From: Eric Baker
To: Sam Hallgren; Adam Kempenaar
Subject: Lady Madonna
I'm including a link to my Daily Iowan review of 'Die Another Day' though I know it's self-serving and my editor made several of the transitions awkward. But I thought it would cut down on the repetition. Sitting in the front row, I really did feel like Alexander DeLarge. As I state in my review, virtually everything Adam points out is dead-on. My favorite is Adam's listing of the plot segments laundry-list style, which is probably how the screenwriters did it. They knew, like everyone else, that no one is coming to see a coherent story. I could go on about how asinine certain plot segments are, but they only serve to bridge action-adventure sequences. Because of that, I agree with Adam that this movie didn't need to be 130 minutes long, but then nobody in my packed theater seemed to mind too much. A word about the changing role of Bond films, as I see it: I can't compare how audiences felt about the films in the 60s and 70s, but I sense there was a wanderlust for the cheeky swashbuckler who was able to get out of tight spots and save the world over the course of two hours. Now I think Bond -- and this may just be an overreaction to the glut of marketing partnerships with Bond films -- represents the same kind of thing travel magazines and car commercials do: a lifestyle attainment. Bond isn't just a sleek British agent who scores with all the chicks; he's something closer to you if you buy this new sports car. Bond transforms from a gruff refugee to Rico Suave in a matter of minutes with the new Norelco super razor. Back to the movie... Halle Berry was, well, passable. I mean, she's hot, so I didn't think she had a problem with sexiness, but I think she did run into problems with her dialogue. On the other hand, she's not doing anything they didn't ask Toby Stephens to do: over-the-top showmanship in the grand tradition of Bond melodrama. I felt her awkwardness came across when she was trying to imbue Jinx with sexiness while spouting corny lines, rather than just letting her actions speak for her. This is an action film after all. For some reason, my editors at the Daily Iowan always see fit to cut out good lines from my reviews, so I leave you guys with my judgment of Madonna's cameo: "Madonna has reached the point in her career where she is best served by cameos, as her grating schtick is not given enough screen time to gnaw away at an audience’s resolve." Look at what happened when they gave her a whole movie? She was swept away.
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