More of the same from Bond

Die Another Day

Director: Lee Tamahori

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rick Yune, Rosamund Pike, Judi Dench, John Cleese, Michael Madsen

Cert: 12PG.

Bond is back ... which is all we really need to know.

There is, now that 007 has reached his 40th anniversary and his 20th screen outing, very little to add to the reviewing of the film. It's a James Bond adventure, you know what to expect, it doesn't disappoint too much ... and in many ways that's it.

There is a simple plotline 'borrowed' from the past - a couple of evil and constantly sneering baddies (Stephens and Yune) aim to take over the world, Bond and a handful of sexy ladies either aid or thwart this notion - and Brosnan, still one of the best of the Bonds and safely signed for a fifth outing in a couple of years time (villains set out to steal the special agent's pension-book), provides the action.

Bond films, like the Carry On films, are beyond criticism. They are what they are, they deliver, to various degrees of satisfaction, exactly what we have come to expect.

The makers do try in this one to inject a darkness into the storyline with Bond emerging from a harrowing imprisonment and torture and with a beard and long hair. But we are soon back to familiar territory, back to the old one-liners (decreasingly witty), back to the sex and car chases and explosions and sneering nasties.

Berry is, it has to be said, one of the things that make this one worth watching. The Oscar-winning actress is a downright, knock-out, eye-catching beauty. It hardly matters what she actually does on screen, it's enough she is on screen.

This will be a hit, Brosnan has turned the films into Box Office successes, but it's not the best Bond you have ever seen. You will be neither stirred nor shaken ...

Star Rating: 3/5