
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