Woo-hoo! Gazpacho Soup Day! If any of you have been confused by the Soup Countdown, it's a Red Dwarf thing. To cut a long story short, Rimmer was invited for a meal at the Captain's table, and he sent the soup back because it was cold. Except that it was Gazpacho soup, which everyone knows is served cold! He blames his lack of success on this defining moment. Poor Rimmer. It irked him so much that his final words were Gazpacho soup... And that's why the soup's important. :)

What else was I going to say? Hmmmmmm...

Die Another Day! I could talk about that! Because the more I think about it, the more I want to see it again. Although I don't have a great deal of money to spend, especially with Christmas fast approaching. I might have to wait for the DVD to come out. :p

The reason why I liked it? I think it was partly because there was a lot of extremely good acting in it. But it was a more serious story, which went some way to explaining why James Bond is like he is. I mean, he's not invincible. He's almost trying to destroy himself. He knows he'll never be able to have a proper relationship - it would be impossible, he's basically the property of the government - so he does what he feels he has to do to survive. It's hard to explain without feeling that I'm reading too much into things. And also I don't want to spoil anyone. Because you should all go and see it..!

I actually felt sorry for James Bond. You could see that in some ways he doesn't want to live like he does. And the use of Halle Berry's character "Jinx" only highlights the lonely sort of life he's forced to lead. It was altogether intriguing. Not only an excellent Bond film, but an excellent film! And you know how I feel about Pierce Brosnan. Well, maybe you don't. Basically, I've always felt he seemed a bit slimy as Bond. It's hard not to be a bit slimy (although Roger Moore took it to the slimy max!), what with all the fast living... But this time everything felt real.

If I say my favourite Bond is Timothy Dalton, perhaps you'll decide I'm not worth listening to. But the reason I liked Tim's Bond was that he didn't seem slimy - he was driven by human motives, he wasn't just, "I'm a great spy, look, I'm great me, this is such fun blowing stuff up!". The TD films were proper serious action films, although they stilll had the girls, one liners and gadgets. The same is true of Die Another Day.

Oh, and I probably ought to mention the anniversary aspect of the film. It's 40 years since the first Bond film was made and it's the 20th official Bond film. There are several references to previous adventures, mostly in the scene with Q. But this is a new sort of Bond film. It's a shiny, hard edged Bond that still has all the thing you expect from a Bond film. I had my doubts about the Madonna theme, but it works! It's the first time the intro sequence has been used to tell part of the story, and the song works perfectly. And the new director has done a fantastic job, using all the clever slo-mo shots without turning it into The Matrix.

And David Arnold's done a nice job with the soundtrack, as always. :)

Basically, I agree with Radio 1's review. And I know their reviewer's fave Bond film was On Her Majesty's Secret Service - a much underrated Bond film which also happens to contain all that serious emotional stuff in it. You should probably watch that, too, to understand the womanising side of Bond. I mean, a lot of people probably don't know Bond was once a married man.

I have rambled on long enough. And I don't know if I've said what I meant to say.

Or if it was even vaguely interesting..!

Oh well.

posted by Fiery Fred @ 8:23 PM