Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) takes on North Korea in one of the most puzzlingly uneven of the films in the series. The plot itself is clever and performances are quite good; Toby Stephens in particular is a lot of fun as rabid diamond magnate Gustav Graves.
But Bond films are always a mirror of the era, and like many films of this period this one had unusual ideas about "cool". The influence of The Matrix is particularly strongly felt, e.g. on trenchcoat-wearing cyberpunk boogeyman Zao (Rick Yune). The production design in general -- I haven't looked into this in more detail but I presume the prime creative force was a 13-year-old boy -- is an embarrassment, particularly the bizarre ice palace set, as is almost all of the action. The film's most exciting scene is a duel with swords between Bond and Graves; one of the worst is a ridiculous duel with gadget-laden cars. There is almost nothing good to say about this part of the film: uninteresting shots, poorly edited, make even some pretty great stunts look bad.
This is a great espionage thriller married to what is surely one of the worst big-budget action movies of all time.