By Stephen Pytak 

     I'm sure everyone has a favorite James Bond.
     Some purists probably consider Sean Connery 
the best. And I always favored Timothy Dalton's 
interpretation, believe it or not.
     But then I saw "Die Another Day." Now my hat's 
off to Brosnan.
     To me, the harder the edge the better the Bond. 
     I'm a big fan of "From Russia With Love (1963)" 
because of Connery's fight scene with Robert Shaw.
     I liked Dalton in "The Living Daylights (1987)" 
because he approached the role with cold seriousness 
and high-powered rifles.
     But I really liked how Brosnan took tough to new 
levels in this new film, in two scenes in particular, 
starting with the first 15 minutes.
     After a dynamite high-speed hovercraft chase in 
the demilitarized zone, Bond is captured, beaten, and 
fed to scorpions in a North Korean sweat hole. He's 
interrogated there for 14 months, then released to 
his superiors in England, who consider him a 
disgrace.
     Whew. That kind of stuff never happened in these 
films before.
     Then later in the film there's this incredible sword 
fight between Bond and villain Gustav Graves 
(Stephens) in a hotel. The two fight with steel and 
fists, break glass and draw blood. It's good fight. 
Never saw anything like that during the Roger Moore 
years.
     It was really something fresh and it's good to 
see a tougher Bond, considering the world we're 
living in. We need heroes who can take a real beating 
yet bounce back.
     I always thought Brosnan was a great Bond. In 
fact I think his debut, "Goldeneye (1995)" was, and 
still is, the best of the Bond films.
     I thought his second film, "Tomorrow Never Dies 
(1997)" was O.K. and I really dug the first 15 
minutes of "The World Is Not Enough (1999)," but I 
thought the rest of it simply sucked, but not because 
of Brosnan.
     If you really watch these films, you can see he 
puts everything he's got into them. Unfortunately he 
doesn't always have the best writers and directors 
backing him up. But obviously luck shined on him 
when he made Bond 20.
     Throwing the old Bond formula out, the writers 
carved a new script which gives their star a chance 
to act and takes James Bond in some new directions.
     There are a few other things about the film which 
made me raise an eyebrow.
     One is Graves' doomsday weapon "Icarus."
     Usually I hate Bond films with things like these, 
like Blofeld's diamond-encrusted satellite in 
"Diamonds Are Forever (1971)" and the goddamn 
stupid solar ray in "The Man With The Golden Gun 
(1974)."
     I thought these things were pretty dumb. Maybe 
because the special effects were so-so. Or perhaps I 
like my Bond films a little more down to earth. I 
dunno. But I really got a kick out of Icarus.
     It takes the concept to cartoon extremes. It's a 
giant space satellite which fires a sun ray. I busted 
a gut watching the heat beam chase Bond across 
sheets of ice. It's also a hoot watching it blow the 
hell out of the land-mine dotted sector between 
North and South Korea. I have to get me one of 
those.
     The film is packed with so much stuff, Bond 
enthusiasts could talk about it for days. The film 
celebrates 40 years of Bond by making numerous 
references to other Bond movies. There are dozens. 
I'm sure someone will make a drinking game out of 
this film someday.
     Then there's Halle Berry. I don't recall seeing a 
Bond girl who was an Academy Award winner 
before. She sure has the body for the part. She plays 
the part of a U.S. super spy with sexy cool. But I 
thought the screenwriters could have made her 
character a bit smarter.  
     "Die Another Day" is one of the best Bond films 
because it's tough, yet funny, and impossible to 
ignore.