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Die Another Day
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 37
  3. Negative: 3 out of 37
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    91
    The savviest and most exciting Bond adventure in years, and that's because there's actually something at stake in it.
  2. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    As strong on action as it is weak on the interpersonal stuff. If Bond can get a new car for each episode, how about some new pickup lines?
  3. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    All told, this first Bond of the new millennium may be far from the best of the series, but it's assured, wonderfully respectful of its past and thrilling enough to make it abundantly clear that this movie phenomenon has once again reinvented itself for a new generation, and is very likely to outlive us all.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Dequina
    80
    Brosnan's best mission as Bond yet, and the most satisfying installment of the franchise in recent memory.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Clint Morris
    80
    The real-deal, packed with more excitement, vigor and fortitude than an unfaltering Magnum.
  6. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    80
    The result is the niftiest Bond movie in years -- fresh, funny, and jammed to the rafters with demented stunts, Boys'-Own gadgetry and brazen promiscuity.
  7. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    80
    Tamahori pumps a tremendous amount of energy into his Bond movie, and it's an electrifying ride.
  8. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Brosnan, in his fourth time up at the Bond bat, hits this one out of the park.
  9. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Die Another Day is still utterly absurd from one end to the other, of course, but in a slightly more understated way. And so it goes, Bond after Bond, as the most durable series in movie history heads for the half-century.
  10. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Howard Cohen
    75
    Amped to the max, with firepower and fisticuffs flying, this is Bond as we have come to know him in the post-Roger Moore years: bigger, badder, better.
  11. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    75
    Aside from a jarringly fake computer-generated avalanche scene that momentarily challenges the necessary suspension of disbelief, the big-bang set pieces are superbly crafted.
  12. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    The picture should satisfy both diehard fans, who liked the plotting and interaction of early Bond films, and "Die Hard" fans, who prefer Bond shaken and stirred by massive explosions, vehicular crashes and gunplay befitting a Central American revolution.
  13. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    Tamahori's Die Another Day is an imperfect Bond movie. But for every patch where it's dull and lifeless or just plain stupid, there are also sections that are significantly different from anything we've seen before in a Bond movie.
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Perhaps the most satisfying Bond movie since "The Spy Who Loved Me."
  15. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    He thrilled me, then betrayed me in the end.
  16. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Dead-on as entertaining eye candy, a bona fide guilty pleasure -- for the first hour. But the movie loses steam and the sequences that dazzled in the beginning get overshadowed by the excesses of later scenes.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    Die Another Day is still as professionally mediocre as its predecessors.
  18. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    Every hero needs to be revitalized by a little humiliation, and for at least the first 40 minutes of Die Another Day, Bond's dressing-down seems to do him and the movie franchise a world of good.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    Surely it will not be giving things away to tell you there's absolutely nothing new about the latest episode.
  20. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    Maybe I've seen too many James Bond movies by now, or maybe the trouble with this 20th installment is that the filmmakers are trying too hard to top the excesses of the predecessors.
  21. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    50
    You leave feeling like you've endured a long workout without your pulse ever racing. The exercise ultimately is product placement, with Bond the biggest product of them all.
  22. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Pierce Brosnan has mastered every smidgen of 007 schtick, making the role more thoroughly his own than any actor since Sean Connery -- still the best of the batch -- decided to call it quits.
  23. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    Not even Halle Berry, emerging from the blue Caribbean in an orange two-piece -- can bring this thing to life.
  24. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    The new movie lacks something, a special something. It's a quality that has characterized some of the best of the first 19 Bond movies: extravagant ludicrousness.
  25. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    This is a train wreck of an action film -– a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed James Bond into the mindless "XXX" mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs.
  26. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    50
    As a franchise, the James Bond series needs its stomach stapled.
  27. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Frank Lovece
    50
    The non-action scenes are so pedestrian that one suspects the good stuff is less due to workmanlike director Lee Tamahori than to one of the best second-unit crews in the biz.
  28. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kim Morgan
    50
    Another Bond film that turns out to be an unspectacular spectacle, at times winking and fun but too often plodding and hackneyed. That said, as usual Brosnan is terrific, walking through dunderhead moments and a tedious plot with grace.
