Pierce Brosnan: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. James Bond - Die Another Day (2002)

I've already bashed Die Another Day a awful lot in my Bond article, but one thing I've not dwelt on before was Brosnan's performance, in what turned out to be his final appearance as 007. There was a lot of bad press around the film's release about contract disputes and him being seen as too old for the part, and after its release it was clear that his version of the character had run its course. Die Another Day begins with Bond being betrayed and captured during a treacherous mission in North Korea. Released a year later as part of a prisoner exchange, his 00 status is rescinded, with M (Judi Dench) believing that he leaked vital state secrets under torture. Suspecting that there is a double agent operating inside MI6, Bond escapes from custody and travels the globe in search of answers, eventually falling foul of insomniac billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens). There are many aspects of Die Another Day which are both risible and despair-inducing: the invisible car, the horrible CGI wave, the all-too-blatant references to other Bond films, and of course Madonna. But what's not mentioned quite so often is Brosnan's performance, which betrays his annoyance with those running the franchise. While in Goldeneye he seemed fun, fresh-faced and highly confident, here he seems weary and jaded, trudging through his one-liners with a look of cynical disdain. But all that's highly preferable to his performance in the very worst film on this list...