Thank heavens for small mercies! I have said in the past in other threads, it remains the only movie I have walked out of. I do think that Brosnan gives his best performance as 007 (though he deserved much better help from everyone / everything around him) kids love it , so perhaps it’s the millennials Moonraker ( high praise indeed)
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I watched Moonraker. I knew Moonraker. Moonraker was a friend of mine. Die Another Day, you’re no Moonraker.
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That’s why “perhaps” is an important word
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Ugggh the VR sequence with Moneypenny has just popped into my mind, now Madonna … No it’s a terrible film
I like all my Bonds to do different things for me. They don’t all have to tick all the same boxes.
So, for me, DAD is an Entertaining film. And likewise, Quantum is an Exciting film. And, From Russia is an Espionage film.
Anyway, where all this really falls down is if a Bond film is Boring. And in this, accusations must be aimed squarely at the feet of DAF and TWINE.
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Yes, I know what you mean. A lack of realism with gene therapy and invisible technology doesn’t bring down an entire film if I find the set pieces entertaining. This stuff is also the norm in DAD’s world.
DAD is the last hurrah of a particular type of Bond movie. It was made way back in 2002 and is no longer the template. Some can clap with great enthusiasm at that fact, but I see it as a guilty pleasure. VR sequences, the lot. As CraigBond says in SPECTRE, “it’s all a matter of perspective.”
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Though I would argue that Moonraker had a better villain, a better song and a less annoying Bond girl.
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If anything, it’s the millenials’ Diamonds are Forever. It shares far more with that film than with Moonraker.
You are correct. Either Purvis or Wade or both stated that DAF was one of their favourites. And yes, you can see so much of it in DAD. Except for the humour, of course…(IMHO - DAF’s script has some very funny dailogue - “Collars and cuffs” “Small world” etc)
DAF had sharp wit, stunning sets and a timeless Barry score. DAD had crass innuendo, an ice palace that somehow managed to look bland and forgettable and Arnold on autopilot at his third go. No, Die Another Day is no Diamonds Are Forever.
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Similarities between DAF and DAD:
- The initials for the titles, see above
- The main villain “dies” in the PTS, only to return later in the film through some weird sci-fi mumbo jumbo
- The main villain is using a laser from a satellite made from smuggled diamonds to trigger a war
- Each feature a major set piece in a desert-like landscape (Las Vegas, Icelandic glacier)
- American Bond girls
In my mind, DAF is one of the weaker entries in the series (the novel is also, arguably, the worst in the series). It has funny moments and a great score, but a non-sense story that completely ignores the events of the previous film. DAD has a great first half, but a weak score and terrible direction. DAD shares much of its story with DAF, just as TSWLM shares much of its story with YOLT. However, they are fundamentally different films.
While I find DAF an amusing diversion - it’s Mankiewicz’s best dialogue IMHO (though LALD has some moments that shine), conventional wisdom is that it’s near the bottom. Which does the beg the argument - if one takes something flawed as their inspiration, should it be a surprise that that end product is underwhelming?
While the series has never officially remade anything (and I do agree with conventional wisdom that TWSLM is a remake of YOLT, whatever Cubby said at the time!), ironically DAF is exactly the kind of film that might benefit from one. The contrast of a Bond out for revenge with the playground of Las Vegas as the backdrop would make for some interesting contrast. At an artistic level, of course.
But of course, Bonds aren’t art, are they…!!! 
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I take your points about the similarities, but I think you’ve missed mine. DAF has many flaws but is made by Bond stalwarts like Barry, Adam and Hamilton at the top of their game. DAD is a pale imitation that is swamped by bland action tropes that simply attempt to play at being Bond and never really pull it off. I even struggle to see how the first half is ok: there is some awful dialogue (though I love the line, “Tell it to the concierge”: now that’s Bondian!), the Halle Berry seduction is down there with Terri Hatcher and the Blades fight is just ridiculous: and here’s the thing… Bond can and should be ridiculous. But here he behaves more like a schoolboy in a playground scrap than a suave secret agent. And that’s before I bring up (vomit metaphor here is deliberate) Madonna’s cameo… though I do love her theme song.
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Similarities between DAF and DAD:
- The main villain is using a laser from a satellite made from smuggled diamonds to trigger a war
That only applies to DAF. DAD features a laser satellite financed with smuggled diamonds. Don’t believe me? Force yourself to watch the deployment sequence again.
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That’s like saying that YOLT and TSWLM are completely different because Stromberg is using a tanker to capture submarines in the ocean not a rocket to capture space craft in space. The main villain is using a satellite that is made with diamonds, or as you pointed out in DAD, financed by diamonds, to create a space based laser to be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The 2 satellites even look very similar (or as similar as a toy satellite and a CGI satellite can look.
I didn’t miss your point, nor am I saying they are the same movie. I’m just pointing out how Die Another Day shares many of its story beats with Diamonds are Forever, making it as a much of a DAF remake as TSWLM is a YOLT remake of AVTAK is a GF remake. It isn’t a critique on the merits of the films, just pointing out the similarities. Nor are my comments meant to dissuade you from liking or disliking either one. I don’t really have a problem with it either. My original point was just to point out that Die Another Day is more of a Diamonds are Forever clone and not a Moonraker clone. Unless we’re talking the Moonraker novel, in which case, it sort of it is.
Fair enough 
I just think DAD could have been so much better if it had behaved more like a Bond film than a Bond homage.
Now that, I can agree with.
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Actually, it’s more like saying that Blofeld and Drax were both pursuing their objectives by hijacking space shuttles - as a poster somewhere once described the Soyuz and ‘Jupiter’ capsules depicted in YOLT.
I’m not trying to start a feud here, amigo, it’s just that it grates on me when people assume that Graves’ laser satellite must be covered in diamonds just because Blofeld’s was. That’s the problem with a screenplay where the villain is copying an earlier villain’s M.O.
FWIW, I would have liked to have seen the DAF satellite reappear in MR, deployed to laser the US shuttle. That would have finally answered Tiffany’s question “How the hell do we get those diamonds down again?”.
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I’m not trying to argue either. My whole point was Graves’s plan and master weapon was nearly verbatim the exact same as Blofeld’s from DAF, regardless of where the hell those diamonds are.
“Like Peking Duck is different from Russian caviar, but I love them both.”
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