  29. New York Magazine
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    This series is in its fortieth year; it might be nice to see Bond battle a readily identifiable, real-world villain for a change. There's certainly no shortage.
  30. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    50
    The many shots of characters operating devices with remote controls will do little to quiet the complaints that the films have started to resemble video games, and the same can be said of the proliferating digital effects.
  31. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    Die Another Day is only intermittently entertaining but it's hard not to be a sucker for its charms, or perhaps it's just impossible not to feel nostalgia for movies you grew up with.
  32. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    Sports some tasty scenes, mostly in the first half, but also pushes 007 into CGI-driven, quasi-sci-fi territory that feels like a betrayal of what the franchise has always been about.
  33. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    Beginning to creak not only with age but with the strain of constant self-one-upmanship in giving us exotic locales, explosive geopolitics and unbelievable stunts.
  34. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    40
    Just doesn't have it.
  35. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    30
    Flat, distressingly witless -- To put it bluntly -- the thrill is gone. Nobody did it better. But that was then.
    All this critic's reviews
  36. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    30
    What's new here is a severe deficit of style, or even craftsmanship, both in the action sequences and what passes for human interludes.
    All this critic's reviews
  37. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    10
    Dissing a Bond movie is quite like calling a dog stupid, but when it has the temerity to run over two hours, you feel like winding up with a kick.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 92 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 60
  3. Negative: 11 out of 60
  1. Commander_Jim
    2
    The worst Bond film of them all. There really is no excuse for such a poor excuse of a film from such talented people with so much money to spend. An incoherent story, a script that seems to be comprised of nothing but bad sex puns that are too low brow for an Austin Powers movie and instead of the famous Bond stunts we get CGI that looked to have been done by the local High School AV club. Just check out Halle Berry's s CGI dive of a cliff, the most unintentionally funny thing Ive seen in a long time. A very, very poor movie.… Full Review »
  2. chardr69
    7
    The twentieth James Bond film and last for Pierce Brosnan as 007. It is also the only Bond directed by Lee Tamahori. James Bond is captured by the North Koreans trying to disrupt an illegal arms deal for outlawed South African "conflict diamonds", put together by Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee) and his right hand man Zao (Rick Moon). But he is double-crossed by someone within MI6, and tortured by the North Koreans, but not before killing Moon. Fourteen months later 007 is released by his captures in exchange for Zao, who was recently captured by the west. "M" (Dame Judi Dench) and NSA agent Damian Falco (Michael Madsen) believe Bond must have talked during his captivity, and is sent to rot in a British prison facility in Hong Kong. 007 escapes by stopping his heart for a brief period of time, and busting out. He then tracks Zao to Cuba where he is receiving DNA replacement therapy, and meets the incredibly sexy Jinx (Halle Berry), a NSA agent working for Falco. After Zao escapes, Bond returns to London and his attention turns to environmental billionaire Gustov Graves (Tobey Stephens), who has created a satellite that deploys a heat ray that can turn the world's ice lands into lush green gardens. 007 then travels to Iceland and Graves' ice fortress "The Ice Palace", where he is invited to watch a demonstration of his satellite, which Bond believes is fueled by the "conflict diamonds". While there, 007 meets up again with Jinx, and learns that Graves is actually Colonel Moon, having had has his appearance altered by the DNA replacement therapy. Bond and Jinx must now stop Graves and MI6 traitor Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) before he uses the satellite to attack South Korea. This is the most absurd plot of any of the 007 films, and one of the reasons that the series went on hiatus for four years, and then the decision was made to reboot the franchise, and start all over again. Pierce Brosnan is great as usual, but starting to look a little old (he was 49 at the time), and Halle Berry is perfect as the strong-headed sexy Jinx. The theme song by Madonna is probably the worst of all the Bond themes, and the DNA Gene replacement therapy is completely ridiculous, as is 007's invisible Aston Martin. This film is entertaining, but way too far over the top.… Full Review »
  3. Florian
    7
    I liked the movie very much - the actors are very interesting and their acting is flawless. The soundtrack greatly contributes to increase the tension. The action is very entertaining and though sometimes very exaggerated, still believable - well, a bit, but it's very much fun!… Full Review »
See all user reviews »