Die Another Day

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * *)

Home theatre: Kiwi director Lee Tamahori gets his hands on the toys, the cars, the cocktail shaker, the quips (and we'll leave it there) for No 20 in the franchise that long ago ceased to have anything to do with Ian Fleming, the Secret Service, or reality.

For those who think there is a plot to these movies, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea. Now that the Russians and East Europeans are out of the game, and with the Middle East a tad touchy at the moment, the North Koreans have been picked as the only suitable nasties for Bond to face, presumably to appeal to the Rumsfeld worldview and an American market.

Bond is also in the middle of a diamond deal that has turned to custard. Captured and jailed for 14 months, he is swapped for Zao, the nasty Asian with a jewel-marked face who got him into this fine mess.

Bond loses his 00 rating and isn't welcome in London so sets out to find Zao and who set him up. The trail leads to Cuba and an American colleague, Agent Jinx (Halle Berry). They discover an evil doctor has perfected a method of swapping human DNA and permanently altering a person's appearance. Zao has got together with Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), yet another megalomaniac wanting to take over the West.

The next tourism authority to win the ballot for a spot in the latest Bond movie was Iceland, where Graves reveals Icarus, a massive space mirror that can reflect the sun's rays anywhere on Earth. Bond has the good fortune to find that Graves' PR agent,the appropriately monikered Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), is actually a British spy. Time for the grand finale with as many toys as Tamahori's budget can afford. Definitely one for the fans.

DVD features: movie (132min); commentaries with Tamahori and producer Michael G. Wilson, Brosnan and Pike; Inside Die Another Day documentary (82min); Shaken Not Stirred, On Ice documentary; Madonna music video, Die Another Day; Making of Madonna's video.