Die Another Day

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

The 20th Bond flick in 40 years spent in her majesty's secret service sure does a good job of celebrating the 007 legacy under the direction of Lee Tamahori.

It has references both blatant - including Halle Berry's bikini-clad tribute to Ursula Andress' classic entrance - and sly to past 007 flicks.

That has its pluses: care of John Cleese and various props from past adventures, this contains the funniest "Q" scene ever. And its minuses: a scene that's a riff on Goldfinger's slow-death-by-laser is just plain silly.

But more importantly, what Die Another Day can't quite manage is to sew it all together into a coherent story that makes you forgive the occasionally cruddy CGI or suspend disbelief that you aren't watching the 20th variation on the same old formula.

It's a loud, brash Bond, equal parts adrenalin and raging testosterone. It sure has its moments and is genuinely sexier than its immediate predecessors.

For our money, English actress Pike, as the aptly titled Miranda Frost, is the superior screen steamer-upper, her haughty air far more alluring than Berry, and that cleavage which must have its own agent judging by the amount of screen time it gets.

Berry might be the first Oscar-toting Bond girl, but she's not the first to make little impression, apart from a visual one.

Die Another Day does a decent enough villain in Toby Stephen's Gustav Graves. He's another variation on the megalomaniac zillionaire with plans to do something nasty to the planet from his lair in Iceland in a plot involving gene therapy, a couple of rogue North Korean soldiers, a giant sun dish, as well as various stopovers in Cuba, Hong Kong and London.

And Graves has enough time for a spot of fencing with our hero and blasting across the Icelandic landscape in a rocket-powered sled.

It sure comes with enough hardware to keep the Bond toy franchise happy for a couple of Christmases, though it's the software of the gaming world this sometimes resembles.

Unfortunately, while its standard of computer effects might be fine for a PlayStation 2, on the big screen certain scenes come off amusingly fake. But extra points for the big surf opener, and for creative use of the Aston Martin's ejection seat.

If it's a crowded, frenetic affair, Brosnan is still a solid centre to it all. His gritty, lived-in Bond helps stop this fall into self-parody.

That's even with the various indignities the plot forces upon him. Among those are his extended stay in a North Korean prison from which he emerges long-haired and bearded but curiously well-nourished.

He also has the camera stay longer in his boudoir than has been the norm for Bond flicks.

And he must keep a straight face when he is introduced to his latest gadget - an invisible car. Efforts like that to go one better than the previous Bonds - and see off young pretenders like XXX - and acknowledge the franchise's past shows make this enjoyable enough.

But if Die Another Day celebrates the Bond classics, it falls short of being one itself.

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Tobey Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Judi Dench

Director: Lee Tamahori

Rating: M (violence, sex scenes )

Running time: 132m

Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas from January 2