Die Another Day
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM) | Release Date: November 22, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The savviest and most exciting Bond adventure in years, and that's because there's actually something at stake in it. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
As strong on action as it is weak on the interpersonal stuff. If Bond can get a new car for each episode, how about some new pickup lines? Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
Pierce Brosnan is dashing and deadly, finally meeting the gold standard. And director Lee Tamahori detours from convention, taking the franchise up a notch in Die Another Day. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
All told, this first Bond of the new millennium may be far from the best of the series, but it's assured, wonderfully respectful of its past and thrilling enough to make it abundantly clear that this movie phenomenon has once again reinvented itself for a new generation, and is very likely to outlive us all. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
Tamahori pumps a tremendous amount of energy into his Bond movie, and it's an electrifying ride. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
The result is the niftiest Bond movie in years -- fresh, funny, and jammed to the rafters with demented stunts, Boys'-Own gadgetry and brazen promiscuity. Read full review
80
Total FilmStaff (Not Credited)
Die Another Day simply blows the competition away. If you want excitement, laughs and pure sex appeal, remember one thing: Bond's really do have more fun. Read full review
80
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
Brosnan's best mission as Bond yet, and the most satisfying installment of the franchise in recent memory. Read full review
80
Film ThreatClint Morris
The real-deal, packed with more excitement, vigor and fortitude than an unfaltering Magnum. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Aside from a jarringly fake computer-generated avalanche scene that momentarily challenges the necessary suspension of disbelief, the big-bang set pieces are superbly crafted. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Brosnan, in his fourth time up at the Bond bat, hits this one out of the park. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Die Another Day is still utterly absurd from one end to the other, of course, but in a slightly more understated way. And so it goes, Bond after Bond, as the most durable series in movie history heads for the half-century. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldHoward Cohen
Amped to the max, with firepower and fisticuffs flying, this is Bond as we have come to know him in the post-Roger Moore years: bigger, badder, better. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The picture should satisfy both diehard fans, who liked the plotting and interaction of early Bond films, and "Die Hard" fans, who prefer Bond shaken and stirred by massive explosions, vehicular crashes and gunplay befitting a Central American revolution. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Perhaps the most satisfying Bond movie since "The Spy Who Loved Me." Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Tamahori's Die Another Day is an imperfect Bond movie. But for every patch where it's dull and lifeless or just plain stupid, there are also sections that are significantly different from anything we've seen before in a Bond movie. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
He thrilled me, then betrayed me in the end. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Every hero needs to be revitalized by a little humiliation, and for at least the first 40 minutes of Die Another Day, Bond's dressing-down seems to do him and the movie franchise a world of good. Read full review
63
ObserverRex Reed
Die Another Day is the most thrilling, lavishly designed and imaginative Bond picture in years. It is also the most preposterous. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Die Another Day is still as professionally mediocre as its predecessors. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Dead-on as entertaining eye candy, a bona fide guilty pleasure -- for the first hour. But the movie loses steam and the sequences that dazzled in the beginning get overshadowed by the excesses of later scenes. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Surely it will not be giving things away to tell you there's absolutely nothing new about the latest episode. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Maybe I've seen too many James Bond movies by now, or maybe the trouble with this 20th installment is that the filmmakers are trying too hard to top the excesses of the predecessors. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Pierce Brosnan has mastered every smidgen of 007 schtick, making the role more thoroughly his own than any actor since Sean Connery -- still the best of the batch -- decided to call it quits. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The new movie lacks something, a special something. It's a quality that has characterized some of the best of the first 19 Bond movies: extravagant ludicrousness. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The many shots of characters operating devices with remote controls will do little to quiet the complaints that the films have started to resemble video games, and the same can be said of the proliferating digital effects. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Beginning to creak not only with age but with the strain of constant self-one-upmanship in giving us exotic locales, explosive geopolitics and unbelievable stunts. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Not even Halle Berry, emerging from the blue Caribbean in an orange two-piece -- can bring this thing to life. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Another Bond film that turns out to be an unspectacular spectacle, at times winking and fun but too often plodding and hackneyed. That said, as usual Brosnan is terrific, walking through dunderhead moments and a tedious plot with grace. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Sports some tasty scenes, mostly in the first half, but also pushes 007 into CGI-driven, quasi-sci-fi territory that feels like a betrayal of what the franchise has always been about. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
This series is in its fortieth year; it might be nice to see Bond battle a readily identifiable, real-world villain for a change. There's certainly no shortage. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
The non-action scenes are so pedestrian that one suspects the good stuff is less due to workmanlike director Lee Tamahori than to one of the best second-unit crews in the biz. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a train wreck of an action film -– a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed James Bond into the mindless "XXX" mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
As a franchise, the James Bond series needs its stomach stapled. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
You leave feeling like you've endured a long workout without your pulse ever racing. The exercise ultimately is product placement, with Bond the biggest product of them all. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Die Another Day is only intermittently entertaining but it's hard not to be a sucker for its charms, or perhaps it's just impossible not to feel nostalgia for movies you grew up with. Read full review
40
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
In a lot of ways, Die Another Day is a return to Bond's bad-old-days, the early 1980s, when the plots were outlandish and haphazard, the stunts were fake and the whole enterprise was being treated as a cartoon. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Tamahori, director of Along Came a Spider, does a competent, if over-fussy job, but the pace flags in the showdown in Iceland. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Just doesn't have it. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd Gonzalez
The collection of clever quips on parade here are both tiresome and predictable. Read full review
30
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Flat, distressingly witless -- To put it bluntly -- the thrill is gone. Nobody did it better. But that was then.
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What's new here is a severe deficit of style, or even craftsmanship, both in the action sequences and what passes for human interludes.
10
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Dissing a Bond movie is quite like calling a dog stupid, but when it has the temerity to run over two hours, you feel like winding up with a kick. Read full review
More From This Movie

56 Critic Reviews

7.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL